Centaur: Difference between revisions
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In [[C. S. Lewis]]'s ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]'', centaurs are noble, loyal, and brave. Oreius (Aslan's general) and his tribe of centaurs help [[Aslan]]'s army fight against the [[White Witch]], in "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," but they gain a more prominent role in the second book, "Prince Caspian" where a centaur named Glenstorm (who also studies the stars and reads the future) is an important character. |
In [[C. S. Lewis]]'s ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]'', centaurs are noble, loyal, and brave. Oreius (Aslan's general) and his tribe of centaurs help [[Aslan]]'s army fight against the [[White Witch]], in "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," but they gain a more prominent role in the second book, "Prince Caspian" where a centaur named Glenstorm (who also studies the stars and reads the future) is an important character. |
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In the novel ''[[The Neverending Story]]'' by [[Michael Ende]] appears a centaur, which name [[Cairon]] and profession as [[physician]] directs to [[Chiron]], an ancient greek mythological centaur and great [[doctor]]. |
In the novel ''[[The Neverending Story]]'' by [[Michael Ende]] appears a centaur, which name [[Characters_of_The_Neverending_Story#Minor characters|Cairon]] and profession as [[physician]] directs to [[Chiron]], an ancient greek mythological centaur and great [[doctor]]. |
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In ''[[Monsterology: The Complete Book of Monstrous Creatures]]'', centaurs are shown as being party animals, which raises the question of how they stayed concealed for so long, who live in Southern Greece, and have the Latin name ''Centaurus Indomitus''. A picture shows one with two chests. |
In ''[[Monsterology: The Complete Book of Monstrous Creatures]]'', centaurs are shown as being party animals, which raises the question of how they stayed concealed for so long, who live in Southern Greece, and have the Latin name ''Centaurus Indomitus''. A picture shows one with two chests. |
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Revision as of 02:51, 15 June 2009
| Grouping | Legendary creature |
|---|---|
| Sub grouping | Hybrid |
| Other name(s) | Kentaur, Kentauros, Centaurus |
| Region | Greece |
| Habitat | Land |
In Greek mythology, the centaurs (from [Κένταυροι] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help) - Kéntauroi) are a race of creatures composed of part human and part horse. In early Attic vase-paintings, they are depicted with the torso of a human joined at the waist to the horse's withers, where the horse's neck would be.
This half-human and half-animal composition has led many writers to treat them as liminal beings, caught between the two natures, embodied in contrasted myths, both as the embodiment of untamed nature, as in their battle with the Lapiths, or conversely as teachers, like Chiron.
The centaurs were usually said to have been born of Ixion and Nephele (the cloud made in the image of Hera). Another version, however, makes them children of a certain Centaurus, who mated with the Magnesian mares. This Centaurus was either the son of Ixion and Nephele (instead of the Centaurs) or of Apollo and Stilbe, daughter of the river god Peneus. In the latter version of the story his twin brother was Lapithus, ancestor of the Lapiths, thus making the two warring peoples cousins.
Centaurs were said to have inhabited the region of Magnesia and Mount Pelion in Thessaly, Mount Pholoe in Arcadia and the Malean peninsula in southern Laconia.
Centauromachy
The Centaurs are best known for their fight with the Lapithae, caused by their attempt to carry off Hippodamia and the rest of the Lapith women, on the day of her marriage to Pirithous, king of the Lapithae, himself the son of Ixion. The strife among these cousins is a metaphor for the conflict between the lower appetites and civilized behavior in humankind. Theseus, a hero and founder of cities, who happened to be present, threw the balance in favour of the right order of things, and assisted Pirithous. The Centaurs were driven off or destroyed.[1][2][3] Another Lapith hero, Caeneus, who was invulnerable to weapons, was beaten into the earth by Centaurs wielding rocks and the branches of trees. Centaurs are thought of in many Greek myths as wild as untamed horses. Like the Titanomachy, the defeat of the Titans by the Olympian gods, the contests with the Centaurs typify the struggle between civilization and barbarism.
The Centauromachy is most famously portrayed in the Parthenon (Elgin Marbles) metopes by Phidias and a Renaissance-era sculpture by Michelangelo.
Earliest representations
The tentative identification of two fragmentary Mycenaean terracotta figures as centaurs, among the extensive Mycenaean pottery found at Ugarit. suggests a Bronze Age origin for these creatures of myth.[4] 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 warror face-to-face with a centaur is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[5]
Theories of origin
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 had this misapprehension about Spanish cavalrymen).[6] Horse taming and horseback culture arose first in the southern steppe grasslands of Central Asia, perhaps approximately in modern Kazakhstan.
The Lapith tribe of Thessaly, who were the kinsmen of the Centaurs in myth, were described as the inventors of horse-back riding by Greek writers. The Thessalian tribes also claimed their horse breeds were descended from the centaurs.
