Proceedings 37 
The Centaurs, according to the earliest accounts, says Leon- 
hard Schmitz, were ‘a race of men who inhabited the mountains 
and forests of Thessaly. They are described as leading a rude 
and savage life, occasionally carrying off the women of their 
neighbours, as covered with hair and ranging over the moun- 
tains like animals . . . . In these earliest accounts [Homer, 
Hesiod], the Centaurs appear merely as a sort of gigantic, 
savage, or animal-like beings; whereas in later writers they are 
described as monsters.’ In the Iliad they are the ‘strong beasts 
of the mountains,’ whom Theseus and others fought and des- 
troyed (i. 268f.), the ‘hairy beasts’ on whom Peirithous avenged 
himself, and whom he drove from Mt. Pelion to Mt. Pindus 
(ii. 74.3f.). This, as we learn elsewhere, was the feud that arose 
from the attempt of a drunken Centaur to carry off the bride 
of Peirithous from the marriage feast. The Odyssey (xxi. 29 5ff.) 
tells how after his heart was darkened with wine he wrought 
foul deeds in his frenzy, and the heroes cut off his ears and 
nostrils. Hesiod (Scut. 184f.) says that the black-haired Cen- 
taurs swing trees in their hands. They are elsewhere described 
as dwellers in caves and eaters of raw flesh, but possessing a 
secret knowledge of herbs. They use trees and stones in combat. 
Very similar are the Cyclopes, whom Platoft considered to 
typify the original condition of uncivilized man. Their original 
seat is thought to have been the mountainous island of Euboea, 
but in the well-known description in the ninth book of the 
Odyssey they live in the West, possibly in Sicily. They have 
neither agriculture, laws nor religion, but live in caves in the 
desert mountains, keep flocks and make cheese. They hurl stones 
at their enemies. They are gigantic cannibals, who clutch their 
victims, dash out their brains, and devour the flesh like wild 
beasts. Polyphemus, 7.e. ‘the loud shouter,’ the only Cyclops 
actually stated in the Odyssey to be one-eyed, is induced to 
drink heavily of wine, and blinded. 
plague or amuse the peasants, especially about Christmas-tide. He 
explains the name as ‘fair Centaurs,’ the epithet being propitiatory, 
and he is inclined to connect this whole class of monsters with the, 
belief that certain human beings can transform themselves into beasts, 
é.g. were-wolves. 
t As quoted by Strabo, xiii. p. 592. 
