Centauri
(Group Κένταυροι), that is, the bullkillers, are according to the earliest accounts a race of men who inhabited the mountains and forests of Thessaly. They are described as leading a rude and savage life, occasionally carrying off the women of their neighbours, as covered with hair and ranging over their mountains like animals. But they were not altogether unacquainted with the useful arts, as in the case of Cheiron. (Hom. Il. 1.268, 2.743, in which passages they are called φῆρες, that is, Δῆρες, Od. 21.295, &c.; Hesiod. Scut. Herc. 104, &c.) Now, in these earliest accounts, the centaurs appear merely as a sort of gigantic, savage, or animal-like beings; whereas, in later writers, they are described as monsters (hippocentaurs), whose bodies were partly human and partly those of horses. This strange mixture of the human form with that of a horse is accounted for, in the later traditions, by the history of their origin. Ixion, it is said, begot by a cloud Centaurus, a being hated by gods and men, who begot the hippocentaurs on mount Pelion, by mixing with Magnesian mares. (Pind. P. 2.80, &c.) According to Diodorus (4.69; comp. Hyg. Fab. 33), the centaurs were the sons of Ixion himself by a cloud; they were brought up by the nymphs of Pelion, and begot the Hippocentaurs by mares. Others again relate, that the centaurs were the offspring of Ixion and his mares; or that Zeus, metamorphosed into a horse, begot them by Dia, the wife of Ixion. (Serv. ad Aen. 8.293; Nonn. Dionys. 16.240, 14.193.) From these accounts it appears, that the ancient centaurs and the later hippocentaurs were two distinct classes of beings, although the name of centaurs is applied to both by ancient as well as modern writers.
The Centaurs are particularly celebrated in ancient story for their fight with the Lapithae, which arose at the marriage-feast of Peirithous, and the subject of which was extensively used by ancient poets and artists. This fight is sometimes put in connexion with a combat of Heracles with the centaurs. (Apollod. 2.5.4; Diod. 4.12; Eur. Her. 181, &c.; Soph. Trachin. 1095; Nonn. Dionys. 14.367; Ov. Met. 12.210, &c.; Verg. G. 2.455.) The scene of the contest is placed by some in Thessaly, and by others in Arcadia. It ended by the centaurs being expelled from their country, and taking refuge on mount Pindus, on the frontiers of Epeirus. Cheiron is the most celebrated among the centaurs. [Cheiron.]
As regards the origin of the notion respecting the centaurs, we must remember, in the first place, that bull-hunting on horseback was a national custom in Thessaly (Schol. ad Pind. p. 31.9, ed. Boeckh), and, secondly, that the Thessalians in early times spent the greater part of their lives on horseback. It is therefore not improbable that the Thessalian mountaineers may at some early period have made upon their neighbouring tribes the same impression as the Spaniards did upon the Mexicans, namely, that horse and man were one being. The centaurs were frequently represented in ancient works of art, and it is here that the idea of then is most fully developed. There are two forms in which the centaurs were represented in works of art. In the first they appear as men down to their legs and feet, but the hind part consists of the body, tail, and hind legs of a horse (Paus. 5.19.2); the second form, which was probably not used before the time of Phidias and Alcamenes, represents the centaurs as men from the head to the loins, and the remainder is the body of a horse with its four feet and tail. (Paus. 5.10.2; Plin. Nat. 36.4.) It is probably owing to the resemblance between the nature of the centaurs and that of the satyrs, that the former were in later times drawn into the sphere of Dionysiac beings; but here they appear no longer as savage monsters, but as tamed by the power of the god. They either draw the chariot of the god, and play the horn or lyre, or they appear in the train of Dionysus, among the Satyrs, Fauns, Nymphs, Erotes, and Bacchantes. It is remarkable that there were also female centaurs, who are said to have been of great beauty. (Philostr. Icon. 2.3; comp. Voss, Mythol. Briefe, ii. p. 265, &c.; Böttiger, Vasengem. iii. p. 75, &c.) [L.S]
(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 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.
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.