Centaurs (also known as Kentauroi) in the Greek World

One main question comes to mind when reading mythical stories that make reference to centaurs; how did the ancient Greeks relate to these rambunctious creatures? Most of the stories told about centaurs do not put them in the most flattering light; they more often than not get drunk and start fights. We will get to the relationship between the Greeks and the centaurs later, but first let us look at the origins of the centaur.

Most accounts trace the lineage of the centaurs to Ixion. Ixion was pretty messed fella. For you see he screwed up his first marriage by substituting a marriage gift to his father-in-law with a trap of hot coals. His next mistake turned out to be his last because it involved the gods, and nothing good happens to mortals when the gods are involved. To make a long story short, Zeus caught Ixion seducing Hera (actually a cloud made to look like the goddess) and sent him to Hades, as one of the great sinners, to turn of a wheel of fire for eternity. The cloud gave birth to the first centaur, Centaurus. In this light, centaurs and thier actions can be seen as opposing marriage customs. Not only do they forsake legal marriages, but also traditional relationships such as the guest-host relationship. This can be seen as they "crash the party" at which Pholus is entertaining Heracles.

The centaur is a combination of human and horse, and seems that the more equine the centaur the more hostile. They are the combination of man and animal; civilization and the wilderness. When they become intoxicated, which is in almost every story, they become more animal and bad things happen. This observation makes me think that centaur myth may have appeared as an opposition to Dionystic rituals. These centaur stories seem to be pointing out the bad things that can happen when man becomes wilder through drink. Psychoanalytically, these stories might be seen as the incarnation of repressed desires. Just looking at the etymology of their name, we can see that the centaur was a sexually aggressive creaure. Maybe this was a way for the Greeks to express their instinctual frustrations in an open way.

No matter which way one looks at them, the centaurs are in opposition to traditional values and codes of conduct. They oppose legal marriage bonds, and the sacred guest-host relationship.

Centaur Mythology

Works Consulted

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