centaur

The Greek word kentauros is generally regarded as being of obscure origin.{{cite journal|last=Scobie|first=Alex|date=1978|title=The Origins of 'Centaurs'|journal=Folklore|volume=89|issue=2|pages=142–147|doi=10.1080/0015587X.1978.9716101}} Scobie quotes {{Cite book |first=Martin P. |last=Nilsson |title=Geschichte der griechischen Religion |date=1955 |quote=Die Etymologie und die Deutung der Ursprungs sind unsicher und mögen auf sich beruhen |author-link=Martin P. Nilsson}} The etymology from ken + tauros, 'piercing bull', was a euhemerist suggestion in Palaephatus' rationalizing text on Greek mythology, On Incredible Tales (Περὶ ἀπίστων), which included mounted archers from a village called Nephele eliminating a herd of bulls that were the scourge of Ixion's kingdom.{{sfnp|Scobie|1978|p=142}} Another possible related etymology can be "bull-slayer".Alexander Hislop, in his polemic The Two Babylons: Papal Worship Revealed to be the Worship of Nimrod and His Wife (1853, revised 1858), theorized that the word is derived from the Semitic Kohen and "tor" (to go round) via phonetic shift the less prominent consonants being lost over time, with it developing into Khen Tor or Ken-Tor, and being transliterated phonetically into Ionian as Kentaur, but this is not accepted by any modern philologist.

File:Foundry Painter ARV 402 22 Lapiths fighting centaurs (01).jpg of an Attic red-figure kylix, {{Circa|480 BC}}|alt=]]

The centaurs were usually said to have been born of Ixion and Nephele.{{Cite journal |last=Nash |first=Harvey |date=June 1984 |title=The Centaur's Origin: A Psychological Perspective |journal=The Classical World |volume=77 |issue=5 |pages=273–291 |doi=10.2307/4349592 |jstor=4349592}} As the story goes, Nephele was a cloud made into the likeness of Hera in a plot to trick Ixion into revealing his lust for Hera to Zeus. Ixion seduced Nephele and from that relationship centaurs were created.{{Cite web |last=Alexander |first=Jonathann |title=Tzetzes, Chiliades 9 |url=https://www.theoi.com/Text/TzetzesChiliades9.html#20 |access-date=February 28, 2019 |website=Theoi.com |publisher=Theoi Project |archive-date=November 23, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201123201140/https://www.theoi.com/Text/TzetzesChiliades9.html#20 |url-status=live }} Another version, however, makes them children of Centaurus, a man who mated with the Magnesian mares. Centaurus was either himself the son of Ixion and Nephele (inserting an additional generation) or of Apollo and the nymph Stilbe. In the latter version of the story, Centaurus's twin brother was Lapithes, ancestor of the Lapiths.

Another tribe of centaurs was said to have lived on Cyprus. According to Nonnus, the Cyprian Centaurs were fathered by Zeus, who, in frustration after Aphrodite had eluded him, spilled his seed on the ground of that land. Unlike those of mainland Greece, the Cyprian centaurs were ox-horned.Nonnus, Dionysiaca 5.611 ff., 14.193 ff. & 32.65 ff.{{Cite web |title=CYPRIAN CENTAURS (Kentauroi Kyprioi) - Half-Horse Men of Greek Mythology |url=http://www.theoi.com/Georgikos/KentauroiKyprioi.html |website=www.theoi.com |access-date=March 15, 2016 |archive-date=November 23, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201123192044/https://www.theoi.com/Georgikos/KentauroiKyprioi.html |url-status=live }}

There were also the Lamian Pheres, twelve rustic daimones (spirits) of the Lamos river. They were set by Zeus to guard the infant Dionysos, protecting him from the machinations of Hera, but the enraged goddess transformed them into ox-horned Centaurs unrelated to the Cyprian Centaurs. The Lamian Pheres later accompanied Dionysos in his campaign against the Indians.{{Cite web |title=LAMIAN PHERES - Centaurs of Dionysus in Greek Mythology |url=http://www.theoi.com/Georgikos/PheresLamioi.html |website=www.theoi.com |access-date=March 15, 2016 |archive-date=June 6, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190606105253/https://www.theoi.com/Georgikos/PheresLamioi.html |url-status=live }}

The centaur's half-human, half-horse composition has led many writers to treat them as liminal beings, caught between the two natures they embody in contrasting myths; they are both the embodiment of untamed nature, as in their battle with the Lapiths (their kin), and conversely, teachers like Chiron.{{Cite web |title=Chiron {{!}} Greek mythology {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Chiron-Greek-mythology |access-date=October 27, 2022 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en |archive-date=October 27, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221027002108/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Chiron-Greek-mythology |url-status=live }}

File:Centaur lifting a rock, Attic red-figured kylix, by the Bonn Painter, 510-500 BC, inv. 16514 - Museo Gregoriano Etrusco - Vatican Museums - DSC01053.jpg red-figured kylix, c. 510–500 BC]]

File:Ac marbles.jpg, on South Metope 31 of the Parthenon, c. 447–438 BCBritish Museum, [https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1816-0610-15 1816,0610.15].]]

