Centaur

See also centaur (planetoid), Centaur (rocket stage)

In Greek mythology, the centaurs are a race part human and part horse, with a horse's body and a human head and torso. A centaur is the first reaction of a non-riding culture, as in the Minoan Aegean world, to nomads mounted on horses, who appear half-man, half-animal. Horse taming and horseback culture evolved first in the southern steppe grasslands of Central Asia, perhaps approximately in modern Kazakhstan.

Dwelling in the mountains of Thessaly and Arcadia, in the north of Greece, the centaurs were the offspring of Ixion and Nephele, the rain-cloud. Alternatively, the centaurs were the offspring of Kentauros (the son of Ixion and Nephele) and some Magnesian mares or of Apollo and Hebe. It was sometimes said that Ixion planned to have sex with Hera but Zeus prevented it by fashioning a cloud in the shape of Hera. Since Ixion is usually considered the ancestor of the centaurs, they are often referred to as the Ixionidae.

Centaurs are best known for their fight with the Lapithae, caused by their attempt to carry off Hippodamia on the day of her marriage to Peirithous, king of the Lapithae, himself the son of Ixion. (illustration, right). Theseus, who happened to be present, assisted Pirithous, and the Centaurs were driven off (Plutarch, Theseus, 30; Ovid, Metamorphoses xii. 210; Diodorus Siculus. iv. 69, 70). Vignettes of the battle between Lapiths and Centaurs were sculpted in bas-relief on the frieze of the Parthenon.

Their general character is that of wild, lawless and inhospitable beings, the slaves of their animal passions. Two exceptions to this rule were Pholus and Chiron, who were wise and kind centaurs. They are variously explained by a fancied resemblance to the shapes of clouds, or as spirits of the rushing mountain torrents or winds. As children of Apollo, they are taken to signify the rays of the Sun.

Among the centaurs, the third one with an individual identity is Nessus (illustration, above). The mythological episode of the centaur Nessus carrying off Deianira, the bride of Heracles, also provided Giambologna (1529-1608), a Flemish sculptor whose career was spent in Italy, splendid opportunities to devise compositions with two forms in violent interaction. He made several versions of Nessus carrying off Deianira, represented by examples in the Louvre, the Grunes Gewolbe, Dresden, the [[Frick Collection, New York and the [[Huntington Library, San Marino, California. His followers, like Adriaen de Vries and Pietro Tacca, continued to make countless repetitions of the subject. When Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse tackled the same play of forms in the 19th century, (illustration left) he titled it Abduction of Hippodameia .

Like the Titanomachy, the defeat of the Titans by the Olympian gods headed by Zeus, the contests with the Centaurs typify the struggle between civilization and barbarism.

In early Attic vase-paintings centaurs were represented as human beings in front, with the body and hind legs of a horse attached to the back; later, they were men only as far as the waist. The battle with the Lapithae, and the adventure of Heracles with Pholus (Apollodorus, ii. 5; Diod. Sic. iv. li) are favourite subjects of Greek art (see Sidney Colvin, Journal of Hellenic Studies, i. 1881, and the exhaustive article in Roscher's Lexikon der Mythologie).

Other hybrid creatures appear in Greek mythology, always with some liminal connection that links Hellenic culture with archaic or non-Hellenic cultures: Typhoon, the Minotaur, mermaids and satyrs, or the Sphinx.

Not comprehending the etymology of the "-taur" element of "Centaur", a general 'taur' form in modern science fiction and fantasy literature is a six-limbed being, using four for locomotion and two for manipulation. They are based upon many different animals, not just horses and humans. In many, the 'human' part is in fact an anthropomorph of the base animal, such as in the wemic and bariaur.

In furry fiction and art, there are creatures imagined called such as wolftaurs and foxtaurs. These creatures are typically depicted as having large the normal body structure of the regular animal, but also have a upper body portion attached at the front that is humanoid in basic structure outside the head.