Of the various Classical Greek authors who mentioned centaurs, Pindar was the first who describes undoubtedly a combined monster.[7] Previous authors (Homer only uses words such as pheres (cf. theres, "beasts")[8] that could also mean ordinary savage men riding ordinary horses. However, contemporaneous representations of hybrid centaurs can be found in archaic Greek art.
Lucretius in his first century BC philosophical poem On the Nature of Things denied the existence of centaurs based on their differing rate of growth. He states that at three years old horses are in the prime of their life while at three humans are still little more than babies, making hybrid animals impossible.[9]
Robert Graves speculated that the centaurs were a dimly-remembered, pre-Hellenic fraternal earth cult who had the horse as a totem.[10] A similar theory was incorporated into Mary Renault's The Bull from the Sea.
The Greek word kentauros is generally regarded as of obscure origin.[11] The etymology from ken - tauros, "piercing bull-stickers" was a Euhemerist suggestion in Palaephatus' rationalizing text on Greek mythology, On Incredible Tales (Περὶ ἀπίστων): mounted archers from a village called Nephele eliminating a herd of bulls that were the scourge of Ixion's kingdom.[12] Another possible related etymology can be "bull-slayer".[13] Some [who?] say that the Greeks took the constellation of Centaurus, and also its name "piercing bull", from Mesopotamia, where it symbolized the god Baal who represents rain and fertility, fighting with and piercing with his horns the demon Mot who represents the summer drought. In Greece, the constellation of Centaurus was noted by Eudoxus of Cnidus in the fourth century BC and by Aratus in the third century.
Female centaurs
Though female centaurs, called Kentaurides, are not mentioned in early Greek literature and art, they do appear occasionally in later antiquity. A Macedonian mosaic of the C4th BC[14] is one of the earliest examples of the Centauress in art. Ovid[15] also mentions a centauress named Hylonome who committed suicide when her husband Cyllarus was killed in the war with the Lapiths.
In a description of a painting in Neapolis, the Greek rhetorician Philostratus the Elder describes them as sisters and wives of the male centaurs who live on Mount Pelion with their children.
"How beautiful the Centaurides are, even where they are horses; for some grow out of white mares, others are attached to chestnut mares, and the coats of others are dappled, but they glisten like those of horses that are well cared for. There is also a white female Centaur that grows out of a black mare, and the very opposition of the colours helps to produce the united beauty of the whole."[16]
In the Disney animated film Fantasia, during the Pastoral Symphony, some of the main characters are female centaurs. However, the Disney studio called them "Centaurettes" instead of Kentaurides.
Persistence in the medieval world
Centaurs preserved a Dionysian connection in the 12th century Romanesque carved capitals of Mozac Abbey in the Auvergne, where other capitals depict harvesters, boys riding goats (a further Dionysiac theme) and griffins guarding the chalice that held the wine.
A centaur-like half-human half-equine creature called Polkan (Russian: Полкан) appeared in Slavic mythology, folk art, and lubok prints of the 17th-19th centuries.
Modern day
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 combining a study human skeleton with the skeleton of a Shetland pony is entitled "Do you believe in Centaurs?" and was meant to mislead students in order to make them more critically aware, according to the exhibitors.[17]
A centaur is one of the symbols associated with both the Iota Phi Theta and the Delta Lambda Phi fraternities. Whereas centaurs in Greek mythology were generally symbolic of chaos and unbridled passions, Delta Lambda Phi's centaur is modeled after Chiron and represents honor, moderation and tempered masculinity.
Fiction
Centaurs have appeared in many places in modern fiction, and may be regarded as a fantasy trope. In modern literature differing views of centaurs vary with the author.
Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series features Foaly, one of the heroes, and the most intelligent centaur on and under the Earth.
In J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series centaurs are aggressive creatures that live in the Forbidden Forest. The centaurs tend to be violent if people intrude on their territory. They study the stars and planets, and can also sometimes see the future - although they may speak in very indirect and ambiguous terms about it.
In C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia, centaurs are noble, loyal, and brave. Oreius (Aslan's general) and his tribe of centaurs help Aslan's army fight against the White Witch, in "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," but they gain a more prominent role in the second book, "Prince Caspian" where a centaur named Glenstorm (who also studies the stars and reads the future) is an important character.
In the novel The Neverending Story by Michael Ende appears a centaur, which name Cairon and profession as physician directs to Chiron, an ancient greek mythological centaur and great doctor.
In Monsterology: The Complete Book of Monstrous Creatures, centaurs are shown as being party animals, which raises the question of how they stayed concealed for so long, who live in Southern Greece, and have the Latin name Centaurus Indomitus. A picture shows one with two chests.
In Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson & The Olympians series centaurs are friendly and help Camp Half Blood against the attacks of Kronos and Luke.