The Centaurs are best known for their fight with the Lapiths who, according to one origin myth, would have been cousins to the centaurs. The battle, called the Centauromachy, was caused by the centaurs' attempt to carry off Hippodamia and the rest of the Lapith women on the day of Hippodamia's marriage to Pirithous, who was the king of the Lapithae and a son of Ixion. Theseus, a hero and founder of cities, who happened to be present, threw the balance in favour of the Lapiths by assisting Pirithous in the battle. The Centaurs were driven off or destroyed.Plutarch, Theseus 30Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.210Diodorus Siculusiv. pp. 69-70. Another Lapith hero, Caeneus, who was invulnerable to weapons, was beaten into the earth by Centaurs wielding rocks and the branches of trees. In her article "The Centaur: Its History and Meaning in Human Culture", Elizabeth Lawrence claims that the contests between the centaurs and the Lapiths typify the struggle between civilization and barbarism.{{Cite journal |last=Lawrence |first=Elizabeth Atwood |date=1994 |title=The Centaur: Its History and Meaning in Human Culture |journal=Journal of Popular Culture |volume=27 |issue=4 |page=58 |doi=10.1111/j.0022-3840.1994.2704_57.x}}

The Centauromachy is most famously portrayed in the metopes of the Parthenon by Phidias and in the Battle of the Centaurs, a relief by Michelangelo.

File:Centaur mosaic - Google Art Project.jpg . The mosaic now resides in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin in Germany.|alt=|301x301px]]

