Origin The Lapiths were an
Aeolian tribe who, like the
Myrmidons, were natives of Thessaly. The genealogies make them a kindred people with the
centaurs: In one version,
Lapithes () and
Centaurus () were said to be twin sons of the god
Apollo and the nymph
Stilbe, daughter of the river god
Peneus. Lapithes was a valiant warrior, but Centaurus was a deformed being who later mated with mares from whom the race of half-man, half-horse centaurs came. Lapithes was the
eponymous ancestor of the Lapith people, and his descendants include Lapith warriors and kings, such as
Ixion,
Pirithous,
Caeneus, and
Coronus, and the seers
Ampycus and his son
Mopsus. In the
Iliad the Lapiths send forty crewed ships to join the Greek fleet in the
Trojan War, commanded by
Polypoetes (son of Pirithous) and
Leonteus (son of Coronus, son of Caeneus). The mother of Pirithous, the Lapith queen in the generation before the
Trojan War, was
Dia, daughter of Eioneus or
Deioneus;
Ixion was the father of Pirithous, but like many heroic figures, Pirithous had an immortal as well as a mortal father. Zeus was his immortal father, but the god had to assume a stallion's form to cover Dia for, like their half-horse cousins, the Lapiths were horsemen in the grasslands of Thessaly, famous for its horses. The Lapiths were credited with inventing the
bridle's bit. The Lapith King Pirithous was marrying the horsewoman
Hippodameia, whose name means "tamer of horses", at the wedding feast that made a war, the Centauromachy, famous.
Centauromachy In the Centauromachy ('Battle with Centaurs'), the Lapiths battle with the Centaurs at the wedding feast of Pirithous. The Centaurs had been invited, but, unused to wine, their wild nature came to the fore. When the bride, Hippodamia, was presented to greet the guests, the centaur
Eurytion, described as "The wildest of the centaurs", leapt up and attempted to abduct her. All the other centaurs were up in a moment, attempting to carry off the Greek women. In the battle that ensued,
Theseus came to the Lapiths' aid. They cut off Eurytion's ears and nose and threw him out. After the battle the defeated centaurs were expelled from Thessaly to the northwest. The Lapith
Caeneus was originally a young woman named Caenis and the favorite of
Poseidon, who changed her into a man at her request, and made Caeneus into an invulnerable warrior. Such
warrior women, indistinguishable from men, were familiar among the
Scythian horsemen too. In the battle with the centaurs Caeneus proved invulnerable, until the centaurs crushed him with rocks and trunks of trees. He disappeared into
the depths of the earth unharmed and was released as a sandy-headed bird. In later contests, the centaurs were not so easily beaten. Mythic references explained the presence into historic times of primitive Lapiths in
Malea and in the brigand stronghold of Pholoe in
Elis as remnants of groups driven there by the centaurs. Some historic Greek cities bore names connected with Lapiths, and the Kypselides of Corinth claimed descent from Cæneus, while the Phylaides of Attica claimed for progenitor Koronus the Lapith. == In art ==