The centaurs of Greek mythology were a tribe of mythological creatures with the body of a stallion and where you'd expect the head, a man from the navel up. There were no lady centaurs, and so they had to make do with nymphs and mares to propagate their kind. Now no one really like having to make do, and this may account for the centaurs' general nastiness: they were brutish and uncivilized--short-tempered, prone to brawling, preoccupied with sex and heavy drinking. You wouldn't keep one as a pet. But there were exceptions. Chiron was a wise and kindly fellow, skilled in the practice of music, medicine, and the other civilizing arts, to whom many of the heroes came in early childhood for their primary education. For a more typical centaur take Nessus--please. He tried to rape Heracles' bride Deianeira, and the hero slew him with a poisoned arrow. As he lay dying , the creature gave the young bride what he called a love potion to ensure Heracles' undying devotion in later years. The potion was a poison, and Nessus got his posthumous revenge. ...
Once Ixion ruled as king in Thessaly. He wasn't a centaur, but you wouldn't keep him for a pet either. You see, the scoundrel murdered his father-in-law when the old man came to collect the brideprice for his daughter, and Ixion wandered the earth in search of purification for killing a kinsman. Finally Zeus agreed to do the job and invited him up to Olympus for the ceremony. While there, Ixion tried to seduce Hera, and she told her husband. Zeus had never let a woman's marital status interfere with his own amorous inclinations, but he also wielded a wicked double standard. He was outraged, and set a trap for Ixion. Taking a cloud, he fashioned it into a phantom Hera and placed it in her bed. That night, Ixion crept into the phantom queen's bed apartment and , to use the Biblical expression, he knew Hera. That is, he knew the cloud. He thought he was knowing Hera, but he didn't know that he didn't know, the worst kind of ignorance according to Socrates. Zeus, hiding behind a tripod, caught Ixion in flagrant delicto with the cloud and, seizing the culprit, bound him to a fiery wheel and set it revolving eternally in the heavens. So what does all this have to do with centaurs? Well - the cloud got pregnant and that's where the centaurs came from.
*Chiron:- Peacable and civilized this centaur was a master of medicine, a sage and a teacher of both men and gods. Among his pupils were the heroes Achilles and Heracles and Apollo's son Ascelepius, god of medicine. When Heracles accidentally wounded Chiron the pain was so great that Chiron gave his immortality to Prometheus and died. Several of the Argonauts were students of Chiron.
*Nessus:- This centaur was killed by Heracles when he tried to rape the hero's wife, Deianara. However even after his death the centaur gained his revenge. As he lay dying Nessus told Deianara that his blood was a potent potion that would restore Heracles to her should she ever stray. When he began to court another woman Deianara followed the centaur's insructions and smeared the blood on his tunic. However the blood was poisonous and killed the hero. It was an incomplete revenge however because Heracles was miraculously restored, made immortal and became a god.
*Pholus:- Unusually hospitable for a centaur, Pholus played host to Heracles who was on his way to kill the Hydra. The visit ended badly because the other centaurs attacked, demanding to share the wine Pholus had given him. The angry hero defeated them all in battle.
The descendants of Ixion combine the strength of stallions with the greed, lust and arrogance of human males. They live to drink wine almost as much as they delight in running down a nubile female, and they glory in a drunken brawl. They give allegiance to Eros God of love, and Dionysus God of wine.
The Centaurs were admitted to the companionship of man, and at the marriage of Pirithous with Hippodamia, they were among the guests. At the feast, Eurytion, one of the Centaurs, becoming intoxicated with the wine, attempted to offer violence to the bride; the other Centaurs followed his example, and a dreadful conflict arose in which several of them were slain. This is the celebrated battle of the Lapithae and Centaurs, a favorite subject with the sculptors and poets of antiquity.
There is also a well known story of a Centaur called Mithiras, who was originally a condemned man from Naios as the legend tells us. Something has gone wrong in his creation, and the mage thought that both the horse and the rider were to die in the end, but to his surprise, the Centaur turned out just as all others. Happily, the mage sent him to training with others. But something has indeed gone wrong… - or wrong in the intentions of the original Centaur’s creation. For this one’s mind and memory were spared unlike at other Centaurs, which had turned in pure, mindless fighting machines.
When he discovered what he’d become he was frightened, because he knew about Centaurs. At the same time though, he was surprised about himself. He remembered all and felt that he could think just as he did before, whereas Centaurs are supposed to become war creatures without any feelings. He could not stand the company of these mindless creatures, so he ran away and hid himself in the depth of the woods of Mid-Western Sarvonia. He liked the forest, probably one of the few places that the War of the Chosen did not yet reach.
Legends tell of various adventures Mithiras had as a Centaur. Part of Mithiras was still a horse, an animal, and he was able to learn the tongues of many beasts and birds in the forest. He lived on a unicorn glade in the midst of the forest and he was happy there. He saw unicorns sometimes, but could never come close, for he knew, he was made a being far from pure. And he became protector of the weak in the forest.
There also was a village nearby. An army was once passing over those lands and the village was ravaged and burnt. Those few villagers who were left after an army swept their homes, found refuge in the forest, where they found Mithiras. Or, rather, Mithiras found them. At first they were afraid of him, but later he was able to show that he was not at all like the other Centaurs. He befriended the villagers, and helped them to set up a settlement in the forest. They made him their leader and he remained so till the War was over and a little time after. Some say that later those people called themselves Centoraurians, but it is only a myth. Nevertheless it is a legend, the Centoraurians themselves hold dearly.