• Abas, attended Pirithous' wedding, fought against the Lapiths and fled.Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.306
• Agrius, repelled by Heracles in a fight.Apollodorus, [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:2.5.4 2.5.4]
• Amphion, tried to plunder Pholus of his wine and was killed by Heracles.Diodorus Siculus, 4.12.7
• Amycus, son of Ophion. He attended Pirithous' wedding and fought against the Lapiths. Amycus was killed by Pelates.Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.245
• Anchius, repelled by Heracles when he tried to steal the wine of Pholus.
• Antimachus, attended Pirithous' wedding, fought in the battle against the Lapiths and was killed by Caeneus.Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.495
• Aphareus, killed by Theseus in the fight at Pirithous' wedding.Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.341
• Aphidas, killed by Phorbas in the fight at Pirithous' wedding.Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.317 ff.
• Arctus, attended Pirithous' wedding and fought against the Lapiths.Hesiod, Shield of Heracles 186
• Areos, attended Pirithous' wedding and fought against the Lapiths.Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.310
• Argius, killed by Heracles when he tried to steal the wine of Pholus.
• Asbolus, an augur who had attempted in vain to dissuade his friends from engaging in battle against the Lapiths at Pirithous' wedding.Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.308; Hesiod, Shield of Heracles 185
• Bienor, attended Pirithous' wedding, fought in the battle against the Lapiths and was killed by Theseus.Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.345 ff.
• Bromus, attended Pirithous' wedding, fought in the battle against the Lapiths and was killed by Caeneus.Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.459
• Chiron, the son of Cronus and Philyra. File:Bell-Krater with (A) the Centaur Chiron Accompanied by a Satyr and (B) Two Youths LACMA 50.8.40 (1 of 2).jpg on a South Italian bell-krater, c. 350–325 BCLos Angeles County Museum of Art, [https://collections.lacma.org/node/230099 50.8.40].]]
• Chromis, attended Pirithous' wedding, fought in the battle against the Lapiths and was killed by Pirithous.Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.333
• Chthonius, attended Pirithous' wedding, fought in the battle against the Lapiths and was killed by Nestor.Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.441
• Clanis, attended Pirithous' wedding, fought in the battle against the Lapiths and was killed by Peleus.Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.378; Valerius Flaccus, 1.146
• Crenaeus, attended Pirithous' wedding, fought in the battle against the Lapiths and was killed by Dryas.
• Cyllarus, attended Pirithous' wedding, fought in the battle against the Lapiths. Killed by a javelin thrown from an unknown hand. He was married to Hylonome.Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.393 ff.
• Daphnis, tried to plunder Pholus of his wine and was killed by Heracles.
• Demoleon, attended Pirithous' wedding, fought in the battle against the Lapiths and was killed by Peleus.Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.356 ff.
• Dictys, attended Pirithous' wedding, fought in the battle against the Lapiths and was killed by Pirithous.Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.334 ff.
• Dorylas, attended Pirithous' wedding, fought in the battle against the Lapiths and was killed by Peleus.Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.378
• Doupon, tried to plunder Pholus of his wine and was killed by Heracles.
• Dryalus, son of Peuceus who attended Pirithous' wedding and fought against the Lapiths.
• Echeclus, attended Pirithous' wedding, fought in the battle against the Lapiths and was killed by Ampyx.Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.450
• Elatus, tried to plunder Pholus of his wine. Heracles shot an arrow at him, which, passing through his arm, stuck in the knee of Chiron.
• Elymus, attended Pirithous' wedding, fought in the battle against the Lapiths and was killed by Caeneus.
• Eurynomus, fought against the Lapiths at Pirithous' wedding. Killed by Dryas.File:Sebastiano Ricci 045.jpg, of centaurs at the marriage of Pirithous, king of the Lapithae|296x296px]]
• Eurytion, acted in an insulting manner towards Hippolyte when she was being joined in marriage to Azan in the house of Pirithous. He was killed by Heracles.Apollodorus, 2.5.4; Diodorus Siculus, 4.33.1; Homer, Odyssey 295 ff.; Hyginus, Fabulae 33
• Eurytus, the wildest of the wild Centaurs. He started the fight at Pirithous' wedding and was killed by Theseus.Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.220 &12.235 ff.
• Gryneus, fought against the Lapiths at Pirithous' wedding and was killed by Exadius.Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.258 ff.
• Helops, attended Pirithous' wedding and fought in the battle against the Lapiths. While fleeing from Pirithous, he fell from a precipice into the top of a tree and impaled his body.
• Hippasus, fought against the Lapiths at Pirithous' wedding. Killed by Theseus.Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.352; Valerius Flaccus, 1.148
• Hippotion, another Centaur, killed by Heracles when he tried to steal the wine of Pholus.
• Hodites, fought against the Lapiths at Pirithous' wedding. Killed by Mopsus.Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.456
• Homadus, tried to plunder Pholus of his wine. Some time after he attempted to rape Alcyone, a granddaughter of Perseus. He got killed in Arcadia.
• Hylaeus, tried to rape Atalanta but was shot by her (same thing happened to Rhoecus).Apollodorus, 3.9.2Propertius, Elegies 1.1
• Hylaeus, killed by Heracles under unknown circumstances.Virgil, Aeneid 8.294
• Hylaeus, followed Dionysus in his Indian campaign and was killed by Orontes, an Indian General.Nonnus, Dionysiaca 17.200
• Hyles, attended Pirithous' wedding, fought in the battle against the Lapiths and was killed by Peleus.
• Hylonome, attended Pirithous' wedding together with her lover Cyllarus. Having seen the latter dead, she threw herself upon the spear which had killed him.Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.405 ff.
• Imbreus, fought against the Lapiths at Pirithous' wedding and was killed by Dryas.
• Iphinous, fought against the Lapiths at Pirithous' wedding and was killed by Peleus.
• Isoples, killed by Heracles when he tried to steal the wine of Pholus.
• Latreus, fought against the Lapiths at Pirithous' wedding and was killed by Caeneus.Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.463 ff.
• Lycabas, attended Pirithous' wedding, fought against the Lapiths and fled.Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.302
• Lycidas, fought against the Lapiths at Pirithous' wedding and was killed by Dryas.
• Lycopes, fought against the Lapiths at Pirithous' wedding and was killed by Theseus.Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.350
• Lycus, fought against the Lapiths at Pirithous' wedding was killed by Pirithous.Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.332
• Medon, attended Pirithous' wedding, fought against the Lapiths and fled.
• Melanchaetes, killed by Heracles when he tried to steal the wine of Pholus.
• Melaneus, attended Pirithous' wedding, fought against the Lapiths and fled.
• Mermerus, wounded by the Lapiths at Pirithous' wedding and fled.Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.305
• Mimas, attended Pirithous' wedding and fought against the Lapiths.
• Monychus, attended Pirithous' wedding and fought in the battle against the Lapiths. He was conquered by Nestor, mounted on his unwilling back.Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.499 ff.; Valerius Flaccus, 1.146
• Nedymnus, fought against the Lapiths at Pirithous' wedding. Killed by Theseus.
• Nessus, fled during the fight with the Lapiths at Pirithous' wedding. Later he attempted to rape Deianira and before dying gave her a charm which resulted in the death of Heracles. He was killed by the latter.Apollodorus, 2.5.4, 2.7.6; Diodorus Siculus, 4.36.3; Hyginus, Fabulae 31; Sophocles, Trachiniae 500 ff.; Strabo, 10.2.5; Valerius Flaccus, 1.147
• Ophion, father of Amycus.
• Oreius, killed by Heracles when he tried to steal the wine of Pholus.Diodorus Siculus, 4.12.3; Pausanias, 3.18.16
• Orneus, attended Pirithous' wedding fought against the Lapiths and fled.Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.302; Pausanias, 3.18.16
• Perimedes, son of Peuceus and attended Pirithous' wedding and fought against the Lapiths.
• Petraeus, fought against the Lapiths at Pirithous' wedding and was killed by Pirithous.Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.327
• Peuceus, father of Perimedes and Dryalus.
• Phaecomes, fought against the Lapiths at Pirithous' wedding and was killed by Nestor.Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.431 ff.
• Phlegraeus, fought against the Lapiths at Pirithous' wedding and was killed by Peleus.
• Pholus File:Achilleus Lyra.jpg teaching Achilles how to play the lyre, a Roman fresco from Herculaneum, 1st century AD.|305x305px]]
• Phrixus, killed by Heracles when he tried to steal the wine of Pholus.
• Pisenor, attended Pirithous' wedding, fought against the Lapiths and fled.Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.303
• Pylenor, having been wounded by Heracles washed himself in the river Anigrus, thus providing the river with a peculiar odor.Pausanias, 5.5.10
• Pyracmus, fought against the Lapiths at Pirithous' wedding and was killed by Caeneus.
• Pyraethus, fought against the Lapiths at Pirithous' wedding and was killed by Periphas.
• Rhoecus, He also tried to rape Atalanta and was killed by her.
• Rhoetus, fought against the Lapiths at Pirithous' wedding and was killed by Dryas.Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.271 & 12.300; Valerius Flaccus, 3.65
• Ripheus, fought against the Lapiths at Pirithous' wedding and was killed by Theseus.Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.352
• Styphelus, fought against the Lapiths at Pirithous' wedding and was killed by Caeneus.
• Teleboas, fought against the Lapiths at Pirithous' wedding and was killed by Nestor.
• Thaumas, attended Pirithous' wedding, fought against the Lapiths and fled.
• Thereus, this Centaur used to catch bears and carry them home alive and struggling. Attended Pirithous' wedding and fought in the battle against the Lapiths. Killed by Theseus.Ovid, Metamorphoses 353
• Thereus, killed by Heracles when he tried to steal the wine of Pholus.Diodorus Siculus, 4.12.7; Ovid, Metamorphoses 353
• Ureus, attended Pirithous' wedding and fought against the Lapiths.Hesiod, Shield of Heracles 186

