Real Name: Cheiron (original spelling)

Occupation: Teacher and Mentor

Legal Status: Citizen of Ancient Greece with a naturalized American citizenship

Identity: The general populace of Earth is unaware of Chiron except as a mythological character.

Other Aliases: Khiron, Kiron (alternate spellings), Mr. Brunner (mortal guise)

Place Of Birth: Unrevealed, possibly Mount Pelion near Iolcus (now part of Modern Greece)

Marital Status: possibly Widowed

Known Relatives: Cronus (father), Philyra (mother), Rhea (step-mother), Plute (sister), Zeus, Poseidon, Hades (half-brothers), Hera, Demeter, Hestia (half-sisters), Chariclo (wife), Endeis, Hippe (daughters), Peleus (grandson), Achilles (great-grandson), Hercules, Apollo, Ares, Hephaestus, Hermes, Dionysus (nephews), Artemis, Athena, Aphrodite, Eileithya, Hebe, Helen, Discord, Pandia (nieces), Tantalus (brother-in-law, deceased)

Group Affiliation: ally of the Gods of Olympus, Hercules and Wonder Woman

Base Of Operations: Camp Half-Blood near Montauk Point, Long Island, New York, formerly Olympus, formerly Mount Pelion near Iolcus in Greece

First Appearance: (modern) Arak, Son of Thunder II #10, (recent) Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

History: Chiron is a member of an extra-dimensional realm of beings known as the Olympians, a race of beings who were worshipped as gods by the people of the ancient Graeco-Roman Empire. Chiron is the son of Cronus, the youngest of the Titans, the first generation of the Olympian gods. Cronus had overthrown his father, Uranus, in order to seize the throne of Olympus and took his sister, Rhea, as his wife. He also seduced Philyra, an ocean-goddess, daughter of the Titans, Oceanus and Tethys. According to legend, Cronus and Philyra concealed their affair by taking the forms of horses and as a result, Chiron was born with both human and equine characteristics while his sister, the goddess, Plute, was born entirely human.

Chiron was raised by Rhea as her own son, but unlike the other Olympians, he was not worshipped as a god. After Cronus was ousted from the throne of Olympus by his own son, Zeus, Chiron became the teacher and mentor of many of the younger gods of Olympus born from the succeeding Olympian gods who now controlled Olympus. The names of his early students are unrevealed, but they possibly included Apollo, Artemis, Ares and Hephaestus. Although he was a centaur, Chiron lived near Mount Pelion in Northern Greece apart from the other centaurs of Earth who were largely mortal and descended from Ixion, a King of Thessaly, cursed by Zeus for trying to abduct Zeus's wife, Hera, from Olympus.

Eventually, Chiron began teaching and training the mortal children of the gods. Among his students were Hercules, Jason, Peleus and many of the Argonauts. Chiron taught Asclepius what he knew of medicine, and reportedly showed Peleus how to woo the sea-goddess, Thetis; their son, Achilles, becoming one of his favorite students. During one of the early Olympic Games held near Thebes, Chiron was introducing Hercules to young Achilles when he carelessly scratched himself with one of the arrows which Hercules had dipped into the blood of the Hydra. Although Chiron was basically immortal, the wound became increasingly infected and he decided to surrender his immortality than further endure the injury. Prometheus eventually used his knowledge of medicine to completely cure Chiron of his pain. In later myths, it was claimed that Prometheus took on Chiron's immortality, allowing him to die a noble death with the constellation Centaurus designated to remember him.

Over the years, Chiron continued to train and help teach other demigods and mortals during the Late Roman Empire. In the 6th Century BC, Aristeas convinced him to teach the scholar, Solon, who later became chief magistrate of Athens and a patron of democracy. In the 8th Century AD, Chiron met Arak Red-Hand, a Native American brave raised by the Vikings.

Over the years, Chiron maintained the secrecy and purpose of his school by moving it's original location in Greece to a remote spot at the end of Long Island in New York. In modern years, he has taken the mortal guise of Mr. Brunner, a high school Latin teacher in New York City in order to look out for children born of one or more mortal parents and to serve as a Earthly contact for mortal mystics. As Brunner, Chiron uses mystical means to conceal his centaur traits, appearing instead as a paraplegic professor bound to a wheelchair with his hindquarters concealed by a blanket. Under the guise of a summer camp for teenagers, Camp Half-Blood was created by Chiron with the help of the goddess Athena to teach modern demigods such as Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase and Lucas Castellans. On the campgrounds, Chiron appears in his true centaur form amidst the few centaurs known to survive today. Chiron has also briefly served as an advisor to Wonder Woman in at her Wonderdome.

Height: 6' 8" (as a centaur), 6' 2" (as a human)
Weight: 1200 lbs
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown

Unusual Physical Features: Chiron has the standard appearance of a centaur which includes the hind-quarters of a horse.

Strength Level: Unrevealed. Chiron possibly possesses superhuman strength equal to the Olympian gods but to an unknown degree; the average Olympian god can lift (press) around 30 tons under optimal conditions.

Known Superhuman Powers: Chiron possesses some but not all of the conventional physical attributes of the Olympian Gods. He is exceptionally long-lived, but he is not immortal; he has aged at an exceptionally slow rate since reaching adulthood and cannot die by any known conventional means. He is immune to all known terrestrial diseases and is invulnerable to conventional injury. If wounded, his godly life force would enable him to recover with superhuman speed. It would take an injury of such magnitude that it dispersed a major portion of his bodily molecules to cause him a physical death. Even then, it might be possible for Zeus or a number of gods of equal power working together to revive him. Chiron does have some superhuman strength and his own Olympian metabolism gives him far greater than human endurance in all physical activities. (Olympian flesh and bone is about three times as dense as similar human tissue, contributing to Olympian super-strength and weight.)

Chiron also has several abilities inherent with his unique centaur physiology. He has the same organs as a man as well as the same organs as a horse allowing him to process twice as much energy from foodstuffs than normal and his dual lungs allow him to process twice as much oxygen, ensuring he run at great speeds without losing his breath. He can gallop at speeds of 85 to 90 miles an hour as well as use his front hooves as a weapon, effectively knocking out virtually any opponent. He can also carry up to five people on his back without straining himself. Chiron also has exceptional hearing and reflexes, but not to a superhuman degree. Due to his mystical half-equine status, he has a sort of subliminal quasi-clairvoyant second sense that can warn him of danger within a five hundred foot range of himself.

Abilities: Chiron is a compassionate and dedicated instructor, particularly in combat and exercise. He is well-versed in history, philosophy and combat stragedy.

Paraphernalia: Chiron uses an enchanted blanket from Olympus that allows him to conceal his centaur body and appear as a mortal man. In some unknown means, the blanket not only conceals his equine hindquarters and compresses them that he can move about in a standard wheelchair without any discomfort. It is possible the blanket actually allows him to morph into a human form.

Comments: This bio involves Chiron as per his appearances in DC Comics and Percy Jackson And the Olympians; he is not known to have appeared in Marvel Comics.

Very few Centaurs have been named in mythology; these include Eurytion, Nessus, Hylaeus (each slain by Hercules), Rhoecus and Ripheus (slain by Atlanta). The centaur, Pholus, was the son of Silenius. Centaurs are decidedly and traditionally male. A female centaur was observed in the Wizards of Waverly Place episode, "Beware Wolf," but this being would have to be something other than a traditional centaur, possibly a female shape-shifter.

Updated: 09/12/2010