In Greek mythology, Iapetus (pronounced /aɪˈæpɪtəs/[1]), also
Iapetos or Japetus (Greek: Ἰαπετός), was a Titan, the son of
Uranus and Gaia, and father (by an Oceanid named Clymene or
Asia) of Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Menoetius and
through Prometheus, Epimetheus and Atlas an ancestor of the
human race. He was the Titan of Mortal Life, while his son,
Prometheus, was the creator of mankind...
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（Ἰαπετός), a son of Uranus and Ge, a Titan and brother of
Cronus, Oceanus, Coeus, Hyperion, Tethys, Rhea, &c.
(Apollod. 1.1.3; Diod. 5.66.) According to Apollodorus
(1.2.3) he married Asia, the daughter of his brother
Oceanus, and became by her the father of Atlas, Prometheus,
Epimetheus, and Menoetius, who was slain by Zeus in the war
against the Titans, and shut up in Tartarus. Other
traditions call the wife of Iapetus Clymene, who was
likewise a daughter of Oceanus, and others again Tethys,
Asopis, or Libya. (Hes. Th. 507, &c.; Tzetz. ad Lycoph.
1277; Orph. Fragm. 8.21, &c.; Verg. G. 1.279.) Hyginus, who
confounds the Titans and Gigantes, makes Iapetus a Giant,
and calls him a son of Tartarus. According to Homer (Hom.
Il. 8.479) Iapetus is imprisoned with Cronus in Tartarus,
and Silius Italicus (12.148, &c.) relates that he is buried
under the island of Inarime. Being the father of Prometheus,
he was regarded by the Greeks as the ancestor of the human
race. His descendants, Prometheus, Atlas, and others, are
often designated by the patronymic forms Iapelidae (es),
Iapetionidae (es), and the feminine Iapetionis. (Hes. Th.
528; Ov. Met. 4.631; Pind. O. 9.59; comp. Voelcker,
Mytholog. des Japetischen Geschlechtes, p. 4, &c.) Another
mythical personage of the same name, the father of Buphagus,
is mentioned by Pausanias (8.27.11). - A Dictionary of Greek
and Roman biography and mythology, William Smith, Ed.
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