Καπυς
The Iliad mentions a Capys who was one of the ancestors of Aeneas. He was the son of Assaracus and fathered two sons named Ilus and Anchises by Themiste (Table 7). Later legends give Aeneas a companion of the same name who was supposed to have founded the town of Capua in Campania, but there is also a story that Capua had been founded by one of Aeneas' sons, Rhomus, and that it was called this in memory of his great-grandfather (see Aegestes). Capys, the companion of Aeneas, was sometimes also regarded as the founded of the town of Caphyes in Arcadia.
Some writers also say that the founder of Capua was not a Trojan but a Samnite of the same name. It is very probable that the name of Capua may actually have been derived from an Etruscan word meaning 'falcon' and, generally, 'those who have turned-in toes'.
{E2 DICTIONARY OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY}
Table of Sources
- Hom. Il. 20, 239
- Apollod. Bibl. 3, 12, 2
- Hecataeus fragment 27, Müller FHG I p. 2
- Dion. Hal. 1, 71, 1ff.; 1, 83, 3
- Strabo 13, 1, 53, p. 608
- Virgil, Aen. 1, 2; 242; 272; 284; 2, 35; 10, 145
- Stat. Silv. 3, 5, 77
- Tzetzes on Lyc. Alex. 1232
- Livy 4, 37