Lapiths

Fight between a centaur and a lapith: relief on a metope of the Parthenon

The Lapiths ( Greek  Λαπίθαι , Latin Lapithae ) are a legendary people who, according to Greek mythology , should have lived in ancient Greece . They were descended from Lapithes , a son of Apollo and Stilbe . Their residences are said to have been in northern Thessaly . This is in what is now central Greece and has Larissa as its capital .

mythology

According to tradition, the Lapiths were of noble disposition, which is why noble families in Greece still like to trace their origin to them.

The wild centaurs (German spelling, Greek centaurs ), people with horse bodies, were invited to the wedding of the brave Lapithic king Peirithoos with the beautiful Hippodameia . When the drunken centaur Eurytion tried to do violence to the bride during the celebration , the Lapiths quickly cut off his nose and ears and dragged the bleeding man out the door. This led to a relentless battle between hosts and guests, in which the Lapiths finally got the upper hand , also thanks to the help of the hero Theseus .

The legendary Centauromachy , the "Zentaurenkampf" between the noble people here and the wild and eerie nature embodying animal people there, represents the struggle between intellect and impulsiveness in the individual and was always popular theme in art and literature.

Visual arts

• François vase by Chiusi (now in the National Archaeological Museum in Florence )
• West pediment of the Temple of Zeus in Olympia
• South metopes of the Parthenon in Athens
• Frieze at the Hephaisteion (Theseion) in Athens
• Frieze at the Temple of Apollo near Bassai (Phigaleia)

literature

swell

• Homer , Iliad 2,740-744
• Homer, Odyssey 21, 295-304
• Diodorus 4.70
• Library of Apollodorus , Epitome 1.21
• Pausanias 5,10,8
• Ovid , Metamorphoses 12, 210-531
• Hyginus , Fabulae 33

Secondary literature

• Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher: Lapiths . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 2.2, Leipzig 1897, Sp. 1851-1865 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Lapiths  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Vollmer's mythology of all peoples: Lapiths
• Gustav Schwab: Theseus and Peirithoos
• Vollmer's Mythology of All Peoples: Eurytion

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Plutarch , Theseus 30: Deidameia
2. ↑ Susanne Muth: Violence in images: The phenomenon of media violence in Athens in the 6th and 5th centuries BC Chr. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2008, p. 413 f., 416 ff .