Chiron
（
Χείρων).) The most celebrated of the Centaurs, and son of
Cronos and the nymph Philyra. Dreading the jealousy of his wife, Rhea, the god is said to have
transformed Philyra into a mare, and himself into a steed; and the offspring of this union was
Chiron, half man and half horse. This legend first appeared in the poem of the
Gigantomachia, and it is also noticed by Pindar (
Pyth. iii. 1,
foll.). Probably the praise of Chiron
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Chiron. (Pompeian Painting.)
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by Homer (
Il. xi. 832), for his love of justice, led to the view of him as the
offspring of the god who ruled over the golden race of men. To Chiron was intrusted the
rearing and educating of Iason and his son Medeus, Heracles, Aesculapius, and Achilles.
Besides his knowledge of the musical art, which he imparted to his heroic pupils, he was also
skilled in surgery, which he taught to the last two of this number. In the contest
between Heracles and the Centaurs, Chiron was accidentally wounded in the knee by one of the
arrows of the hero. Grieved at this unhappy event, Heracles ran up, drew out the arrow, and
applied to the wound a remedy given by Chiron himself. But in vain; the venom of the hydra was
not to be overcome. Chiron retired to his cave longing to die, but unable on account of his
immortality, till, on his expressing his willingness to die for Prometheus, he was released by
death from his misery. According to another account, he was, on his prayer to Zeus for relief,
raised to the sky and made the constellation of Sagittarius. Chiron was the husband of
Naïs or Chariclo, and their daughter Eudeïs was the mother of Peleus (
Apollod. xiii. 12). In art, Chiron is represented as of a noble and
intellectual cast of countenance; while the other Centaurs exhibit brutal and sensual traits.
See Böttiger,
Vasengemälde, iii. p. 144, etc., and the
article
Centauri.
