Collection Publications: The Centaur's Smile: Centaurs in Greek Mythology

The Centaur's Smile: The Human Animal in Early Greek Art

Centaurs in Greek Mythology

The personalities of centaurs reflect their physical duality: savage and brutal on the one hand, brave and benevolent on the other. Wild creatures, they were believed to live in the forests of Mount Pelion in Thessaly, feeding on raw flesh. In art, they are usually represented with the body and legs of a horse and the torso, head, and arms of a man. The myths of the centaurs became vehicles for the Greeks to explore the institutions of war, marriage, and guest friendship (xenia). Invariably, the centaurs' violation of culture reaffirms the superiority of male humans over their bestial enemies. Kentauros-the offspring of lxion, king of the Thessalian Lapithae, and Nephele, a cloud in the form of Hera-was said to have engendered the race of centaurs by mating with the wild mares of Magnesia. The centaurs make their first dramatic appearance in Greek mythology at the wedding of Ixion's heir, Peirithoos, to Hippodameia. Intoxicated by the wine at the feast, they assaulted the Lapith women; one of the centaurs, Eurytion, even tried to carry off the bride. The Lapiths, assisted by Theseus, king of Athens, drove the centaurs away but suffered some casualties, most notably Kaineus. Although Kaineus believed he.had been made invulnerable by Poseidon, the centaurs killed him by hammering him into the ground with the trunks of pine trees. This archetypal battle between men and centaurs, known as the Thessalian Centauromachy, was a favorite subject in ancient art and came to symbolize the triumph of Greek civilization over brutality and barbarism. Like humans, centaurs have their own heroic figures, who are far more "civilized" than other members of the species. Cheiron, renowned for his wisdom and justice, was the only centaur who was immortal, descended not from Ixion but rather from the union of Kronos and the Ocean nymph Philyra. He served as tutor for heroes such as Peleus and his famous son Achilles, as well as Jason, Meleager, and Aktaion. In Cheiron's "school;' practical wisdom, morality, and proper behavior were taught alongside music, hunting, and the healing arts. Cheiron suffered an accidental death while inspecting the arrows of Herakles, which were tipped with the poisonous blood of the monstrous, nine-headed Hydra. Cheiron dropped one of the arrows on his foot, and to relieve him from his pain, Zeus let him surrender his immortality and die. He was commemorated among the stars as the constellation Sagittarius. The centaur Pholos resided in Pholoe, a mountain range between Elis and Arcadia, together with the centaurs driven from Pelion by Theseus and the Lapiths. When Herakles visited the cave of Pholos, the hospitable centaur offered him roasted meat, but the hero called for wine with his meal. Pholos stored a big wine jar in his cave but hesitated to open it because it belonged to all the centaurs in common. Herakles insisted, however, and soon the smell of the fragrant wine attracted the other centaurs, who stormed the cave. Pholos hid, but Herakles stood against the centaurs, who attacked him with trees, boulders, and axes. Using firebrands at first and then his bow and arrows, Herakles managed to kill most of the centaurs and routed the others down to Cape Maleas at the southernmost tip of the Peloponnes e. While burying the dead, Pholos was wounded by an arrow that he extracted from one of his comrades, and died. He was immortalized in the sky as the constellation Centaurus. The encounter between Herakles and the centaur Nessos, narrated in Sophokles' Trachiniae, is a necessary forerunner to the hero's eventual demise. Nessos attempted to rape Herakles' wife Deianeira while ferrying her across the river Evenos. Herakles promptly shot Nessos, but before dying the centaur offered Deianeira his blood mixed with the poison from the hero's arrows, calling it a love charm that would keep Herakles ever faithful to her. Many years later, when she discovered that Herakles was about to take a new bride, Iole, Deianeira anointed a robe with Nessos's drug and sent it as a gift to Herakles. The hero, unable to bear the terrible pain caused by the poison eating into his flesh, immolated himself on a funeral pyre, while Deianeira committed suicide upon learning the outcome of her deed.

--Kyriaki Karoglou

Department of Art and Archaeology Princeton University