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Centaurs

The centaurs of Greek mythology are part human and part horse. They are usually with the torso and head of a human, and the body of a horse. Centaurs are the followers of the wine god Dionysus and are well known for drunkenness and carrying off helpless young maidens. They live in Mount Pelion in Thessaly, northern Greece. According to myths, they are the offspring of Ixion, the king of Lapithae and a cloud. He had arranged a trust with Hera, but Zeus got wind of it and fashioned a cloud into Hera's shape. Therefore, the Centaurs are sometimes called Ixionidae.

Notorious is their bestial behavior on the wedding of Pirithous, king of the Lapiths. They 'went after' the female guests and tried to abduct the bride. A bloody battle followed, after which they were driven away. An exception was the kind and wise centaur Chiron, the teacher of the Greek heroes Jason and Achilles.

In medieval romances, the centaurs were called "Sagittary."


From Monstrous.com :

Description

The centaur is a mythological creature. Its head, arms, and chest are those of a human and the rest of its body, including four legs, hindquarters, and a tail is like that of a horse.

There are also deer-centaurs, dog-centaurs, and the Gaelic androcephalous or man-headed horse. Both Greeks and Etruscans sometimes painted a centaur-like animal with the entire body of a human rather awkwardly attached in various ways to the lower or back parts of a horse.

Origin Presence and illustrations of centaurs date back to Assyria (2000 BC) and India (3000 BC). Some have traced the Greek centaur origins back to the Gandharvas who in Vedic mythology drove the horses from the Sun but it is now accepted that they were a primitive and rough population of horsed shepherds from Thessalony. According to Greek tradition, there are two families of centaurs. The more numerous and unruly centaurs are those born of the union of Ixion, King of the Lapithae and a cloud which Zeus disguised as his own wife, Hera, whom Ixion had bragged of having relations with.

Chiron who was the like the above centaurs in appearance only fathered a different race of centaurs, sober, learned and studious. His father was Cronus, the Titan and his mother was Philyra, an Oceanid (or ocean nymph). He was a famous physician and teacher and was renowned for his skill in hunting, medicine, music, and the art of prophecy. Taught by Apollo and Diana, Chiron went on to tutor the greatest Greek warriors, Aesculapius, Jason, Hercules, and Achilles.

Powers Centaurs lived in herds on Mt. Pelion in Thessaly, Greece, and were a plague to the people around them. They went about drunk, eating raw flesh, trampling crops, and raping female humans. The intellectual parts they inherited from humankind left them ignorant and yet cunning.

The Centaurs were creatures that were sometimes very hostile towards humans. They were always involved in brawls and battles. Often Zeus would send the Centaurs to punish gods and humans who had offended him. The hostility between man and Centaurs is said to have originated when the Centaurs were invited to their stepbrother's (Pirithous), wedding celebration. At the feast Eurytion, one of the Centaurs, becoming intoxicated with the wine, attempted to offer violence to the bride; the other Centaurs followed his example, and a dreadful conflict arose in which several of them were slain. This is the celebrated battle of the Lapithae and Centaurs, a favorite subject with the sculptors and poets of antiquity.

Symbol The wicked centaurs are the antithesis of the knight and the horseman. Instead of mastering or taming their instincts, these centaurs are ruled by them. They symbolize violent lust, adultery, brutality, vengefulness, heretics, and the Devil. They represent the struggle within each heart between good and evil, moderation and excess, passion and propriety, forgiveness and retaliation, belief and unbelief, god and beast.

Centaurs may be seen in pictures of St. Anthony Abbot who met both a centaur and a satyr when searching for St. Paul the Hermit in the desert. According to some legends, this centaur was the Devil himself.

Chiron is known as the wisest of all Centaurs. He did not depict the regular character of a Centaur; he just had the same body of those creatures. To the Greeks he was a close representation of a saint. He was a father figure to many of the gods' children. They were given to him so he could teach them great knowledge of the world. Chiron represents the positive combination of man's animal and spiritual natures. As early Christians strove to modernize ancient pagan symbolism with Church teaching, the combination of the spiritual and the animal natures in the centaur-archer caused this image of Apollo and the sun to become a representation of Christ, the God-Man.

Stories Ixion Zeus purified Ixion of a first murder of kin, a horrifying deed. The shameless man repaid this honor by trying to seduce Hera. The goddess told her husband. When Zeus learned about this passion he made a disguised model of Hera, a cloud likeness, to see how obsessed he was with his wife. Ixion was so deeply in love with Hera that he slept with the disguised model. Zeus punished Ixion by chaining him to a winged and fiery wheel, which revolved forever in Tartarus. The cloud gave birth to a creature named Centaurus. It was Centaurus that descended upon a herd of Magnesian mares and conceived the Centaurs. The Centaurs had the bodies of horses, and the upper torsos of men.

Chiron During the Battle of the Lapithae and the Centaurs, Chiron fought for the Lapithae and was accidentally wounded by one of Hercules' poisoned arrows. To avoid a life of unending pain from this arrow's poison, Chiron gave his immortality to Prometheus and died. Zeus set his remains in the night sky where he appears as Sagittarius, the archer.

Nessus Nessus first proposed Hercules and his second wife Deianeira to carry them over the river Evenus but when Nessus was alone with Deianiara on the other side, he tried to abuse from her. Hercules shot Nessus with one of his poisoned arrow. The dying Centaur told Deianeira to use his blood as a "love potion"on Hercules if sometime in the future he ever fell out of love with her. One day, Hercules sent was of his fellow Lichas to get a white tunic at his house. Deianeira who suspected Hercules was with a rival, Iole, spilled some blood on the garment. As soon as Hercules put the garment on his skin, he felt like his body was burning. The pain was so intense and he eventually died from the wound (Zeus took him away before he immolated himself).