92 MYTHOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS RITES. 
nymph changed himself into a horse, and this form so impressed her ima- 
gination that her child was half man and half horse. 
Chetron (for so the Centaur was named) inherited the iaeanadiigl powers 
of his father ; soon exhibited remarkable knowledge and skill, particularly 
in music, hetiergaay: prophecy, and medicine; and was well aie in all the 
arts and sciences. Profound reverence for the gods and a cordial love of 
mankind were his prominent characteristics, and he devoted himself with 
zeal to the instruction and accomplishment of talented youths. With this 
design he lived secluded from the world on Mount Pelion, and left his 
retirement only when the interests of men required it. Indeed he was 
unusually loved and revered not only by men but even by the gods, who 
deemed it not inconsistent with their rank to accept his advice and instruc- 
tion. At last he experienced a tragical fate. Heracles had waged war 
with the Centaurs, some of whom, being hard pressed, fled to Cheiron. 
One of Heracles’s arrows accidentally struck him in the knee, inflicting an 
incurable wound. In vain did the hero apply the remedies invented by 
himself; the venom of the Hydra could not be neutralized. The sufferer 
retired to his cave and longed for death, but could not overcome his native 
immortality. At length Zeus took compassion on his woe, and transferred 
his deathless nature to Perseus. Cheiron was then placed among the stars, 
where he continues to shine in the constellation Sagittarius. 
The Centaurs just mentioned were a race of monsters who possessed the 
head, arms, and breast of a man, but from the waist took the form 
of a horse ( pl. 30, fig. 193; pl. 29, jig. 22). It is supposed that these fabu- 
lous configurations were intended to represent a race of wild mountain 
rangers that lived almost constantly on horseback, and delighted in the 
chase of wild cattle, and that they are the symbols of perfect horsemanship. 
Mythology makes Zeus the hero of a number of adventures connected 
with the origin of the inferior gods and of the heroes, and allegorically 
accounting for their extraordinary qualities by representing them as the 
children of Zeus himself. 
The first of the favorites of Zeus was Viobe, daughter of the river god 
Inachos. Her daughter Jo, priestess of Hera, the ever jealous consort of 
Zeus, also excited within him the tender passion. In order to shield her 
from the wrath of his consort, he changed her into a white cow. Hera still 
suspecting the fidelity of her spouse, requested the cow as a present, and 
placed over her as a guardian the all-seeing Argos, a giant with a hundred 
eyes (pl. 20, fig. 1). Zeus, however, outwitted them both. Despatching 
Hermes, the messenger of the gods, to liberate the captive, the god of 
eunning changed himself into a shepherd, and seeking a position near 
Argos, produced upon the flute such soft and soothing tones that all the eyes 
were closed in sleep. Approaching Argos from behind, he killed him with 
a stone and released the cow. Hera saved the eyes of Argos and set them. 
in the tail of the peacock, and sent against Io the gad-fly Ozstros, the tor- 
mentor of cattle, which drove her through various countries, compelled her 
to swim the Bosphorus, and finally suffered her to rest in Egypt, where 
she was worshipped under the name of Zsvs. 
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