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 Cenaurus, 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 Palephatus, 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 Lapithae is celebrated in ancient story. This quarrel arose at the marriage of Hippodamia with Pirithous; on which