File:Boeotian Geometric pottery with Centaur, AM of Thebes, 201171.jpgn pottery from the Geometric period (c. 900–700 BC)]]

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 suggests that such riders would appear as half-man, half-animal. Bernal Díaz del Castillo reported that the Aztecs also had this misapprehension about Spanish cavalrymen.{{Cite book |first=Stuart |last=Chase |title=Mexico: A Study of Two Americas |chapter=Chapter IV: The Six Hundred |access-date=April 24, 2006 |chapter-url=http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper2/chase/ch04.html |via=University of Virginia Hypertexts |archive-date=March 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303210459/http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper2/chase/ch04.html |url-status=dead }} The Lapith tribe of Thessaly, who were the kinsmen of the Centaurs in myth, were described as the inventors of horse-riding by Greek writers. The Thessalian tribes also claimed their horse breeds were descended from the centaurs.

Robert Graves (relying on the work of Georges Dumézil,Dumézil, Le Problème des Centaures (Paris 1929) and Mitra-Varuna: An essay on two Indo-European representations of sovereignty (1948. tr. 1988). who argued for tracing the centaurs back to the Indian Gandharva), speculated that the centaurs were a dimly remembered, pre-Hellenic fraternal earth cult who had the horse as a totem.Graves, The Greek Myths, 1960 § 81.4; § 102 "Centaurs"; § 126.3;. A similar theory was incorporated into Mary Renault's The Bull from the Sea.

{{main|Centaurides}}

File:GiorcesBardo55.jpg (Mosaic from Roman Tunisia, 2nd century AD)]]

Though female centaurs, called centaurides or centauresses, are not mentioned in early Greek literature and art, they do appear occasionally in later antiquity. A Macedonian mosaic of the 4th century BC is one of the earliest examples of the centauress in art.Pella Archaeological Museum Ovid also mentions a centauress named Hylonome{{efn-lr|The name Hylonome is Greek, so Ovid may have drawn her story from an earlier Greek writer.}} who committed suicide when her husband Cyllarus was killed in the war with the Lapiths.Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.210 ff.