In Star Wars there are two centauroid races, the very centaur-like species called Chironians, most likely a play on the name of the legendary centaur, Chiron, and the striped hermaphrodite Berrites, which are very clumsy, but sneaky.
The American poet May Swenson wrote a poem called "The Centaur", which appeared in her book A Cage of Spines in 1958, and which portrays a girl riding a make-believe horse (actually a willow branch) who comes to feel that she is the horse.
Another book series called Animorphs includes a centauroid race called Andalites.
Film
Centaurs, among many other fantastic creatures, played a key role in one of the animated shorts from The Walt Disney Company's Fantasia (The Pastoral Symphony). Among them were the typical white, bay, and chestnut centaurs, along with various unnatural colors, and also a pair of "Nubian" centaurs which were dark-skinned and Zebra.
Centaurs have appeared in the Harry Potter film series and in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as well as in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.
A centaur appeared in the movie Step Brothers in a dream of one of the secondary characters.
Games
Centaurs are common characters in the Shining series of games by SEGA.
You may create centaurs as allies for battle in Age of Mythology
Tomb Raider and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary both feature centaurs and centaur mutants as foe.
The Mortal Kombat character Motaro is the leader of his centaur race.
World of Warcraft Centaurs are depicted as the savage children of Cenarius
In Guild Wars, Centaurs are a common enemy for a player to face. In the Nightfall Campaign, players may recruit a Centaur Hero named Zhed Shadowhoof.
In Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, centaur-like creatures appear in many maps under the names Tarvos and Maelduin.
Centaur Man is a Robot Master in Mega Man 6. He appears as a light-green robotic Centaur with the ability to freeze his enemies and teleport around the room.
Centaurs frequently appear in the video game series Heroes of Might and Magic as soldiers of the forests.
Centaurs are enemies in Titan Quest.
In the 2008 game Fallout 3, centaurs are radiated human enemies who have sprouted 6 arms and a tongue that attacks the player with great force.
See also
Other hybrid (therianthropic) creatures appear in Greek mythology, always with some liminal connection that links Hellenic culture with archaic or non-Hellenic cultures:
- Chiron
- Centauroid creature
- Furietti Centaurs
- Legendary creature
- List of legendary creatures
- Onocentaur
- Sagittarius
Also,
- Egyptian deities, including Anubis, Horus and Thoth
- Indian Gandharvas
Notes
- ^ Plutarch, Theseus, 30
- ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses xii. 210
- ^ Diodorus Siculusiv. 69, 70
- ^ Ione Mylonas Shear, "Mycenaean Centaurs at Ugarit" The Journal of Hellenic Studies 122 (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 divide between the Bronze Age and the historical period."
- ^ It is illustrated, for example, in John Boardman, Jasper Griffin and Oswyn Murray, Greece and the Hellenistic World (Oxford History of the Classical World) 1988, vol. I p. 87.
- ^ Stuart Chase, Mexico: A Study of Two Americas, Chapter IV (University of Virginia Hypertext), accessed 24 April 2006.
- ^ "...that strange race was born, like to both parents, their mother’s form below, above their sire’s." (Second Pythian Ode).
- ^ For eamples, Homer Iliad i. 268, ii. 743. Compare the Hesiodic The Shield of Heracles, 104.
- ^ Lucretius, On the Nature of Things, book V, translated by William Ellery Leonard, 1916 (The Perseus Project) accessed 27 July 2008.
- ^ Graves, The Greek Myths, 1960 § 81.4; § 102 "Centaurs"; § 126.3;.
- ^ Alex Scobie, "The Origins of 'Centaurs'" Folklore 89.2 (1978:142-147); Scobie quotes Martin P. Nilsson, Geschichte der griechischen Religion, 1955, "Die Etymologie und die Deutung der Ursprungs sind unsicher und mögen auf sich beruhen".
- ^ Noted by Scobie 1978:142.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Pella Archaeological Museum
- ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses 12. 210 ff., the name Hylonome is Greek so Ovid may have drawn her story from an earlier Greek writer
- ^ Philostratus the Elder, Imagines 2. 3.
- ^ Anderson, Maggie (2004). "Library hails centaur's 10th anniversary". 97 (7 or 8). Retrieved 2006-09-21.
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Sources
- M. Grant and J. Hazel. Who's Who in Greek Mythology. David McKay & Co Inc, 1979.
- Rose, Carol (2001). Giants, Monsters, and Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth. New York, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. p. 72. ISBN 0393322114.
- Harry Potter, books 3,4,6, and 7.
- The Chronicles of Narnia, book 2.
External links
- Theoi Project on Centaurs in literature
- Centaurides on female centaurs
- MythWeb article on centaurs
- Harry Potter Lexicon article on centaurs in the Harry Potter universe