Laelaps

Q: Who was Laelaps?

Laelaps was the hound in Greek myth that never failed to catch whatever it hunted. It belonged to Procris and then to her husband Cephalus, and it is best known for the chase of the Teumessian fox, a beast that could never be caught.

Laelaps was the hound in Greek myth that never failed to catch whatever it hunted. It belonged to Procris and then to her husband Cephalus, and it is best known for the chase of the Teumessian fox, a beast that could never be caught. Zeus ended the impossible contest by turning both animals to stone.

The Dog That Never Missed

The name Laelaps is given by Ovid, who has Cephalus say that Procris gave him the dog and that its previous owner, Artemis (Cynthia), had declared that it would outrun every other animal (Ovid, Metamorphoses 7.753–756, 771). Ovid calls the dog by name when Cephalus is asked to release it against the fox: “my Laelaps” (Metamorphoses 7.771).

How the Dog Came to Procris

The sources disagree on the dog’s origin. In the version Apollodorus follows, the dog came from Minos. Procris, the daughter of Erechtheus and wife of Cephalus, fled to Crete after she had been unfaithful to her husband. Minos had a swift dog and a dart that never missed, and in return for these gifts Procris shared his bed, having first made him drink the Circaean root so that he could not harm her (Apollodorus, Library 3.15.1; also 2.4.7, where the dog is said to be a gift from Minos, destined to catch whatever it pursued).

In another version Zeus first set the dog as guard over Europa, and it passed to Minos, from whom Procris received it as a reward (Hyginus, Astronomica 2.35). In a third, the hound was given to Procris by Artemis (Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.19.1; Ovid, Metamorphoses 7.753–756).

After the reconciliation, Procris went hunting with Cephalus. He threw his javelin at a movement in the thicket, not knowing she was there, and killed her; he was tried on the Areopagus and banished (Apollodorus, Library 3.15.1). After that, Hyginus says, the dog passed to Cephalus (Astronomica 2.35).

Laelaps and the Teumessian Fox

A vixen, the Teumessian fox, was ravaging the Cadmea, the land of Thebes, and it was fated that no one should catch her. Every month the Thebans exposed a son of one of their citizens to the creature. Creon would join Amphitryon’s war against the Teleboans only if Amphitryon first rid the country of the vixen, so Amphitryon went to Cephalus at Athens and persuaded him, in return for a share of the spoils, to bring to the hunt the dog that always caught its prey (Apollodorus, Library 2.4.6–7). Pausanias says that the fox was reared to destroy the Thebans through the anger of Dionysus (Description of Greece 9.19.1); in Ovid, Themis sent it to punish Thebes (Metamorphoses 7.762–764).

Ovid gives the chase as told by Cephalus himself. The people of the neighbourhood surrounded the plain with nets, but the fox leaped over the nets and left every hound behind. When Laelaps was slipped from his leash, he disappeared from sight at once. Cephalus climbed a hill to watch and saw the fox dodge and double back, while the dog hung at its heels and snapped at the empty air. When he turned to take up his javelin and looked back, he saw two marble figures in the middle of the field, one seeming to flee and the other to be about to seize. Ovid adds that if a god had favoured them, he wished them both unbeaten in the contest (Metamorphoses 7.759–793).

Zeus Turns Them to Stone

Apollodorus says it was Zeus who turned the vixen and the dog into stone when the dog chased the fox (Library 2.4.7). Pausanias agrees that both were turned to stone (Description of Greece 9.19.1). Hyginus, citing Istrus, says that when they met, Zeus did not know what to do and changed them both to stone (Astronomica 2.35).

Laelaps in the Stars

Hyginus tells the story as one explanation of the constellation of the Dog. He then adds that some said this dog was Orion’s hound, placed among the stars with him because Orion loved hunting, while others said it was the dog of Icarius (Astronomica 2.35). No ancient source makes the fox into the Lesser Dog: Hyginus explains the Lesser Dog, Procyon, by the same stories as the greater Dog (Astronomica 2.36).