The Kalibangan cylinder seal, dated to be around 2600–1900 BC, found at the site of Indus-Valley civilization shows a battle between men in the presence of centaur-like creatures.{{Cite book |last1=Ameri |first1=Marta |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mu9UDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT255 |title=Seals and Sealing in the Ancient World: Case Studies from the Near East, Egypt, the Aegean, and South Asia |last2=Costello |first2=Sarah Kielt |last3=Jamison |first3=Gregg |last4=Scott |first4=Sarah Jarmer |date=2018 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781108168694 |language=en}}{{cite book |title=Art of the first cities : the third millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus. |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |pages=239–246 |url=https://archive.org/details/ArtOfTheFirstCitiesTheThirdMillenniumB.C.FromTheMediterraneanToTheIndusEditedByJ/page/n263 |language=en}} Other sources claim the creatures represented are actually half human and half tigers, later evolving into the Hindu Goddess of War.{{cite book |title=Deciphering the Indus Script| publisher=Cambridge Univ. Press|last=Parpola |first=Asko}}{{cite web |url=https://www.harappa.com/blog/indus-cylinder-seals |title=Indus Cylinder Seals |date=May 4, 2016 |website=Harappa.com |access-date=July 16, 2019 |archive-date=October 23, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201023084326/https://www.harappa.com/blog/indus-cylinder-seals |url-status=live }} These seals are also evidence of Indus-Mesopotamia relations in the 3rd millennium BC.

In a popular legend associated with Pazhaya Sreekanteswaram Temple in Thiruvananthapuram, the curse of a saintly Brahmin transformed a handsome Yadava prince into a creature having a horse's body and the prince's head, arms, and torso in place of the head and neck of the horse.

Kinnaras, another half-man, half-horse mythical creature from Indian mythology, appeared in various ancient texts, arts, and sculptures from all around India. It is shown as a horse with the torso of a man where the horse's head would be, and is similar to a Greek centaur.Devdutt Pattanaik, "Indian mythology : tales, symbols, and rituals from the heart of the Subcontinent" (Rochester, USA 2003) P.74: {{ISBN|0-89281-870-0}}.K. Krishna Murthy, Mythical Animals in Indian Art (New Delhi, India 1985).

A centaur-like half-human, half-equine creature called Polkan appeared in Russian folk art and lubok prints of the 17th–19th centuries. Polkan is originally based on Pulicane, a half-dog from Andrea da Barberino's poem I Reali di Francia, which was once popular in the Slavonic world in prosaic translations.

File:Cantharus Stathatou Louvre CA1987.jpgn kantharos, Late Geometric period]]

The extensive Mycenaean pottery found at Ugarit included two fragmentary Mycenaean terracotta figures which have been tentatively identified as centaurs. This finding suggests a Bronze Age origin for these creatures of myth.Ione Mylonas Shear, "Mycenaean Centaurs at Ugarit" The Journal of Hellenic Studies (2002:147–153); but see the interpretation relating them to "abbreviated group" figures at the Bronze-Age sanctuary of Aphaia and elsewhere, presented by Korinna Pilafidis-Williams, "No Mycenaean Centaurs Yet", The Journal of Hellenic Studies 124 (2004), p. 165, which concludes "we had perhaps do best not to raise hopes of a continuity of images across the divide between the Bronze Age and the historical period." A painted terracotta centaur was found in the "Hero's tomb" at Lefkandi, and by the Geometric period, centaurs figure among the first representational figures painted on Greek pottery. An often-published Geometric period bronze of a warrior face-to-face with a centaur is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.{{cite web |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/17.190.2072 |title=Bronze man and centaur |website=The MET |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=July 16, 2019 |archive-date=November 14, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201114001524/http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/17.190.2072 |url-status=live }}

In Greek art of the Archaic period, centaurs are depicted in three different forms.

• Some centaurs are depicted with a human torso attached to the body of a horse at the withers, where the horse's neck would be; this form, designated "Class A" by Professor Paul Baur, later became standard.
• "Class B" centaurs are depicted with a human body and legs joined at the waist to the hindquarters of a horse; in some cases centaurs of both Class A and Class B appear together.
• A third type, designated "Class C", depicts centaurs with human forelegs terminating in hooves. Baur describes this as an apparent development of Aeolic art, which never became particularly widespread.Paul V. C. Baur, Centaurs in Ancient Art: The Archaic Period, Karl Curtius, Berlin (1912), pp. 5–7.

There are also paintings and motifs on amphoraeMaria Cristina Biella and Enrico Giovanelli, Il bestiario fantastico di età orientalizzante nella penisola italiana (Belfast, ME: Tangram, 2012), 172-78. {{ISBN|9788864580692}}; and J. Michael Padgett and William A. P. Childs, The Centaur's Smile: The Human Animal in Early Greek Art (Princeton University Press, 2003). {{ISBN|9780300101638}} and Dipylon cups{{cite book| author = Martin Nilsson | title = The Mycenaean Origin of Greek Mythology | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=zGvfEAAAQBAJ| publisher = University of California Press | date = 2023 | page = 158 | isbn = 9780520335899}} which depict winged centaurs.

Centaurs were also frequently depicted in Roman art. One example is the pair of centaurs drawing the chariot of Constantine the Great and his family in the Great Cameo of Constantine (circa AD 314–16), which embodies wholly pagan imagery, and contrasts sharply with the popular image of Constantine as the patron of early Christianity.The Great Cameo of Constantine, formerly in the collection of Peter Paul Rubens and now in the Geld en Bankmuseum, Utrecht, is illustrated, for instance, in Paul Stephenson, Constantine, Roman Emperor, Christian Victor, 2010:fig. 53.Iain Ferris, The Arch of Constantine: Inspired by the Divine, Amberley Publishing (2009).

