The earliest depictions of centaurs. centaurs

The main goal of most centaurs is to live in harmony with their forest home. They are uneducated, but few know more about forest paths than they do. They care much more about the wild places they live in than about what someone might someday write in some old book.

From their chest to the back of their rump, fully grown centaurs are six to eight feet in size. From their front hooves to the top of their head, they are seven to eight feet tall. Centaurs weigh anywhere from 950 to 1200 pounds.

Centaurs see themselves as noble guardians of the forest. They are the royalty of the forest. Because of this, they worry about protecting their homes and feel responsible for protecting the creatures they share these places with.

Male centaurs spend nearly all of their waking hours hunting or patrolling their lands, keeping a sharp eye out for any outsiders that might invade their territory and wreak havoc on the forest. If centaurs believe their "guests" are acting out of sheer ignorance or negligence, they warn strangers to change their ways. But if the centaurs see humans acting maliciously against their people or forest, the noble creatures attack without warning and without mercy.

Centaurs are faithful in life. Once they swear to each other, they are always loyal, even if one of the couple dies. Divorce is unknown among this people.

Young centaurs are encouraged to play freely, and they mostly do so by running through the wild forests that constitute their home. As centaurs grow up, they are gradually assigned more and more tribal responsibilities. When the centaur reaches the age of five, he officially becomes an adult, and the tribe holds a big celebration. Centaurs gather from the neighborhood for miles around to eat, drink and run.

As centaurs get older, they begin to slow down. Ultimately, when it is their turn to die, they retreat into the forest and die peacefully and secretly, leaving their bodies to the creatures of the forest, just as they have used many such creatures during their lives.

Outside of the tribe, most centaurs work alone, confident in their ability to handle most situations. They are often happy to team up with an adventurer band, especially if it has any elves in it. They know they are unsophisticated in the ways of civilization and are always happy to have a helping hand in such situations.

Ancient Greek mythology is filled with amazing creatures, the history of which is mysterious and very interesting. Centaurs in the view of the ancient Greeks were wild, mortal creatures, they were a hybrid of a man and a horse. It is believed that initially the centaurs were considered the embodiment of mountain rivers and turbulent streams. The attitude of centaurs in myths to ancient heroes varies, from a mentoring attitude to open hostility.

The very name "centaur", like many other Greek words, consists of two roots: "Kent"- prick and "taurus"- bull. Scientists interpret the word formation "centaur" as a bull hunter, bull driver. Some researchers suggest that the image of the centaur among the Greeks developed after their first acquaintance with nomadic tribes (Taurians, Kassites, Turks). This can also explain the hot, ferocious disposition of the centaurs, and the connection of the mythical creature with the bulls, since the basis of the economy of the nomadic tribes was cattle breeding.

If the very image of centaurs can be associated with the surprise of the Greeks from meeting with horse riders, then the Greeks themselves invented their mythological origin. There are several versions of where the half-humans-half-horses came from. According to one version, the god Apollo made acquaintance with the beautiful nymph Stilba. They had two sons: Centaur and Lapith. Lapith was a giant or half-tree, but the Centaur also came out distorted - with a human head and torso and with a horse's body and legs. Both had abundant offspring, which, for some unknown reason, began to mortally feud.

According to another legend, the Centaur was the son of Ixion, the son of Ares, the god of war. Ixion ended up on Olympus thanks to the pity of Zeus, where he fell in love with Hera. Despite the angry nature of Zeus, the supreme god did not get angry, but created a copy of Hera from the cloud, calling her Nephele. It was in the marriage of Ixion and Nephele that the Centaur appeared.

In ancient times, centaurs were familiar creatures that lived throughout Greece. Later, the habitat of centaurs was greatly reduced, it was believed that they were preserved only in the Greek mountains of northern Thessaly and Epirus. Some of the latest information about centaurs dates back to the 9th century AD, but the mythical creatures did not disappear, but simply learned to hide well. The mortal centaurs had one big common drawback - they were not allowed to drink alcoholic beverages. In the hops, the half-man-half-horse became uncontrollable, violent and ferocious. At the same time, they were considered honest and straightforward, although there were also insidious individuals.

