Iapyx removing an arrowhead from the leg of Aeneas, with Aeneas's son, Ascanius (or Iulus), crying beside him.

In Greek and Roman mythology, Iapyx (from Greek Ἰάπυξ, gen.: Ἰάπυγος), Iapux or Iapis was a favorite of Apollo. The god wanted to confer upon him the gift of prophecy, the lyre, etc.; but Iapyx, wishing to prolong the life of his father, preferred the more tranquil art of healing to all the others.

Virgil's Aeneid (XII: 391–402) relates that Iapyx was Aeneas's healer during the Trojan War and then escaped to Italy after the war, founding Apulia.

Family

His descent is unclear. He was either:

  • a son of Iasus,[1] or
  • the son of Lycaon, which would make him the brother of Daunius and Peucetius (who went as leaders of a colony to Italy),[2] or
  • a Cretan, from whom the Cretans who migrated to Italy derived the name of Iapyges, or
  • a son of Daedalus either:
    • by his wife, thus making him a full-brother of Icarus;[3]
    • by another Cretan woman.[4]

Other use

Iapyx is also the name of a minor Greek wind god, the north-west or west-north-west wind. Virgil relates this Iapyx to the wind that carried the fleeing Cleopatra home to Egypt after her loss at the battle of Actium.[5] Horace (Odes 1.3, line 4) prays that Iapyx may safely carry his friend Virgil's ship to Greece.

Notes

  1. ↑  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Schmitz, Leonhard (1870). "Iapis". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 2. p. 550.
  2. ↑ Anton. Lib. 31.
  3. ↑ Harry Thurston Peck, Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898), Servius ad Aeneidos iii. 332).
  4. ↑ Strabo vi.; Athen. xii.; Herod. vii. 170; Heyne, ad Virg. Aen. xi. 247.
  5. ↑ Virgil, Aeneid, 8.710.

References


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.