in Astronomy, a part or moiety of a southern constellation, in form half man half horse; usually joined with the wolf. The word comes from κένταυρος, formed of κέντων, pungo; and ἀγελάς, bull; q. d. bull-prieker. The stars of this constellation, in Ptolemy's Catalogue, are 36; in Tycho's 4; and in the Britannic Catalogue, with Sharp's Appendix, 35.

CENTAURS, in Mythology, a kind of fabulous monsters, half men and half horses.—The poets pretended that the Centaurs were the sons of Ixion and a cloud; the reason of which fancy is, that they retired to a castle called Μύκηναι, which signifies "a cloud."—This fable is differently interpreted; some will have the Centaurs to have been a body of shepherds and herdsmen, rich in cattle, who inhabited the mountains of Arcadia, and to whom is attributed the invention of bucolic poetry. Palaeophetus, in his book of incredibles, relates, that under the reign of Ixion, king of Thessaly, a herd of bulls on Mount Thessaly run mad, and ravaged the whole country, rendering the mountains inaccessible; that some young men who had found the art of taming and mounting horses, undertook to clear the mountains of these animals, which they pursued on horseback, and thence obtained the appellation of Centaurs. This success rendering them insolent, they insulted the Lapithæ, a people of Thessaly: and because when attacked they fled with great rapidity, it was supposed they were half horses and half men.—The Centaurs in reality were a tribe of Lapithæ, who inhabited the city Pelethronium, adjoining to Mount Pelion, and first invented the art of breaking horses, as is intimated by Virgil.