Newsletter: Fall 2003

"Human animals," with mixed human and animal characteristics, played a central role in Greek myth and are ubiquitous in Greek literature and art. Diverse in form, origin, and character, some of these fantastic creatures first appeared in Greece during the Bronze Age-in Minoan and Mycenaean art-only to vanish during the subsequent cultural hiatus of the Greek Dark Ages (ca. 1100-950 B.C.). Their reappearance in the sculpture and ceramics of the Protogeometric and Geometric Periods (950-700 B.C.) heralded a new era of contacts between Greece and the cultures of Egypt and the Near East that was to prove decisive in the formation of a distinctive Greek culture. The forms of many Greek composite creatures were adapted from Egyptian and Near Eastern sources, as demonstrated by their appearance in everything from Assyrian reliefs to Phoenician ivories. Half-horse and half-man, centaurs stand with legs in two worlds, between the rough freedom of Nature and the reasoned ascent of human culture.Wild and libidinous, like Nessos, who assaulted the wife of Herakles, centaurs also could be noble and wise, like Cheiron, the teacher of Achilles and Asklepios. In their ambivalent nature lies a key to the Greek soul, and by examining their role in early Greek art, we may find clues to their essential meaning and to their particular significance in Greek culture. The centaur's bifurcated form symbolizes the ambivalent nature of the human being: part beast, part angel. This is a heavy load to bear, and in Western culture the centaur has been pressed into the service of both high art and low comedy, appearing in everything from comic books to illuminated manuscripts; from prints by Picasso to Disney's Fantasia and the recent Harry Potter books. In studies of Greek art, the many battle scenes between Greeks and centaurs are seen as symbols of the struggle between civilization and brutality, or even, as in the metopes of the Parthenon, the historical conflict between the Greeks and the Persians. These interpretations are certainly correct, but hardly the whole story, for such simple symbolism-man good, brute bad-ignores the human half of the centaur as well as the bestial side of Man, an element of humanity well understood by the Greeks. Like satyrs, who also are part man and part horse, centaurs are wild, woodland creatures that dwell on the mountainsides and in gorges, caves, and forest glades. They are not so much evil as rude, their principal concerns being the satisfaction of their own appetites for sex, food, and alcohol. Their unbridled sensuality frequently gives way to thoughtless violence. Unlike satyrs, who are cowardly and inclined to whine, centaurs are brave and willing to fight for what they want, making them worthy antagonists for heros like Theseus and Herakles. These mythical heroes of the aristocratic horse-owning class, the hippeis, were the sons of gods and needed foes worthy of their status. Centaurs, with their manly qualities of courage and comradeship and their sense of aggressive self-entitlement, were the ideal opponents and, like the horse itself, may therefore have been symbols of aristocratic values, their equine forms glorifying the ethos of the hippeis. Their quasi-human character is even more evident in the two "good" centaurs, Cheiron and Pholos, who were friends to humankind and renowned for their wisdom and hospitality.