Lapith princess, lion-wrestler, eponym of the Greek polis of Cyrene in Libya. The Pindaric narrative in Pythian 9 — composed for the Cyrenean victor Telesicrates ~474 BCE — is the major source for both the lion-wrestling episode and the Apollo-abduction. The historical foundation of Cyrene (~630 BCE) provides the eponymous-mother tradition with its civic anchor: the goddess (later) of the historical city was identified with Apollo's mortal Lapith-bride.