The Centaur—The Satyr. 621 
to fly up to heaven ; but Pegasus threw his rider, and 
flying up to heaven without him, was changed into the 
constellation of stars which still bears his name. Pegasus 
is sometimes confounded with the Hippogriph, or Ippo- 
grifo of Ariosto, which is often seen in coats of arms. 
THE CENTAUE. 
Like the Sphinx, this creature is a compound of the 
brute and human form, exhibiting the body of a man 
united to that of a horse, the former rising from the chest 
of the latter. Absurd as such a combination must appear 
to the anatomist, and ill adapted as it seems for agility, 
it is not wholly devoid of grace, and is very frequently 
met with in antique sculpture. According to Grecian 
mythology, these beings inhabited Thessaly ; and poetry 
has celebrated their combats with Hercules, Theseus, 
and Pirithous, the latter of whom was the leader of the 
Lapithse, a people who vanquished the Centaurs. Their 
fabulous existence had its origin in that love of the mar- 
vellous, which is always found to exist in the earlier 
stages of society. Hence the natives of Thessaly being 
distinguished for their skill in horsemanship, at a time 
when their neighbours were unacquainted with the art of 
riding, they would be described as combining the powers 
both of the human and the equine race ; in the same 
manner as some of the American tribes, when they first 
beheld the Spaniards mounted on horses, mistook them 
for a different race of beings from themselves, supposing 
them to be half men and half quadrupeds. It is by such 
errors that fiction, whether poetry or painting be its 
vehicle, Creates those fanciful beings and shapes which 
delight the imagination. 
THE SATYR. 
Although the Satyr of the ancient poets can hardly be 
termed an animal, as the human form predominates, he 
may be introduced here as our final example of fabulous 
