Laelaps (mythology)

Laelaps /ˈli ˌlæps/[1] (Greek: Λαῖλαψ, gen.: Λαίλαπος means "hurricane") (Lelaps, Lalaps, Lailaps) was a Greek mythological dog that never failed to catch what it was hunting.

Laelaps, detail from a painting of Procris's death

Mythology

In one version of Laelaps' origin story, it was a gift from Zeus to Europa. The hound was passed down to King Minos, who gave it as a reward to the Athenian princess Procris. In another version of her story, she received the animal as a gift from the goddess Artemis.

Procris' husband Cephalus decided to use the hound to hunt the Teumessian fox, a fox that could never be caught. This was a paradox: a dog that always caught its prey versus a fox that could never be caught. The chase went on until Zeus, perplexed by their contradictory fates, turned both to stone and cast them into the stars as the constellations Canis Major (Laelaps) and Canis Minor (the Teumessian fox).[2][3]

Notes
  1. "Laelaps in the Merriam-Webster Medical Dictionary".
  2. Apollodorus, 3.19.2
  3. DK Publishing (2012). Nature Guide Stars and Planets. Penguin. p. 275. ISBN 978-1-4654-0353-7.

References


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