Ipotane
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In Greek mythology, an ipotane was a member of a race of half-horse, half-humans. The ipotanes are considered the original version of the centaur.
Description
The typical ipotane looked overall human, but had the legs, hindquarters, tail, and ears of a horse. However, some had human-like rather than horse-like legs (compare with early satyrs, whose front legs were often human-like). The Greek suggested by "ipotane" is ιππότης (hippotes). It means knight.[citation needed] which is reasonable since knights are typically thought of as being on horseback. It is also used as an adjective as in ιππότης λεώς (hippotes leos) — horse knights that rode people. The definition given above would fit ιππότης λεώς — "horse-people".
See also
References
- Liddell & Scott, Greek-English Lexicon.