Centaurī

, a people of The aly, half men and half horses. They were the offspring of Centaur us son of Apollo, by Stilbia daughter of the Peneus. According to some, the Centaurs were the fruit of Ixion’s adventure with the cloud in the shape of Juno, or, as others a ert, of the union of Centaur us with the mares of Magnesia. This fable of the existence of the Centaurs, monsters supported upon the four legs of a horse, arises from the ancient people of The aly having tamed horses, and having appeared to their neighbours mounted on horseback, a sight very uncommon at that time, and which, when at a distance, seems only one body, and consequently one creature. Some derive the name ἀπο του κεντειν ταυρους , goading bulls , because they went on horseback after their bulls which had strayed, or because they hunted wild bulls with horses. Some of the ancients have maintained that monsters like the Centaurs can have existed in the natural course of things. Plutarch, Convivium Septem Sapientium mentions one seen by Per i an der tyrant of Corinth; and Pliny, bk. 7 , ch. 3 , says that he saw one embalmed in honey, which had been brought to Rome from Egypt in the reign of Claudius. The battle of the Centaurs with the Lapithæ is famous in history. Ovid has elegantly described it, and it has also employed the pen of ♦ Hesiod, Valerius Flaccus, . ; and Pausanias in Elis says it was represented in the temple of Jupiter at Olympia, and also at Athens by Phidias and Parr has i us, according to Pliny, bk. 36 , ch. 5 . The origin of the battle was a quarrel at the marriage of Hippo dam i a with Pirithous, where the Centaurs, intoxicated with wine, behaved with rudene , and even offered violence to the women that were present. Such an insult irritated Hercules, These us, and the rest of the Lapithæ, who defended the women, wounded and defeated the Centaurs, and obliged them to leave their country, and retire to Arcadia. Here their insolence was a second time punished by Hercules, who, when he was going to hunt the boar of Erymanthus, was kindly entertained by the Centaur Pholus, who gave him wine which belonged to the rest of the Centaurs, but had been given them on condition of their treating Hercules with it whenever he pa ed through their territory. They resented the liberty which Hercules took with their wine, and attacked him with uncommon fury. The hero defended himself with his arrows, and defeated his adversaries, who fled for safety to the Centaur Chiron. Chiron had been the preceptor of Hercules, and therefore they hoped that he would desist in his presence. Hercules, though awed at the sight of Chiron, did not desist, but in the midst of the engagement, he wounded his preceptor in the knee, who, in the exce ive pain he suffered, exchanged immortality for death. The death of Chiron irritated Hercules the more, and the Centaurs that were present were all extirpated by his hand, and indeed few escaped the common destruction. The most celebrated of the Centaurs were Chiron, Eurytus, Amycus, Gryneus, Caumas, Lycidas, Arneus, Medon, Rhœtus, Pisenor, Mermeros, Pholus, . Diodorus , bk. 4 .— Tzetzes , Hist or i arum variarum Chili a des , bk. 9 , ch. 237 .— Hesiod , Shield of Heracles .— Homer , Iliad & Ody ey .— Ovid , Metamorphoses , bk. 12 .— Strabo , bk. 9 .— Pausanias , bk. 5 , ch. 10 , . — Ælian , Varia Hist or i a , bk. 11 , ch. 2 .— Apollo dor us , bk. 2 , ch. 3 ; bk. 5 .— Virgil , Æneid , bk. 6 , li. 286 .— Hyginus , fables 33 & 62.— Pindar , Pythian , li. 2. ♦ ‘Hesoid’ replaced with ‘Hesiod’