A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

Smith, William

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. William Smith, LLD, ed. 1890

(Λαῖλαψ), i. e. the storm-wind, which is personified in the legend of the dog of Prorris which bore this name. Procris had received this extremely swift animal as a present, either from Artemis or Minos, and afterwards left it to her husband Cephalus. When the Teumessian fox was sent as a punishment to the Thebans, to which they had to sacrifice a boy every month, and when Creon had requested Amphitryon to deliver the city of the monster fox, Cephalus sent out the dog Laelaps against the fox. The dog overtook the fox, but Zeus changed both animals into a stone, which was shown in the neighbourhood of Thebes. (Apollod. 2.4.6; Hyg. Fab. 189, Poet. Astr. 2.35; Ov. Met. 7.771.)

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