In Greek

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

 and Roman mythology

Roman mythology

Roman mythology is the body of traditional stories pertaining to ancient Rome's legendary origins and religious system, as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans...

, Iapyx (from Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

 Ἰάπυξ, gen.: Ίάπυγος), Iapux or Iapis was a favourite of Apollo

Apollo

Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...

. The god wanted to confer upon him the gift of prophecy, the lyre, etc.; but lapis, wishing to prolong the life of his father, preferred the more tranquil art of healing to all the others.

Virgil

Virgil

Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...

's Aeneid

Aeneid

The Aeneid is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is composed of roughly 10,000 lines in dactylic hexameter...

 (XII: 391, 402) relates that Iapyx was Aeneas

Aeneas

Aeneas , in Greco-Roman mythology, was a Trojan hero, the son of the prince Anchises and the goddess Aphrodite. His father was the second cousin of King Priam of Troy, making Aeneas Priam's second cousin, once removed. The journey of Aeneas from Troy , which led to the founding a hamlet south of...

's healer during the Trojan War

Trojan War

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, including the Iliad...

 and then escaped to Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 after the war, founding Apulia

Apulia

Apulia is a region in Southern Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea in the east, the Ionian Sea to the southeast, and the Strait of Òtranto and Gulf of Taranto in the south. Its most southern portion, known as Salento peninsula, forms a high heel on the "boot" of Italy. The region comprises , and...

.

His descent is unclear. He was either:

• a son of Iasus
  Iasus
  In Greek mythology, Iasus or Iasius was the name of several individuals:*Iasus, king of Argos. His genealogy is confused; according to different sources, he was:**Son of Phoroneus, brother of Agenor and Pelasgus...
  
  , or
• the son of Lycaon, which would make him the brother of Daunius and Peucetius
  Peucetii
  The Peucetii were a tribe who were living in Apulia, southern Italy, in the country behind Barion...
  
   (who went as leaders of a colony to Italy), or
• a Cretan, from whom the Cretans who migrated to Italy derived the name of Iapyges
  Iapyges
  The Iapyges or Iapygians were an Indo-European people who inhabited the heel of Italy before being absorbed by the Romans.-Identity:The Iapyges have unknown origins but could have been from Illyria....
  
  , son of Daedalus
  Daedalus
  In Greek mythology, Daedalus was a skillful craftsman and artisan.-Family:...
  
   either:
  • by his wife, thus making him a full-brother of Icarus
    Icarus
    -Space and astronomy:* Icarus , on the Moon* Icarus , a planetary science journal* 1566 Icarus, an asteroid* IKAROS, a interplanetary unmanned spacecraft...
    
    ;
  • by another Cretan woman.

Iapyx is also the name of a minor Greek wind god, the north-west or west-north-west wind.