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18-483: 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 (Λαπίθης) and Centaurus (Κένταυρος) 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

36-680: A Roman sarcophagus found at Cortona , in Tuscany , during the early 15th century. Aeolians The Aeolians ( / iː ˈ oʊ l i ən z / ; Greek : Αἰολεῖς , Aioleis ) were one of the four major tribes into which Greeks divided themselves in the ancient period (along with the Achaeans , Dorians and Ionians ). They originated in the eastern parts of the Greek mainland , notably in Thessaly and Boeotia . By c.  1100 BC,

54-638: A marble bas-relief of the subject in Florence about 1492. Piero di Cosimo 's panel Battle of Centaurs and Lapiths , now at the National Gallery, London , was painted during the following decade. If it was originally part of a marriage chest, or cassone , it was perhaps an uneasy subject for a festive wedding commemoration. A frieze with a Centauromachy was also painted by Luca Signorelli in his Virgin Enthroned with Saints (1491), inspired by

72-617: A part of which was called Aeolis , the Aeolians often appear as the most numerous amongst the other Hellenic tribes of early times. The Boeotians, a subgroup of the Aeolians, were driven from Thessaly by the Thessalians and moved their location to Boeotia . Aeolian peoples were spread in many other parts of Greece such as Aetolia , Locris , Corinth , Elis and Messinia . During the Dorian invasion , Aeolians from Thessaly fled across

90-517: 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

108-638: The Aegean Sea to the island of Lesbos and the region of Aeolis, called as such after them, in Asia Minor . Magnetes The Magnetes (Greek: Μάγνητες ) were an ancient Greek tribe. In book 2 of the Iliad , Homer includes them in the Greek Army that is besieging Troy , and identifies their homeland in Thessaly , in a part that is still known as Magnesia . Later, they participated in

126-704: The Greek colonisation of Western Anatolia by founding two prosperous cities: Magnesia on the Maeander and Magnesia ad Sipylum . According to the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women ( fr. 7), Thyia , a daughter of Deucalion , lay with Zeus and bore two sons: Magnes and Makednos , the eponyms of the Magnetes and Macedones , respectively. Within Thyia's extended family in the Catalogue are found

144-676: The Magnetes , and on Zeus' temple at Olympia The Battle of the Lapiths and centaurs was a familiar symposium theme for the vase-painters . A sonnet vividly evoking the battle by the French poet José María de Heredia (1842–1905) was included in his volume Les Trophées . In the Renaissance , the battle became a favorite theme for artists: An excuse to display close-packed bodies in violent confrontation. The young Michelangelo executed

162-464: 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. In the Centauromachy, 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,

180-534: The Aeolians began their early settlements on the west coast of Anatolia , known as Aeolis , comprising the territory between Troas and Ionia , as well as on the Aegean islands of Lesbos and Tenedos . A second round of Aeolian settlements took place during the 7th century. They spoke Aeolic , a dialect of Ancient Greek most famously known for its use by poets like Sappho and Alcaeus from Lesbos, and Corinna from Boeotia. The name derives from Aeolus ,

198-580: The Lapith king 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

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216-464: The Phylaides of Attica claimed for progenitor Koronus the Lapith. As Greek myth became more mediated through philosophy, the battle between Lapiths and Centaurs took on aspects of the interior struggle between civilized and wild behavior, made concrete in the Lapiths' understanding of the right usage of God-given wine , which must be tempered with water and drunk not to excess. The Greek sculptors of

234-603: 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

252-528: The mythical ancestor of the Aeolians and son of Hellen , himself the mythical patriarch of the Greek nation . The name Aeolian ( lit.   ' of the wind ' ) derives from the Greek name Aeolus , aiolos (αίολος) literally meaning "changeable", "quickly moving". They spoke an Ancient Greek dialect that is referred to as Aeolic . According to Herodotus , it was said that the Aeolians were previously called Pelasgians . Originating in Thessaly ,

270-486: The progenitors of several of the other early Greek tribes . Her sister Pandora II (named after her grandmother, the famous Pandora ) bore Graecus (also to Zeus). And their brother Hellen , along with his three sons Dorus , Xuthus (with his sons Ion and Achaeus ) and Aeolos , filled out the set of progenitors of the ancient tribes that formed the Greek/ Hellenic nation. This article about ethnicity

288-483: 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,

306-466: The school of Pheidias conceived of the battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs as a struggle between mankind and mischievous monsters, and symbolical of the great conflict between the civilized Greeks and " barbarians ". Battles between Lapiths and Centaurs were depicted in the sculptured metopes on the Parthenon , recalling Athenian Theseus ' treaty of mutual admiration with Pirithous the Lapith, leader of

324-409: Was presented to greet the guests, the centaur Eurytion leapt up and attempted to abduct her. All the other centaurs were up in a moment, straddling women and boys. 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

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