, 1879-03-01
The Story of the CentaHrS.

Il
I the highlands. Their haunts were among
the Businesses OF the Thessalian and Area
dian mountains Arcadia, however, was
not their earliest home: their earliest
home was Thessaly, where they ranged
the forest of Mount Pelion, and from
thence as far as Ossa and the gorge of
Tempe along the great eastern ridge
which shuts ont the plain of Enipeus
from the sea. That inland plain was from
time immemorial the great horse break
ING district Of the Greek world, and it
was natural that, together with many
another sacred and heroic legend of the
race, this legend of the man horse should
spring up among the mountains which
fenced it round about. The prodigious
nature of the creatures was accounted
! for by the prodigi1us circumstances of
| their birth. They were the children or
grandchildren of the murderer Ixion,
who, when the gods granted him purih-
cation, incorrigibly repaid their clemeney
by seeking to do violence to the queen of
! the gods, Here. Here, So ran the story,
substituted for herself cloud in her own
likeness (Nephele); and from the embrace
of Ixion and the cloud was descended
the monstrous progeny of the Centaurs.
With the exception of Cheiron, who was
of a different character and parent
age, the Centaurs passed with the
Greeks as the very types Of reasonless
lust and impulse. Homer calls them
"beast" as opposed TO men-''shaSSggy
beasts Of the mountains PindaI, por-
ientous tribe; the Attic tragedians, a
.four-legged outrageousness, twy-
formed, indivisible, bestial cavalry, outra-
seous, lawless, overbearing In strength. "
Their weapons are huge stones and pine
branches; their occupation, the hunting
of harcs, foxes, bears, and deer; their
! diet, raw flesh and the taste CT even the
smell of wine makes them ungovernable.
| Now and again rhey come swoof!Ig, down
from their forest glades and precipices,
/ for war or foray among the haunts Of men
Thei: one celebrated warfare Was that
which they waged to their own un1oing
against the Lapiths, a race Of rough and
! TOUGH TheSadiIan heroes, whom the
| legends of the country represented is
settled in the same mountainous region
beneath the slopes of Ossa and Othrys.
The king of the Lapiths WAS Peirithcos,
and this Peirithoos was the son Of lxion
! and his wife i.ia, or as some SAID, of Dla
not by her husband Ixion, but by q
mightier father, the god Heus. The
Centaurs and Lapiths, then, were a kind
of cousins; they had already been at
strife about the inheritance Of their COM
mon progenitor Ixion, and had come to
terms concerning that strife, when it hap
pened that the Lapiuh king, Peuithoos,
took to himself bride, HippoiAneia-
variously named also Deidameia or Laoda-
and invited the Centaurs to the
wedding feast To the same feast was
also hidden the Attic hero Theseus, the
| friend and companion IN arms Of Pelri-
thoos. Milk was at first set before the
savage guests, and for while all went
well but when the wine was opened they
swept away the milk from the beard, and
seized the silver drinking horns, and IN a
trice the wine played wildfire IN their
veins One Of them, seized the bride: /:
following him all the rest of hiS. tribe give
way to the same frenzy, and break up the
feast, and seize each upon a youth or
maiden among the marriage guests The
I.api.h heroes leap to the rescue, viii.
Theseus foremost in the fray beside his
friend; the tables are overturned, and
the chargers and wine jars snatched up
for weapons, and death is dealt amid the
crashing of axes, and brands, and stakes,
of wrought stones wrenched from thres
hold ahl Intel, nay, of the sacriticial al
tars themselves, which the cDmbataIts
tare up and hurl at one anQlher in the
medley. All day long RACES the fight,
and according to some accounts for many
Jays thereafter, till at last human valour
prevails over brute ferocity. Theseus
avenges his friend and slays the ravisher
Eurytion, and the bravest of the Cen
taurs perish in like manner by other
hands, though not before they have
wrought sore havoc among their enemies.