The centaurs were very good in military affairs, they were excellent physical force, speed, mobility, were masters of the bow and spear. They used only shields as protection, and only cloaks were recognized as clothing. In the view of the ancient Greeks, centaurs were considered furious creatures, typical barbarians, but in modern fantasy they are presented in a completely different way: wise, philosophers, astrologers, healers. The centaurs owe their good nature and scholarship to Chiron - "not a real centaur." Chiron was the son of Kron himself, that is, he was the half-brother of the supreme Olympic gods. He looked like other centaurs, but was immortal. Chiron chose Mount Pelion as his permanent home, and did not tolerate intruders. But he was happy to pass on his knowledge to those who wanted to learn. According to legend, the lists of his students included Orpheus, Jason, Hercules, Asclepius and other equally prominent Hellenes. Today you can easily get acquainted with the culture Ancient Greece, see with your own eyes the heritage of the Hellenes.

There are many variations of its appearance. The centaur could also be winged. In all these cases, he remained a man-horse.
The image of the centaur, apparently, arose in Babylon in the 2nd millennium BC. e. Kassite nomads who came to Mesopotamia from Iran around 1750 BC. e., waged a fierce struggle with Egypt and Assyria for dominion in the Middle East. Along the borders of their empire, the Kassites erected huge stone statues of guardian gods, among them centaurs. One of them depicted a winged creature with a horse's body, two faces - a human, looking forward, and a dragon, looking back, and two tails (horse and scorpion); in the hands - a bow with a stretched bowstring. Another well-known monument is a sculpture of a classical centaur without wings, with one head and one tail, ready to shoot at the enemy with his bow. Of course, the fact that the Kassites depicted the centaur in their sculptures does not mean at all that they invented it, but since the Kassite empire ceased to exist by the middle of the 12th century BC. e., it can be rightly asserted that the history of the centaur has more than three thousand years.
The appearance of the image of a centaur suggests that already during the time of the Kassites, the horse played an important role in human life. The oldest mention of a horse - "donkey from the west" or "mountain donkey" - we find on a Babylonian clay tablet dating back to 2100 BC. e. Centuries passed before the horse became the companion of man in the Middle East. Perhaps the ancient farmers perceived horse riders as an integral being, but the inhabitants of the Mediterranean, prone to inventing "composite" creatures, having invented the centaur, thus reflected the spread of the horse.

Centaurs are possible mutants of the ancient world.

Probably the Kassites, who had extensive trade relations, brought the centaur to the Mycenaean civilization, which also disappeared by the middle of the 12th century BC. e. From Crete he came to Ancient Greece. Depiction of Theseus' battle with a centaur on an amphora of the 8th century BC. e. indicates that by this time the Greeks had already managed to develop a mythology that absorbed the Mycenaean heroes.

Centaurs in Greek mythology had horse ears, rough and bearded faces. As a rule, they were naked and armed with a club, a stone or a bow.
According to the poem "Pythians" by Pindar, the 5th century BC. , the centaurs were considered descendants - direct or through their common ancestor Centaur - the Thessalian king of the Lapith tribe of the titan Ixion, the son of the god Ares, and the clouds, which, by the will of the god Zeus, took the form of the goddess Hera, whom Ixion and the titanides of the Nephele clouds encroached on.
According to the Thessalian legends as presented by Lucan (1st century AD), Nephele gave birth to centaurs at the foot of Mount Olympus in the Pelephronian cave. Diodorus Siculus (I century BC) cites in the Historical Library the views that existed in his time that the centaurs were raised on the Pelion peninsula by nymphs and, having matured, entered into a relationship with the Magnesian mares, from which two-natural centaurs or hippocentaurs. According to another myth, a descendant of Apollo, the Centaur, entered into a relationship with the Magnesian mares.

