Centauri
（
Κένταυροι). A Thessalian race fabled to have been half
men, half horses. The Centaurs and Lapithae are two mythical tribes, which are always
mentioned together. The former are spoken of twice in the
Iliad under the
appellation of “wildcreatures” (
Φῆρες),
and once under their proper name. We also find the name
Κένταυροι in the
Odyssey. They seem to have been a rude
mountain-tribe, dwelling on and about Mount Pelion. It is very doubtful whether Homer and
Hesiod conceived them to be of a mingled form, as they were subsequently represented. In the
fight of the Centaurs and Lapithae depicted on the shield of Heracles, the latter appear in
panoply fighting with spears, while the former wield pine clubs. Pindar is the earliest
 |
|
Centaur. (Rome, Capitoline Museum.)
|
poet extant who expressly describes them as semiferine. According to him
(
Pyth. ii. 78 foll.), the offspring of
Ixion (q.v.) and the cloud, was a son named Centaurus, who, when grown up, wandered
about the foot of Mount Pelion, where he united with the Magnesian mares, who brought forth
the Centaurs—a race partaking of the form of both parents, their lower parts
resembling their dams, and their upper parts their sire. The common account makes the Centaurs
to have been the immediate offspring of Ixion and the cloud. By his wife Dia, Ixion had a son
named Pirithoüs, who married Hippodamia, daughter of Adrastus, king of Argos. The
chiefs of his own tribe, the Lapithae, were all invited to the wedding, as were also the
Centaurs, who dwelt in the neighbourhood of Pelion. Theseus, Nestor , and
other strangers were likewise present. 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. The
Centaurs were finally driven from Pelion, and obliged to retire to other regions.
 |
|
Centaur and Eros. (Louvre.)
|
According to the earliest version of this legend, Eurytion, the Centaur, being invited to
the mansion of Pirithoüs, became intoxicated, and behaved so ill to the women that
the heroes rose, and, dragging him to the door, cut off his ears and nose, which was the
occasion of the “strife between the Centaurs and men” (
Od. xxi. 295 foll.). When Heracles was on his way to hunt the
Erymanthian boar, he was entertained by the Centaur Pholus; and this gave rise to a conflict
between him and the other Centaurs, which terminated in the total discomfiture of the latter.
The most celebrated of the Centaurs was Chiron, the son of Cronus by the nymph Philyra. See
Chiron.
