Iapyx
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:
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]
Notes
- ^
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.
- ^ Anton. Lib. 31.
- ^ Harry Thurston Peck, Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898), Servius ad Aeneidos iii. 332).
- ^ Strabo vi.; Athen. xii.; Herod. vii. 170; Heyne, ad Virg. Aen. xi. 247.
- ^ Virgil, Aeneid, 8.710.
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