File:Grape harvest Abbatiale Mozac 2007 06 30.jpg in the Auvergne]]

File:P. 26 'The Zodiac Man' a diagram of a human body and astrological symbols with instructions explaining the importance of astrology from a medical perspective.jpg explaining the importance of astrology from a medical perspective; a centaur is depicted around the thighs as Sagittarius below Scorpio [genitalia] and above Capricorn [knees].]]

Centaurs preserved a Dionysian connection in the 12th-century Romanesque carved capitals of Mozac Abbey in the Auvergne. Other similar capitals depict harvesters, boys riding goats (a further Dionysiac theme), and griffins guarding the chalice that held the wine. Centaurs are also shown on a number of Pictish carved stones from north-east Scotland erected in the 8th–9th centuries AD (e.g., at Meigle, Perthshire). Though outside the limits of the Roman Empire, these depictions appear to be derived from Classical prototypes.

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 sculptor Bill Willers by combining a study human skeleton with the skeleton of a Shetland pony, is entitled "Do you believe in Centaurs?". According to the exhibitors, it was meant to mislead students in order to make them more critically aware.{{cite news|url=http://notes.utk.edu/bio/unistudy.nsf/0/22d591ecc61a2cca85256efd00631d45?OpenDocument |volume=97 |issue=8 |date=August 26, 2004 |title=Library hails centaur's 10th anniversary |newspaper=The Daily Beacon|first=Maggie |last=Anderson |access-date=September 21, 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070920205755/http://notes.utk.edu/bio/unistudy.nsf/0/22d591ecc61a2cca85256efd00631d45?OpenDocument |archive-date=September 20, 2007 }}

Depictions of centaurs in a mythical land located south beyond the world's known continents appear on a map by Urbano Monti from 1587, sometimes called Monti's Planisphere.[https://www.davidrumsey.com/blog/2017/11/26/largest-early-world-map-monte-s-10-ft-planisphere-of-1587 Largest Early World Map - Monte's 10 ft. Planisphere of 1587] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200407141406/https://www.davidrumsey.com/blog/2017/11/26/largest-early-world-map-monte-s-10-ft-planisphere-of-1587 |date=April 7, 2020 }}. David Rumsey Map Collection. November 26, 2017. [https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~303613~90074267:Tavola-LV---Che-Ha-Sua-Superiore-La?qvq=q%3Apub_list_no%3D%2210130.000%22%3Bsort%3APub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No%3Blc%3ARUMSEY%7E8%7E1&sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No&mi=60&trs=94 Close-up of 1st image] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240522035452/https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~303613~90074267:Tavola-LV---Che-Ha-Sua-Superiore-La?qvq=q:pub_list_no%3D%2210130.000%22%3Bsort:Pub_List_No_InitialSort,Pub_Date,Pub_List_No,Series_No%3Blc:RUMSEY~8~1&sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort,Pub_Date,Pub_List_No,Series_No&mi=60&trs=94 |date=May 22, 2024 }}, [https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~303604~90074221:Tavola-XXXXVI--Che-Ha-Sua-Superiore?qvq=q%3Apub_list_no%3D%2210130.000%22%3Bsort%3Apub_list_no%2Cseries_no%3Blc%3ARUMSEY%7E8%7E1&sort=pub_list_no%2Cseries_no&mi=48&trs=94 Close-up of 2nd image] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240522035446/https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~303604~90074221:Tavola-XXXXVI--Che-Ha-Sua-Superiore?qvq=q:pub_list_no%3D%2210130.000%22%3Bsort:pub_list_no,series_no%3Blc:RUMSEY~8~1&sort=pub_list_no,series_no&mi=48&trs=94 |date=May 22, 2024 }}.

Centaurs are common in European heraldry, although more frequent in continental than in British arms. A centaur holding a bow is referred to as a sagittarius.Arthur Fox-Davies, [https://archive.org/details/completeguidetoh00foxduoft A Complete Guide to Heraldry], T.C. and E.C. Jack, London, 1909, p 228.

Jerome's version of the Life of St Anthony the Great, written by Athanasius of Alexandria about the hermit monk of Egypt, was widely disseminated in the Middle Ages; it relates Anthony's encounter with a centaur who challenged the saint, but was forced to admit that the old gods had been overthrown. The episode was often depicted in The Meeting of St Anthony Abbot and St Paul the Hermit by the painter Stefano di Giovanni, who was known as "Sassetta".National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC: [http://www.wga.hu/support/viewer/z.html illustration] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210109131636/https://www.wga.hu/support/viewer/z.html |date=January 9, 2021 }}. Of the two episodic depictions of the hermit Anthony's travel to greet the hermit Paul, one is his encounter with the demonic figure of a centaur along the pathway in a wood.

