PirithousHippodamiaWeddingANCIENT_Olympia

PirithousHippodamiaWeddingANCIENT_Olympia

OGCMA s.v. "Pirithous, Wedding of P. and Hippodamia"
Ovid Met.12.393-430

Apollo quells the Lapithocentauromachy, west pediment, The Temple of Zeus at Olympia (ca 475 BC), Olympia Archaeological Museum.

A variegated elaboration of the Severe Style, the riotous behavior of unruly centaurs brawling among the Lapith wedding guests at the nuptials of Pirithous and Hippodamia depicts a standard setpiece of archaic mythology. Apollo intervenes like a right-angle square to represent the uprightness of the rule of law even as the centaurs try to abduct the wives of the Lapiths.

Montage of ancient Greek sculptures: centaur battle, Hercules, architectural pediment, and figures with Dionysus and Silenus

Narrative gain: Apollo, the son of Zeus and would-be crown prince of Olympus(?), imposes the justice of Zeus amid the unruliness of human (and semi-human) existence on earth. Contrast this to the Lapithocentauromachy on the metopes of the Athena temple, i.e. the Parthenon, in Athens, where Theseus' starring role in the Lapithocentauromachy becomes the receptive principle.

OGCMA slides are designed by Roger T. Macfarlane for use in Classical Civilization 241 courses at Brigham Young University.
The present resource contains information assembled for The Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1300 - 1990's, edited by J. Davidson Reid (Oxford 1994), and it is used with express permission from Oxford University press.
Address concerns or inquiries to macfarlane@byu.edu.