Iapetus was linked to
Japheth (יֶפֶת), one of the
sons of Noah and a progenitor of mankind in biblical accounts. The practice by early historians and biblical scholars of identifying various historical nations and ethnic groups as descendants of Japheth, together with the similarity of their names, led to a fusion of their identities, from the
early modern period to the present.[6][7]
Mythology
Iapetus ("the Piercer")[citation needed] is the one
Titan mentioned by
Homer in the Iliad as being in
Tartarus with
Cronus. He is a brother of Cronus, who ruled the world during the Golden Age but is now locked up in
Tartarus along with Iapetus, where neither breeze nor light of the sun reaches them.[8]
Iapetus' wife is usually described as a daughter of
Oceanus and
Tethys named either
Clymene (according to Hesiod[9] and Hyginus) or
Asia (according to
Apollodorus).
In
Hesiod's Works and Days, Prometheus is addressed as "son of Iapetus", and no mother is named. However, in Hesiod's Theogony, Clymene is listed as Iapetus' wife and the mother of Prometheus. In
Aeschylus's play Prometheus Bound, Prometheus is son of the goddess
Themis with no father named (but still with at least Atlas as a brother). However, in
Horace's Odes, in Ode 1.3 Horace writes "audax Iapeti genus ... Ignem fraude mala gentibus intulit" ("The bold offspring of Iapetus [i.e. Prometheus] ... brought fire to peoples by wicked deceit").
Hesiod and other Greek scholars regarded the sons of Iapetus as mankind's ancestors and as such, some of humanity's worst qualities were said to have been inherited from these four gods, each of whom were described with a particular moral fault that often led to their own downfall. For instance, sly and clever Prometheus could perhaps represent crafty scheming; the inept and guileless Epimetheus, foolish stupidity; the enduring, strongest and powerful Atlas, excessive daring; and the arrogant Menoetius, rash violence.[10]
^Alexander, Philip (1988). "Retelling the Old Testament". In Carson, D. A.; Williamson, H. G. M. (eds.). It is Written: Scripture Citing Scripture: Essays in Honour of Barnabas Lindars. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 99–121.
ISBN9780521323475.
^Haaland, Gunnar (2011). "Convenient Fiction Or Causal Factor? The Questioning Of Jewish Antiquity According To Against Apion 1.2". In Pastor, Jack; Stern, Pnina; Mor, Menahem (eds.). Flavius Josephus: Interpretation and history. Leiden: Brill. pp. 163–175.
ISBN978-90-04-19126-6.
^Although usually the daughter of Hyperion and Theia, as in
Hesiod, Theogony371–374, in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes (4),
99–100, Selene is instead made the daughter of Pallas the son of Megamedes.
Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918.
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
Stephanus of Byzantium, Stephani Byzantii Ethnicorum quae supersunt, edited by August Meineike (1790-1870), published 1849. A few entries from this important ancient handbook of place names have been translated by Brady Kiesling.
Online version at the Topos Text Project.