What is "iapyx"

[[Image:Iapyx removing arrowhead from Aeneas.jpg|thumb|right|300px|

Iapyx removing an arrowhead from the leg of Aeneas, with Aeneas's son, Ascanius (or Iulus), crying beside him.

]] In Greek and Roman mythology, Iapyx (from Greek Ἰάπυξ, gen.: Ἰάπυγος), Iapux or Iapis was a favourite of Apollo. The god wanted to confer upon him the gift of prophecy, the lyre, etc.; but Iapyx, wishing to prolong the life of his father, preferred the more tranquil art of healing to all the others.

Virgil's Aeneid (XII: 391-402) relates that Iapyx was Aeneas's healer during the Trojan War and then escaped to Italy after the war, founding Apulia.

His descent is unclear. He was either:

• a son of Iasus, or
• the son of Lycaon, which would make him the brother of Daunius and Peucetius (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, or
• a son of Daedalus either:
  • by his wife, thus making him a full-brother of Icarus;
  • by another Cretan woman.

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