178-190) And there was the strife of the
Lapith spearmen gathered round the prince Caeneus and Dryas and Peirithous, with Hopleus, Exadius, Phalereus, and Prolochus, Mopsus the son of Ampyce of Titaresia, a scion of Ares, and Theseus, the son of Aegeus, like unto the deathless gods.
The subject of the west pediment is the Centauromachy, the battle between the
Lapith Greek men and the Centaurs at the wedding of Perithoos, king of the
Lapiths (Figs.
From the Southern Metope, showing a battle between a Centaur and a
Lapith, the heads of each left in Athens, but the torsos displayed in the BM.
to cruise between the plane-trees and damage the recitation-hall, as once they 'tore' and 'smote' the
Lapith foe."
Born a woman (12.175), Caenis/Caeneus, the
Lapith warrior of Book 12, becomes a "hypermasculine" male hero who still is taunted by his opponents for his "femininity." Thus, the centaur Latreus impugns the
Lapith's masculinity by jibing at Caeneus: "You will always be a woman to me, / you will always be Caenis to me" (nam tu mihi femina semper / tu mihi Caenis eris, 12.470-71).
Huxley took particular delight as a satirist in writing variations upon the duality of flesh and spirit: Theodore Gumbril Junior of Antic Hay, for example, who in the midst of a religious service develops the idea of inflatable under wear to ease the rigours of hard chapel benches (10), or the episode of the
Lapith girls in Crome Yellow:
Caeneus In Greek mythology, the son of Elatus, a
Lapith. At the marriage of Pirithous, king of the
Lapiths, the centaurs (creatures part man and part horse), who were guests, attacked the bride and other women.
(1) While its exterior depicts a Greek myth--the abduction of the
Lapith women during the battle between the
Lapiths and the Centaurs--along the top edge of the imagery is an inscription in Gandhari language that uses Kharoshthi script, which is based on Aramaic.
Although the built-in decorations, such as the ceiling paintings largely remain, the tapestries have been lost, except for one, which depicts the victory of Hercules over the centaurs at the wedding of the
Lapith princess Hippodamia (Fig.
Even the Parthenon itself offers Rodin different models --from the natural purity of the 'living, breathing' frieze, to the deeper-cut abandonment of the centaurs and the contortion of the dying
Lapiths of the metopes, and the two mighty goddesses (figures L and M), who watch Athena's birth on the east pediment, their undulating 'flesh' and flowing drapery melting into each other in anticipation of the fused lovers of Rodin's Kiss--and all of this prior to taking the figures' damaged quality, and the building and its columns into account.