The Centaurs

Wild mountain-race with the upper body of a man joined to the body and four legs of a horse. The Thessalian Centaurs were born of Centaurus, son of Ixion and the cloud-shape Nephele that Zeus made in Hera's likeness to trap him (Pind. *Pyth.* 2.21-48); a separate stock, the Cyprian and Pelusian centaurs, are sons of Centaurus by the Magnesian mares. Their canonical battle is the Centauromachy at the wedding of Pirithous and Hippodamia, where they drank unmixed wine, attempted to carry off the bride and the Lapith women, and were driven off by the Lapiths with Theseus's help (Hom. *Il.* 1.262-272). Chiron, son of Kronos and the nymph Philyra, is the famous exception — wise, just, and the tutor of Achilles, Jason, and Asclepius.

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