View source for Lapiths

=== Origin ===
The Lapiths were an [[Aeolians|Aeolian]] tribe who, like the [[Myrmidons]], were natives of Thessaly. The genealogies make them a kindred people with the [[centaurs]]: In one version, [[Lapithes (hero)|Lapithes]] ({{lang|grc|Λαπίθης}}) and [[Centaurus (Greek mythology)|Centaurus]] ({{lang|grc|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 the race of half-man, half-horse centaurs came. Lapithes was the [[eponym]]ous ancestor of the Lapith people,<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Homer]] |title=[[Iliad]] |at=xii.128}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=[[Diodorus Siculus]] |title=[[Bibliotheca historica]] |at=iv. 69; v. 61 }}</ref> and his descendants include Lapith warriors and kings, such as [[Ixion]], [[Pirithous]], [[Caeneus]], and [[Coronus (Greek mythology)|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 (mythology)|Leonteus]] (son of Coronus, son of Caeneus). The mother of Pirithous, the Lapith queen in the generation before the [[Trojan War]], was [[Dia (wife of Ixion)|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.{{efn|
For such [[superfecundation]], compare the siring of [[Theseus]] or [[Heracles]]. Of a supposed Parnassos, founder of [[Delphi]], [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] observes, "Like the other heroes, as they are called, he had two fathers; one they say was the god Poseidon, the human father being Cleopompus."<ref>{{Cite book |last=[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] |title=Description of Greece |at=x.6.1}}</ref>
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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.<ref>{{cite book |last=[[Diodorus Siculus]] |title=[[Bibliotheca historica]] |at=iv.70 }}</ref> The Lapiths were credited with inventing the [[Bridle|bridle's bit]]. The Lapith King Pirithous was marrying the horsewoman [[Hippodamia (wife of Pirithous)|Hippodameia]], whose name means "tamer of horses", at the wedding feast that made a war, the Centauromachy, famous.