"These
monsters were represented as men from the head to the loins, while the rest
of the body was that of a horse. The ancients were too fond of a horse to
consider the union of his nature with man's as forming a very degraded
compound, and accordingly the Centaur is the only one of the fancied
monsters of antiquity to which any good traits are assigned. The Centaurs
were admitted to the companionship of man, and at the marriage of Pirithous
with Hippodamia they were among the guests. At the feast of 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. This is the
celebrated battle of the Lapiths and the Centaurs, a favorite subject with
the sculptors and poets of antiquity.
But not all the Centaurs were like the rude guests of Pirithous. Chiron was
instructed by Apollo
and Artemis, and was
renowned for his skill in hunting, medicine, music, and the art of prophecy.
The most distinguished heroes of Greek history were his pupils. Among the
rest the infant Asklepios was intrusted to his charge by Apollo, his father.
When the sage returned to his home bearing the infant, his daughter Ocyroe
came forth to meet him, and at sight of the child burst forth into a
prophetic strain (for she was a prophetess), foretelling the glory that he
was to achieve. Asklepios when grown up became a renowned physician, and
even in one instance succeeded in restoring the dead to life. Hades resented
this, and Zeus, at his
request, struck the bold physician with lightening, and killed him, but
after his death received him into the number of the gods. Chiron was the
wisest and most just of all the Centaurs, and at his death Zeus placed him
among the stars as the constellation
Sagittarius."
- from Bulfinch's Mythology
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