Marble block from the frieze of the Temple of Apollo
Epikourios
Greek, about 420-400 BC
Bassae, south-west Arcadia, Greece
Centaurs hammering Kaineus into the ground
The Temple of Apollo Epikourios ('Apollo the Helper') was built
high on a rocky ridge of Mt. Kotylion at Bassae in south-west
Arcadia, a region of the Greek Peloponnese. The temple's interior
frieze depicts two mythological battles: Greeks fighting Amazons
and, shown here, Greeks fighting Centaurs. Part man, part horse,
Centaurs had an ambiguous nature. They could be civilized, in
keeping with their human part, or given to 'animal' passions. Their
wild side came out when drunk, as happened at the wedding feast of
Peirithoos, king of the Lapiths. There, under the influence of
wine, the Centaurs attempted to rape the Lapith women, while the
men fought back.
Among the Lapiths was Kaineus, who had started life as a girl.
She begged the god Poseidon to make her a man and to grant her the
gift of invulnerability. He granted her these. At the battle of
Peirithoos' wedding, the Centaurs could not defeat Kaineus by
conventional methods. So they beat him into the earth with stones
and tree trunks. Here, he is seen sinking into a mound holding his
shield up as defence against the blows raining down upon him.
I. Jenkins and D. Williams, 'The arrangement of the sculptured frieze from the Temple of Apollo at Bassae' in Sculpture from Arcadia and Lac (Oxford, Oxbow, 1993)
O. Palagia and W. Coulson (eds.), Sculpture from Arcadia and L-1 (Oxford, Oxbow, 1993)