Hercules slaying the Centraur Nessos, Greece, 1970

Herakles (Hercules) slaying the Centaur Nessos. Image from the early black figure Nessos Amphora, a 1.22 m large vessel , Athens National Museum (NM 1002). End of 7th century BC, discovered 1890, Nessos Painter. Dianeira in Sophocles Women of Trachis describes how Herakles killed with an arrow Nessos who tried to rape her. Nessos before he died said to Dianeira that she can use his blood. Whenever Herakles is attracted by other women she just has to give him a shirt dipped in Nessos blood. If Herakles wears this shirt he will forget the other women.

A Centaur from Spain

Lapith and Centaur from the Parthenon , Greece 1984

Maenad and Centaur (Part of Mosaic with Marsyas and Apollo), House of Aion , Paphos Cyprus.

Apollo with a centaur on the left side. Part of the West Pediment of the Zeus Temple in Olympia. The Centaur is attacked by Theseus (not visible in this part)

The philosopher Wittgenstein said once that there is something odd about all teachers, and that the old Greek myth that made Chiron the teacher of Achilles a centaur was a parable of the teacher not being like other men. Chiron was also a medicine teacher of Asklepios.

Asclepios was also entrusted to Chiron the centaur for a time, and learned medicine from him. The centaur baby-sitter and pedagogue appears in many myths, for reasons which are not by any means clear. ESP communications have been posited between animals and sensitive humans, especially the very young, and this may be a part of the picture, of which we have only a part. If the horse had an aversion to plants which are poisonous to men, or showed men where sources of salt, a rare material and a necessity to all mammals, existed, stories about the horse's medical knowledge might arise; William Harris, Domestication of Animals. Greek Myth

Greek Mythology

See also : Greek Mythology. Paintings, Drawings

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