CHIRON, a famous personage of antiquity, styled by Plutarch, in his dialogue on music, the wise Centaur. Sir Isaac Newton places his birth in the first age after Deu- .calion’s deluge, commonly called the Golden Age; and adds, that he formed the constellations for the use of the Argonauts when he was eighty-eight years of age; for he was a practical astronomer, as well as his daughter Hippo. Chiron may, therefore, be said to have flourished in the earliest ages of Greece, as he preceded the conquest of the Golden Fleece, and the Trojan war. He is generally called the son of Saturn and Phillyra; and he is said to have been born in Thessaly among the Centaurs, the first Greeks who acquired the art of breaking and riding horses; from which circumstance the poets, painters, and sculptors have represented them as a compound of man and horse: and perhaps it was imagined by the Greeks, as well as the Americans, when they first saw cavalry, that the horse and the rider constituted but one animal.

Chiron was represented by the ancients as one of the first inventors of medicine, botany, and chirurgery, which last word some etymologists have derived from his name. He inhabited a grotto or cave at the foot of Mount Pelion, which, from his wisdom and great knowledge of all kinds, became the most celebrated and frequented school throughout Greece. Almost all the heroes of his time were fond of receiving his instructions; and Xenophon, who enumerates them, names the following illustrious personages among his disciples: Cephalus, Aesculapius, Me-lanion, Nestor, Amphiaraus, Peleus, Telamon, Meleager, Theseus, Hippolitus, Palamedes, Ulysses, Mnestheus, Diomedes, Castor and Pollux, Machaon and Podalirius, Antilochus, Achilles, and Aeneas. From this catalogue it appears that Chiron frequently instructed both fathers and sons; and Xenophon has recorded a short eulogium on each, which may be read in his works. The Greek historian, however, has omitted naming several of his scholars, such as Bacchus, Phoenix, Cocytus, Arystaeus, Jason and his son Medeus, Ajax, and Protesilaus. It is pretended that the Grecian Bacchus was the favourite scholar of the Centaur; and that he taught this master the revels, orgies, bacchanalia, and other ceremonies of his worship. According to Plutarch, it was likewise at the school of Chiron that Hercules studied music, medicine, and justice; although Diodorus Siculus affirms that Linus was the music-master of this hero. But of all the heroes who were disciples of the Centaur, none reflected so much honour upon him as Achilles, whose renown he in some measure shared, and to whose education he in a particular manner attended, being his grandfather by the mother’s side. Apollodorus tells us, that music occupied a considerable part of the time which he devoted to the instruction of his young pupil, and that he viewed it as an incitement to virtuous actions, and a bridle to the impetuosity of his temper. One of the best remains of antique painting now extant, is a picture on this subject, dug out of the ruins of Herculaneum, in which Chiron is represented in the act of teaching the young Achilles to play on the lyre. The death of this philosophical musician was occasioned, at an extreme old age, by an accidental wound in the knee with a poisoned arrow, shot by his scholar Hercules at another person. He was placed [7:6:591]after his death by Musaeus among the constellations, from respect for his virtues, and in gratitude for the great services which he had rendered the people of Greece. Sir Isaac Newton says, in proof of the constellations being formed by Chiron and Musaeus for the use and honour of the Argonauts, that nothing later than the expedition was delineated on the sphere; and, according to the same author, Chiron lived till after the Argonautic expedition, in which he had two grandsons. The ancients have not failed to attribute to him several writings, among which, according to Suidas, are precepts, wrο0nxa∕, in verse, composed for the use of Achilles; and a medicinal treatise on the diseases incident to horses and other quadrupeds; and the lexicorapher even pretends that it is from this work that the Centaur derived his name. Fabricius gives a list of the works attributed to Chiron, and discusses the claims which have been set up for others to the same writings; at the same time giving him a distinguished place in his catalogue of ancient physicians.