Everything about Centaurs totally explained
In
Greek mythology, the
Centaurs (from
Ancient Greek:
Κένταυροι - Kéntauroi) are a race of creatures composed of part
human and part
horse. In early
Attic vase-paintings, they're depicted as the torso of a human joined at the (human's) waist to the horse's
withers, where the horse's neck would be.
This half-human and half-animal composition has led many writers to treat them as
liminal beings, caught between the two natures, embodied in contrasted myths, and as the embodiment of untamed nature, as in their battle with the
Lapiths, or conversely as teachers, like
Chiron.
The centaurs were usually said to have been born of
Ixion and
Nephele (the cloud made in the image of
Hera). Another version, however, makes them children of a certain
Centaurus, who mated with the Magnesian mares. This Centaurus was either the son of
Ixion and
Nephele (instead of the Centaurs) or of
Apollo and
Stilbe, daughter of the river god
Peneus. In the latter version of the story his twin brother was
Lapithus, ancestor of the Lapiths, thus making the two warring peoples cousins.
Centaurs were said to have inhabited the region of
Magnesia and Mount Pelion in
Thessaly, Mount Pholoe in
Arcadia and the Malean peninsular in southern
Laconia.
Centauromachy
The Centaurs are best known for their fight with the Lapithae, caused by their attempt to carry off
Hippodamia and the rest of the Lapith women, on the day of her marriage to
Pirithous, king of the Lapithae, himself the son of
Ixion. The strife among these cousins is a metaphor for the conflict between the lower appetites and civilized behavior in humankind.
Theseus, a hero and founder of cities, who happened to be present, threw the balance in favor of the right order of things, and assisted Pirithous. The Centaurs were driven off or destroyed.. Another Lapith hero,
Caeneus, who was invulnerable to weapons, was beaten into the earth by Centaurs wielding rocks and the branches of trees. Centaurs are thought of in many Greek myths as wild as untamed horses. Like the
Titanomachy, the defeat of the
Titans by the
Olympian gods, the contests with the Centaurs typify the struggle between civilization and barbarism.
The Centauromachy is most famously portrayed in the
Parthenon metopes by
Phidias and a Renaissance-era sculpture by
Michelangelo.
Theories of origin
The most common theory holds that the idea of centaurs came from the first reaction of a non-riding culture, as in the
Minoan Aegean world, to nomads who were mounted on horses. The theory goes that such riders would appear as half-man, half-animal (
Bernal Díaz del Castillo reported that the
Aztecs had this misapprehension about Spanish cavalrymen).
Horse taming and horseback culture arose first in the southern
steppe grasslands of
Central Asia, perhaps approximately in modern
Kazakhstan.
Persistence of the Centaur myth in the Roman Empire was probably reinforced by the Hun invasions (in particular Attila), where mounted archery was especially devastating.
The Lapith tribe of Thessaly, who were the kinsmen of the Centaurs in myth, were described as the inventors of horse-back riding by Greek writers. The Thessalian tribes also claimed their horse breeds were descended from the centaurs.
Of the various
Classical Greek authors who mentioned centaurs,
Pindar was the first who describes undoubtedly a combined monster. Previous authors (
Homer etc) only use words such as Pheres (Beasts) that could also mean ordinary savage men riding ordinary horses. However, contemporaneous representations of hybrid centaurs can be found in archaic
Greek art.
Writer
Robert Graves has speculated that the Centaurs of Greek myth were a dimly-remembered, pre-Hellenic fraternal earth cult who had the horse as a
totem. A similar theory was incorporated into
Mary Renault's
The Bull from the Sea.
The Greek word
kentauros could be
etymologized as
ken - tauros = "piercing bull". Another possible etymology can be "bulls slayer". Some say that the Greeks took the constellation of
Centaurus, and also its name "piercing bull", from
Mesopotamia, where it symbolized the god
Baal who represents rain and fertility, fighting with and
piercing with his horns the demon
Mot who represents the summer drought. (In Greece, Mot became the constellation of
Lupus.) Later in Greece, the constellation of Centaurus was reinterpreted as a man riding a horse, and linked to legends of Greece being invaded by tribes of horsemen from the north. The idea of a combined monster may have arisen as an attempt to fit the pictorial figure to the stars better.
Alexander Hislop in his book
The Two Babylons theorized that the word is derived from the
Semitic Kohen and
Tor via
phonetic shift the less prominent
consonants being lost over time,with it developing into
Kh
en Tor or
Ken-Tor, and being transliterated phonetically into
Ionian as
Kentaur.
Female Centaurs
Though female centaurs, called
Kentaurides are not mentioned in early Greek literature and art, they do appear occasionally in later antiquity. A Macedonian mosaic of the C4th BCE is one of the earliest examples of the Centauress in art.
Ovid also mentions a centauress named
Hylonome who committed suicide when her lover
Cyllarus was killed in the war with the Lapiths.
In a description of a painting in
Neapolis, the Greek rhetorician
Philostratus the Elder describes them as sisters and wives of the male centaurs who live on Mount Pelion with their children.
"How beautiful the Centaurides are, even where they're horses; for some grow out of white mares, others are attached to chestnut mares, and the coats of others are dappled, but they glisten like those of horses that are well cared for. There is also a white female Centaur that grows out of a black mare, and the very opposition of the colours helps to produce the united beauty of the whole."
In the Disney Classic
Fantasia, during the
Pastoral Symphony, some of the main characters are female centaurs. However, the Disney studio called them "Centaurettes" instead of
Kentaurides.
Persistence in the medieval world
Centaurs preserved a
Dionysian connection in the 12th century
Romanesque carved
capitals of
Mozac Abbey in the
Auvergne, where other capitals depict harvesters, boys riding goats (a further Dionysiac theme) and
griffins guarding the
chalice that held the wine.
A centaur-like half-human half-equine creature called
Polkan appeared in
Russian folklore,
folk art, and
lubok prints of the 17th-19th centuries.
Modern Day
- The John C. Hodges library at The University of Tennessee hosts a permanent exhibit of a "Centaur from Volos", in its library. The exhibit, made by combining a study human skeleton with the skeleton of a Shetland pony is entitled "Do you believe in Centaurs?" and was meant to mislead students in order to make them more critically aware, according to the exhibitors.
A centaur is one of the symbols associated with Iota Phi Theta Fraternity Incorporated.
A centaur is also the mascot of Delta Lambda Phi National Social Fraternity. Whereas centaurs in Greek mythology were generally symbolic of chaos and unbridled passions, Delta Lambda Phi's centaur is modeled after Chiron and represents honor, moderation and tempered masculinity.
Centaurs, among many other fantastic creatures, played a key role in one of the animated shorts from Disney's Fantasia. Among them were the typical white, bay, and chestnut centaurs, along with various unnatural colors, and also a pair of "Nubian" centaurs which were dark-skinned and Zebra.
Tomb Raider 1 and Tomb Raider Anniversary both feature centaurs and centaur mutants as foe. Tomb Raider 1 was released in 1996 and Tomb Raider Anniversary - 2007.
The Mortal Kombat character Motaro is the leader of his centaur race, with his first appearance in game he's a boss character and made to be hard to beat.
Centaurs in modern fiction
Centaurs have appeared in many places in modern fiction, and may be regarded as a fantasy trope.
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Further Information
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