Fight of a centaur with a lapith, a metope from the Parthenon stolen by the British.

Pliny (c. 23–79 AD) wrote in his Natural History that he saw a hippocentaur preserved in honey and sent from Egypt as a gift to the emperor.
“Caesar Claudius, brother of Caligula, writes that a hippocentaur was born in Thessaly and died on the same day, and during the reign of this emperor we saw a similar creature brought in honey from Egypt.”


The Odyssey describes the story of how the centaur Eurytion, invited to the wedding of the Greek Peyritoon from the Lapith tribe, got drunk with wine and tried to dishonor the bride. As punishment, they cut off his ears and nose and threw him out. The centaur called his brethren to revenge, and after some time a battle took place in which the centaurs were defeated.

The Greeks, who bred and loved horses, were well acquainted with their temper. It is no coincidence that it was the nature of the horse that they associated with the unpredictable manifestations of violence in this, by and large positive creature. The Greek centaur is practically a man, but his behavior changes dramatically under the influence of wine. Homer writes: “It is wine that is responsible for the atrocities that the famous centaur Eurytion perpetrated in the palace of the generous Peyritoon in Lapith. His mind went wild with intoxication. And in his rage he did many troubles in the house of Peyritoon. Since then, the enmity between humans and centaurs has continued. And he was the first to feel the evil of drunkenness."
The centaur was a popular subject in vase painting. Its artistic embodiment depended on which centaur was depicted on the vase. The two most "civilized" centaurs - Chiron and Folos - were usually depicted with human legs, while the entire back of their bodies remained horse-like. Chiron, almost always dressed, could have had human ears. Pholos, on the contrary, most often appears naked and always with horse ears.

Chiron is the educator of the most famous heroes of Hellas.

The centaur, as a rule, was depicted naked, with male or horse genitals at the same time and without fail with a beard. The image of a centaur, of course, was not common to all of Greece: in its continental part, centaurs were depicted with disheveled long hair, and in Ionia and Italy - with short ones. These creatures did not necessarily carry a bow - more often a log or cobblestone. The depiction of the death of Caineus at the Battle of Lapith can be called a classic: the centaurs bury the dying hero under a mountain of logs and stones.

Centaurs lived in the mountains of Thessaly until the day when they were defeated by the Lapiths and Hercules scattered them throughout Hellas. Most of the centaurs, according to the tragedy of Euripides "Hercules" (416 BC) were killed by Hercules. Those who escaped from him listened to the sirens, stopped eating, and died of hunger. The centaur Nessus, according to Sophocles, played a fatal role in the death of Hercules. He tried to kidnap Hercules' wife Dejanira, but was struck down by an arrow with the poison of the Lernaean Hydra. Dying, Ness decided to take revenge on Hercules, advising Dejanira to collect his blood, as she supposedly would help her keep Hercules' love. Dejanira soaked the clothes of Hercules with the poisonous blood of Nessus, and he died in terrible agony.

Along with male centaurs in Greek lore sometimes centauris were described. Their image is quite rare in myths and paintings, and even then, they are more often characterized as nymphs. The few authors who mention the existence of centauris described them as being beautiful physically and spiritually. The most famous centauri was Gilonoma, the wife of the centaur Killar.
The debate about the origin of the word "centaur" has never subsided. It could come from the ancient Greek "kenteo" - "to hunt, pursue" and "tavros" - "bull".
Most likely, the meaning of the word centaur - bull driver - is a sort of cowboy of antiquity.