Lucretius, in his first-century BC philosophical poem On the Nature of Things, denied the existence of centaurs, based on the differing rates of growth of human and equine anatomies. Specifically, he states that at the age of three years, horses are in the prime of their life while humans at the same age are still little more than babies, making hybrid animals impossible.Lucretius, On the Nature of Things, book V, translated by William Ellery Leonard, 1916 ([https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Lucr.+5.878 The Perseus Project].) Retrieved July 27, 2008.

Centaurs are among the creatures which 14th-century Italian poet Dante placed as guardians in his Inferno. In Canto XII, Dante and his guide Virgil meet a band led by Chiron and Pholus, guarding the bank of Phlegethon in the seventh circle of Hell, a river of boiling blood in which the violent against their neighbours are immersed, shooting arrows into any who move to a shallower spot than their allotted station. The two poets are treated with courtesy, and Nessus guides them to a ford.{{cite book |author=Dante |title=Inferno |at=12.55-139}} In Canto XXIV, in the eighth circle, in Bolgia 7, a ditch where thieves are confined, they meet but do not converse with Cacus (who is a giant in the ancient sources), wreathed in serpents and with a fire-breathing dragon on his shoulders, arriving to punish a sinner who has just cursed God.{{cite book |author=Dante |title=Inferno |at=25.17–33}} In his Purgatorio, an unseen spirit on the sixth terrace cites the centaurs ("the drunken double-breasted ones who fought Theseus") as examples of the sin of gluttony.{{cite book |author=Dante |title=Purgatorio |at=24.121–123}}

File:Cup with musician Centaur (Byzantine, 12-13th c, Kremlin) 03 by shakko, levels, cropped for centaur.jpg-playing musician. Collection of the Kremlin.]]

{{Main|Centaurs in popular culture}}

C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia series portrays centaurs as wise and courageous creatures, who are gifted in fields such as astronomy and medicine.Kaleta, p. 77. John Updike's 1963 novel The Centaur contains numerous references to mythological centaurs.Leuker, "B.3. Early modern period", para. 9. The author depicts a rural Pennsylvanian town as seen through the optics of the myth of the centaur. An unknown and marginalized local school teacher, just like the mythological Chiron did for Prometheus, gave up his life for the future of his son who had chosen to be an independent artist in New York.

In J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, centaurs inhabit the Forbidden Forest near Hogwarts, and are talented archers and healers; they are also known to their proficiency in astrology.Kaleta, p. 77. The centaurs in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson & the Olympians are portrayed as wild party-goers, with the exception of Chiron, who serves as the main director of activities at the series' demigod training facility.Kaleta, p. 77.

File:Centaur lekythos Met 51.163.jpg|Diosphos Painter, white-ground lekythos (500 BC)

File:Sandro Botticelli 063.jpg|Botticelli, Pallas and Centaur (1482–83)

File:Canova - Theseus defeats the centaur - close.jpg|Antonio Canova, Theseus Defeats the Centaur (1805–1819)

File:Bova1860.jpg|Prince Bova fights Polkan, Russian lubok (1860)

File:Centaur nymph Marqueste Tuileries.jpg|Centaur carrying off a nymph (1892) by Laurent Marqueste (Tuileries Garden, Paris)

File:Brooklyn Museum - Centauress - John La Farge - overall.jpg|Centauress, by John La Farge

File:Centaure Malmaison crop.jpg|A bronze statue of a centaur, after the Furietti Centaurs

File:Augustin Courtet, Centauress and Faun. 1849. Bronze. Lyon, Parc de la Tête d’or. Photo, Jamie Mulherron.jpg|Augustin Courtet, Centauress and Faun (1849), Lyon, Parc de la Tête d’or

{{Portal|Ancient Greece|Myths}}Other hybrid creatures appear in Greek mythology, always with some liminal connection that links Hellenic culture with archaic or non-Hellenic cultures:

• Furietti Centaurs
• Hippocamp
• Hybrid (mythology)
• Ipotane - Another half-human half-horse creature.
• Legendary creature
• Lists of legendary creatures
• Minotaur
• Onocentaur - A type of centaur that is part-donkey.
• Ichthyocentaur - A type of aquatic centaur with a fish tail instead of hindquarters.
• Sagittarius
• Sagittarius (constellation)
• Satyr

Also,

• Hindu Kamadhenu
• Indian Kinnara which are half-horse and half-man creatures.
• Islamic Buraq, a heavenly steed often portrayed as an equine being with a human face.
• Philippine Tikbalang
• Roman Faun, and the Hippopodes of Pomponius Mela, Pliny the Elder, and later authors.
• Scottish Each uisge and Nuckelavee
• Welsh Ceffyl Dŵr

Additionally, Bucentaur, the name of several historically important Venetian vessels, was linked to a posited ox-centaur or βουκένταυρος (boukentauros) by fanciful and likely spurious folk-etymology.

