What do we know about centaurs?
Some of the ancient texts and drawings tell us about amazing creatures - centaurs, which are a hybrid of a man and a horse. Legends say that such creatures lived mainly in mountainous and wooded areas and rarely appeared among people.
Some centaurs were aggressive towards humans, while others were neutral or even helping humans. It is surprising that the ancient people of the Mediterranean did not know how to ride a horse, and where did such legends come from then? Horses performed only in chariots and were the main striking force of the armies.
But many nomadic tribes coped well with horseback riding and horsemen often approached the borders of Hellas. People unfamiliar with such a ride could easily take the rider and the horse for a single organism, and from here the legend of the centaurs could be born. But this is just a rational explanation, and what do the myths say about the appearance of mysterious creatures?
The centaurs could have appeared from the king of the Lapiths, who lived near Thessaly. Myths say that King Ixion and the goddess Nephela loved each other and given the specifics of the goddess, she gave birth to not quite ordinary children, namely centaurs. After the birth of their children, Nephela decides to send her children to Mount Pelion, where nymphs - other mythical creatures - are engaged in their education. After the children grew up, they entered into a relationship with mares and the genus of centaurs began, which began to reproduce naturally.
One of the most famous centaurs is Chiron, who appeared from the love affair of Kronos and Philira and is not a descendant of Nephela. Chiron received immortality and, as the myths say, he was distinguished by wisdom and kindness. It is believed that Chiron was a close friend of Hercules and trained many legendary heroes, including Orpheus, Achilles and others. Once Hercules wounded Chiron with a poisonous arrow and the centaur decided to give up immortality due to terrible torment. The gods placed the centaur in the sky and a constellation appeared in his honor.
But how real could centaurs exist?
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In our time, you can create something similar if you use gene mutations in the laboratory, but in ancient times there were no such technologies. An ancient philosopher named Plutarch wrote that one day a centaur brought him a cub. But it is known that the philosopher liked to joke and his story could well be invented.
A little light can be shed on the possible symbiosis of another ancient philosopher named Titus Lucricius, who noted the incompatibility of the age of the horse and man. At 3 years old, a horse becomes an adult, and a human child at 3 years old really does not know how to do anything, and therefore, that such a combination is impossible.
But if we cast aside common sense and imagine that the centaurs were created by the gods? You can argue for a very long time and never answer the question about centaurs, but the legend is very interesting …