The fixation of the centaur as one of the zodiac symbols played a role in the fact that the memory of him was preserved in the Middle Ages. In bestiaries, the image of the onocentaur, the donkey-man, was unambiguously associated with the devil. The medieval centaur was always depicted wearing a tunic or cloak and certainly holding a combat bow in his hands. This can be seen on the coat of arms of the English King Stephen I. There are also images of a centaur with human hands, awkwardly standing on the only hind horse legs.
In Dante's "Divine Comedy" we meet Chiron, Nessos and Tholos in the seventh circle of hell, where they dump the souls of rapists into the river from the boiling blood.
In Shakespeare's centaur, the Greek image of this creature is revived - a threat to public order.
In the 19th century, the image of the centaur attracted even greater interest in literature and art. Goethe made Chiron one of the central figures in the description of Walpurgis Night in Faust.

modern fantasy

The centaur was depicted on their canvases and in the occultures of Botticelli, Pisanello, Michelangelo, Rubens, Beckling, Rodin, Picasso and many others. He is the subject of many literary works and scientific papers. In the 19th century, the centaur also did not remain forgotten.

photo joke

The centaur is an unusual, paradoxical creature, an unsolved mystery of nature. Precisely nature - now we can assert this with absolute accuracy. For a long time, scientists did not have more or less reliable evidence of the reality of the existence of the centaur. It was mistakenly believed that this is a purely mythological character, which does not exist in nature, and never existed.
Then it is strange that a fictional creature was so often mentioned in various literary sources, and depicted by sculptors and painters.

Recently, supporters of the version of the reality of the centaurs received irrefutable evidence of their correctness. Archaeological excavations near El Ayum (Western Sahara) dispelled secrets and speculation - more than a dozen skeletons of centaurs were found there, many of which are quite well preserved. Professor of the California Institute of Natural Sciences J.R.R. Epstein, using the method of Professor Gerasimov, restored appearance centaur.

The dimensions of the centaur are by no means gigantic: at the withers - about a meter, from the front hooves to the top of the head - about eighty meters. The volume of the brain is somewhat smaller than that of humans, but larger than that of chimpanzees and gorillas. Of great interest to researchers was the question of how the internal organs in two cavities. It turned out that the entire upper-anterior (humanoid) part was filled with respiratory organs. Powerful lungs with large bronchi made the centaurs unusually hardy, in addition, obviously, the centaurs were very loud, and therefore deaf. In the lower back part, immediately behind the middle girdle of the limbs, guarded by the collarbones and shoulder blades, there was a huge heart. Behind the heart is a voluminous stomach and a long intestine, which indicates that the centaurs ate mainly grass. On the sides, near the ribs, the centaurs had air bubbles similar to those of birds. During inhalation, they were filled with air, so that later, during exhalation, fill the lungs with this air. Thus, centaurs were the only mammals with double breathing.
Classifying the centaur proved extremely difficult. Most likely, this is a special class of six-legged vertebrates such as dead-ended chordates. The prehistoric ancestors of the centaurs obviously lived in the forests, moved on all six limbs and were much slower. The protocentaurs (Protocentaurus vulgaris) looked different: the limbs were short and awkward, the front part did not at all resemble a human one. They lived in dens and were omnivores. However, with climate change, protocentaurs became steppe animals, which required them to move faster. At the same time, the front part of the body came off the ground and became lighter, while the back, on the contrary, became more massive, the middle and hind limbs noticeably stretched out. Further, in the process of evolution, the back of the body more and more resembled a horse, since the living conditions and lifestyle of the centaurs were exactly the same as those of wild horses. The front part, lightened and becoming vertical, freed up for useful work, the forelimbs gradually began to resemble human hands. Labor made a protocentaur - a real centaur.

It remains a mystery whether the centaurs were sentient. Mythology says "Yes", but science does not have reliable data on this. Unfortunately, the riddle is unsolvable, since all centaurs have already become extinct. It can be assumed that people are to blame for this. Many literary sources - for example, the myth of Lapith - tell of the enmity of people and centaurs. Obviously, bulky and clumsy, centaurs could not stand the competition with dexterous and mobile people. Presumably, already in the first millennium BC, centaurs were completely ousted from the territory of Ancient Greece and from Europe in general. They also left Asia and were driven into the sands of the Sahara, however, decreasing groups of centaurs could exist until the first centuries of our era.

For lovers - a ram with a human head and a giant horse.