{{notelist-lr}}

{{reflist|30em}}

• Apollodorus, The Library with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. ISBN 0-674-99135-4. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0022 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.] [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0021 Greek text available from the same website].
• Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History translated by Charles Henry Oldfather. Twelve volumes. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989. Vol. 3. Books 4.59–8. [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/home.html Online version at Bill Thayer's Web Site]
• Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica. Vol 1-2. Immanel Bekker. Ludwig Dindorf. Friedrich Vogel. in aedibus B. G. Teubneri. Leipzig. 1888–1890. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0540 Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library].
• Gaius Julius Hyginus, Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. [https://topostext.org/work/206 Online version at the Topos Text Project.]
• Gaius Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica translated by Mozley, J H. Loeb Classical Library Volume 286. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1928. [http://www.theoi.com/Text/ValeriusFlaccus1.html Online version at theio.com.]
• Gaius Valerius Flaccus, Argonauticon. Otto Kramer. Leipzig. Teubner. 1913. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2007.01.0058 Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library.]
• Hesiod, Shield of Heracles from The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA.,Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0132 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.] [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0127 Greek text available from the same website].
• Homer, The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919. {{ISBN|978-0674995611|}}. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0136 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.] [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0135 Greek text available from the same website].
• Kaleta, Marcin Konrad, "Centaurs", in The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters, pp. 75–77, edited by Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock, Farnham and Burlington, Ashgate, 1988. {{ISBN|9781409425625}}. {{doi|10.4324/9781315612690}}.
• Leuker, Tobias, "Centaurs", in Brill's New Pauly – Supplements. Volume 4: The Reception of Myth and Mythology, edited by Maria Moog-Grünewald, Brill, 2010. {{ISBN|978-90-04-18330-8}}.
• Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus, Lives with an English Translation by Bernadotte Perrin. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. 1. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0067 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.] [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0075 Greek text available from the same website].
• Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca translated by William Henry Denham Rouse (1863–1950), from the Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1940. [https://topostext.org/work/529 Online version at the Topos Text Project.]
• Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca. 3 Vols. W.H.D. Rouse. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1940–1942. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0485 Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library].
• Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. {{ISBN|0-674-99328-4}}. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0160 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library]
• Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0159 Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library].
• Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses translated by Brookes More (1859–1942). Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0028 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.]
• Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses. Hugo Magnus. Gotha (Germany). Friedr. Andr. Perthes. 1892. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0029 Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library].
• Publius Vergilius Maro, Aeneid. Theodore C. Williams. trans. Boston. Houghton Mifflin Co. 1910. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0054%3Abook%3D1%3Acard%3D1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.]
• Publius Vergilius Maro, Bucolics, Aeneid, and Georgics. J. B. Greenough. Boston. Ginn & Co. 1900. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0055 Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library].
• Sextus Propertius, Elegies from Charm. Vincent Katz. trans. Los Angeles. Sun & Moon Press. 1995. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0067 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.] [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0066 Latin text available at the same website].

• M. Grant and J. Hazel. Who's Who in Greek Mythology. David McKay & Co Inc, 1979.
• {{cite book

| last = Rose

| first = Carol

| title = Giants, Monsters, and Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth

| publisher =W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

| year = 2001

| location = New York City

| page = 72

| isbn = 0-393-32211-4 }}

• Homer's Odyssey, Book 21, 295ff
• Harry Potter, books 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.
• The Chronicles of Narnia, book 2.
• Percy Jackson & the Olympians, book 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
• Frédérick S. Parker. Finding the Kingdom of the Centaurs.

{{Commons category|Centaurs}}

• [http://www.theoi.com/Georgikos/KentauroiThessalioi.html Theoi Project on Centaurs] in literature
• [http://theoi.com/Georgikos/Kentaurides.html Centaurides] on female centaurs
• [http://www.mythweb.com/encyc/entries/centaurs.html MythWeb] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090221081734/http://www.mythweb.com/encyc/entries/centaurs.html |date=February 21, 2009 }} article on centaurs
• [http://www.hp-lexicon.org/bestiary/bestiary_c.html#centaurs Harry Potter Lexicon] article on centaurs in the Harry Potter universe
• [http://www.erich-kissing.de/kentaure.htm Erich Kissing's centaurs] contemporary art
• [https://iconographic.warburg.sas.ac.uk/category/vpc-taxonomy-000257 The Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (images of centaurs)]

{{Greek religion|state=collapsed}}

{{Horse topics}}

Category:Greek legendary creatures

Category:Legendary creatures in Roman mythology

Category:Horses in mythology

Category:Mythological human–animal hybrids