Editing Lapiths (section)

===Centauromachy===
[[File:Sarcofago con centauromachia, II secolo, da procoio di pianabella, 01.JPG|thumb|472x472px|A centauromachy relief on an ancient Roman sarcophagus, {{circa|150}} AD, [[Museo Archeologico Ostiense]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Troso |first=Cristina |date=July–September 2007 |title=La Centauromachia del sarcofago della necropoli di Pianabella-Ostia: Considerazioni sulla iconografia |journal=Latomus |volume=66 |issue=3 |pages=645–658 |jstor=41544612}}</ref>]]
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, 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 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 [[Amazons|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 [[chthonic|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 [[Cape Maleas|Malea]] and in the brigand stronghold of Pholoe in [[Ancient Elis|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.