CENTAURI, CENTAURS, a wild race of shepherds and herdsmen inhabiting Mount Pelion in Thessaly, and who were represented in ancient fable as beings of a double form—the upper part human and the lower part that of a horse. They were the reputed offspring of Centaurus, son of Apollo, and the mares of Magnesia; or of Ixion and a cloud in the shape of Juno. The accounts of their origin are different. It is related by Palæphatus, in his Book of Wonders, that in the time of the Thessalian king Ixion the adjacent country was devastated by a herd of wild bulls; and that a large reward having been offered for their destruction, some young men, mounted on horses they had trained for the purpose, pursued and slew the bulls—and hence received the appellation of Centauri, i.e. bull-killers.
The bull-chase was a national sport among the Thessalians; and it is not improbable that their dexterity in horsemanship may have given rise to the fable of monsters half men and half horses: or perhaps it may be ascribed to the ignorance of those who, on first beholding a man mounted on horseback, supposed (as the American Indians on a like occasion) that the horse and his rider were one animal.
The battle of the Centaurs with their neighbours the Lapithæ is celebrated in ancient story. This quarrel arose at the marriage of Hippodamia with Pirithous; on which
occasion the Centaurs, flushed with wine, offered gross indignities to the assembled company. They were severely chastised for their insolence by Hercules, Theseus, and the other Lapithæ, and compelled to take refuge in Arcadia. Here they were defeated a second time by Hercules, and almost extirpated. The most famous of the Centaurs was Chiron, the friend and preceptor of Hercules, and who was accidentally slain by that hero.