Centaur 

See also centaur (planetoid), Centaur rocket

Dwelling in the mountains of Thessaly and Arcadia, the centaurs were the offspring of Ixion and Nephele (the rain-cloud). Alternatively, the centaurs were the offspring of Kentauros (the son of Ixion and Nephele) and some Magnesian[?] mares or of Apollo and Hebe. It was sometimes said that Ixion planned to have sex with Hera but Zeus prevented it by fashioning a cloud in the shape of Hera. Since Ixion is usually considered the ancestor of the centaurs, they are often referred to as the Ixionidae.

They are best known for their fight with the Lapithae[?], caused by their attempt to carry off Deidameia[?] on the day of her marriage to Peirithous, king of the Lapithae, himself the son of Ixion. Theseus, who happened to be present, assisted Pirithous, and the Centaurs were driven off (Plutarch, Theseus, 30; Ovid, Metam. xii. 210; Diod. Sic. iv. 69, 70).

In later times they are often represented drawing the car of Dionysus, or bound and ridden by Eros, in allusion to their drunken and amorous habits. Their general character is that of wild, lawless and inhospitable beings, the slaves of their animal passions. Two exceptions to this rule were Pholus and Chiron, who were wise and kind centaurs. They are variously explained by a fancied resemblance to the shapes of clouds, or as spirits of the rushing mountain torrents or winds. As children of Apollo, they are taken to signify the rays of the Sun.

It is suggested as the origin of the legend, that the Greeks in early times, to whom riding was unfamiliar, regarded the horsemen of the northern hordes as one and the same with their horses; hence the idea of the Centaur as half-man, half-animal. Like the defeat of the Titans by Zeus, the contests with the Centaurs typified the struggle between civilization and barbarism.

In early art they were represented as human beings in front, with the body and hind legs of a horse attached to the back; later, they were men only as far as the waist. The battle with the Lapithae, and the adventure of Heracles with Pholus (Apollodorus, ii. 5; Diod. Sic. iv. Ii) are favourite subjects of Greek art (see Sidney Colvin, Journal of Hellenic Studies, i. 1881, and the exhaustive article in Roscher[?]?s Lexikon der Mythologie).

There are other hybrid races, like centaurs, that show up in mythology such as the mermaids and the satyrs. A general 'taur form in modern science fiction and fantasy literature is a six limbed being, using four for locomotion and two for manipulation. They are based upon many different animals, not just horses and humans. In many, the 'human' part is in fact an anthropomorph of the base animal, such as in the wemic and bariaur.

about it--we were in La Belle France all right.html">right, all right! Everything testified to the change. From the pier where we landed, fishing; he hooked a little fingerling. At the first tentative running a fat, kindly looking old priest in a long gown and a and skirts that stuck out like a ballet dancer's; and a soldier and sizes came--and they gathered about that small boy and gave the shining little silver fish there could not have been more Presbyterian. They were still congratulating him when we pulled out and went stone-walled cities, each one dominated by its crumbly old cathedral; ditched with small canals and bordered with poplars trimmed so the wrong way. And in these fields were peasants in sabots at work, looking as Even the haystacks and the scarecrows were different. In England --so square and firm and exact that sections might be sliced off but these French haystacks were devil-may-care haystacks wearing air; and the scarecrows in the truck gardens were debonair and the view and fluttering their ragged vestments in a most jaunty look to it. Presently, above the clacking voice of our train.html">train, we heard a whining big monoplane racing with us. It seemed a mighty, winged Thunder of Air. On second thought I am inclined to believe the Thunder simile as much as I like it we will just let it stand. Three times on that trip we saw from the windows of our train and each time the natives among the passengers jammed into the the identity of the aviators and the make of their machines, and The whole thing was as Frenchy as tripe in a casserole. .

 On wordlookup.net  

All is still licensed under the GNU FDL.
It uses material from the wikipedia.