page_title: Centaur
section_title: Medieval art
hierarchical_section_title: Centaur / Artistic representations / Medieval art
caption_attribution_description: English: Centaurs harvesting grapes. Sculpted capital from the nave of the abbey-church in Mozac, 12th century. Français&#160;: Centaures cueillant des grappes de raisin. Chapiteau de la nef de l'abbatiale de Mozac, XIIe siècle.
context_page_description: A centaur, or occasionally hippocentaur, is a creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse. Centaurs are thought of in many Greek myths as being as wild as untamed horses, and were said to have inhabited the region of Magnesia and Mount Pelion in Thessaly, the Foloi oak forest in Elis, and the Malean peninsula in southern Laconia. Centaurs are subsequently featured in Roman mythology, and were familiar figures in the medieval bestiary. They remain a staple of modern fantastic literature.
context_section_description: Centaurs preserved a Dionysian connection in the 12th-century Romanesque carved capitals of Mozac Abbey in the Auvergne. Other similar capitals depict harvesters, boys riding goats (a further Dionysiac theme), and griffins guarding the chalice that held the wine. Centaurs are also shown on a number of Pictish carved stones from north-east Scotland erected in the 8th–9th centuries AD (e.g., at Meigle, Perthshire). Though outside the limits of the Roman Empire, these depictions appear to be derived from Classical prototypes.
caption: Centaurs harvest grapes on a 12th-century capital from the Mozac Abbey in the Auvergne
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