Where Did The Ancient Greek Centaurs Come From? - Alternative View

Where Did The Ancient Greek Centaurs Come From? - Alternative View
Where Did The Ancient Greek Centaurs Come From? - Alternative View

Video: Where Did The Ancient Greek Centaurs Come From? - Alternative View

Video: Where Did The Ancient Greek Centaurs Come From? - Alternative View
Video: Where Did Centaurs Come From? | COLOSSAL QUESTIONS 2024, March
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Centaurs, half-humans, half-horses (that is, mixanthropic creatures, from mix - "to mix" and antropos - "man") are known to us, first of all, from Greek mythology. It tells about the origin of these inhabitants of the mountainous expanses and forest thickets, and about their violent warlike activities, and about the most prominent representatives, such as Chiron, Fall and Ness. Today's story is about the ancestral roots of the centaurs.

In the northeast of Ancient Greece, in Thessaly, in time immemorial the Lapiths lived - a warlike and, moreover, rather wild tribe by nature. They were ruled by King Ixion, a man of unbridled disposition, a lightweight attitude to honor and, like all his fellow tribesmen, who had a strong craving for wine.

Once, desiring to get married, Ixion, gazing at the surrounding space, made a choice and turned to the leader of the neighboring tribe Denonei for a match to his daughter Diya, a young and slender beauty. At the same time, the king said that as compensation for consent after marriage, he would thank his father-in-law with rich gifts. After a magnificent wedding, the bride's father, after delicately waiting for several months, began to ask his son-in-law when, in fact, he would fulfill his earlier promise.

The young husband several times postponed the presentation of the gifts under various pretexts, but in the end he invited them to his cave, ostensibly to demonstrate specially prepared for the presentation of values. But, having gone to Ixion, the gullible and unfortunate Denoney did not have time to enter the dwelling, because he was in a pit with burning coals … This caused the anger of the gods, as fierce as righteous. The Olympians, after consulting, decided to punish the criminal with madness and did not hesitate to immediately execute it.

However, obviously in defiance of other celestials, the powerful Zeus not only canceled their sentence and returned Ixion's sanity, but also invited him to a feast - where would you think? - right on Olympus, which the villain took for granted. Having tasted the divine nectar and got drunk, the unceremonious guest "laid eyes" on Hera herself, began to look after her very frankly, and even decided to kidnap her.

The Thunderer, who, of course, did not find it difficult to recognize such a vile intention, did the following: he created a double of his wife from the cloud (cloned, or what?) And handed this person to the king of the Lapiths, and he, very pleased with what had happened, returned home and began to boast to the right and to the left, that they say he took his wife away from the most powerful Zeus. The further fate of Diya, the first wife of Ixion, is lost in the folds of mythological history.

After the time allotted by nature, the royal couple began to give birth to children one after another, and everything, as if on selection - centaurs with genetic traits of violent character and infidelity - from the father, restlessness and inconstancy - from the cloudy mother.

However, not all centaurs are born of these parents. In particular, Chiron is the son of Kronos and the nymph Filira ("linden"), and Foul is a direct descendant of Selene and the nymph Melia, "ash tree". But there will be a separate story about these characters.

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This is what the myths say. However, there is also a more realistic version that the image of the centaurs arose as a result of the collision of the Greeks with the Scythians, unrestrained riders who did not leave the saddle for many days, as if they had grown to it. Who knows how to know …