OR, The Turn Out. 



l:^. 



THE "CENTAUR. 



99 



feast of Pirithous. 



"0 Circe ! mother of spite, 

 Speak the last of that curse and imprison me quite, 

 In the husk of a brute ; that no pity may name 

 The man that I was, that no kindred may claim — 

 The monster that hunters shun in their flight, 

 The men in their horror, the women in fright." 



ENTAURI (-orum), that is, tlie Bull 

 Killers, were an ancient race, inhabiting 

 Mount Pelion in Thessaly. They lead 

 a wild and savage life, and are hence 

 called " savage beasts " in Homer (who 

 lived 1,000 years before Christ). In 

 later accounts they were represented as 

 half horses and half men, and are said to 

 have been the offspring of Ixion and a 

 cloud. The Centaurs are celebrated in 

 ancient story for their fight with the 

 Lapithse, which arose at the marriage 

 This fight is sometimes placed in con- 



nexion with a combat of Hercules with the Centaurs. It 

 ended by the Centaurs being expelled from their country, 

 and taking refuge on Mount Pindus, on the frontiers of Epirus. 

 Chiron is the most celebrated among the Centaurs. We know 

 that hunting the bull on horseback was a national custom in 

 Thessaly, and that the Thessalians were celebrated riders. 

 Hence may have arisen the fable that the Centaurs were half 

 men and half horses, just as the native Americans, when they 

 first saw a Spaniard on horseback, believed horse and man to 

 be one being. The Centaurs are frequently represented in 

 ancient works of art, and generally as men from the head to 

 the loins, while the remainder of the body is that of a horse 

 with its four feet and tail. 



Chiron, the wisest and justest of the Centaurs, son of 

 Cronos (Saturn) and Philyra, lived on Mount Pelion. He 

 was instructed by Appollo and Diana, and was renowned for 

 his skill in hunting, medicine, music, gymnastics, and the 

 art of prophecy. All the most ancient heroes of Grecian 

 story are described as the pupils of Chiron in these arts. He 

 saved Peleus from the other Centuars, who were on the point 

 of killing him, and he also restored to him the sword which 

 Acastus had concealed. Hercules, too, was his friend ; one 



