Centaur (pronounced sen-tawr)
(1) In
classical mythology, one of a race of monsters having the head, trunk, and arms
of a man, and the body and legs of a horse (some modern depictions prefer
the upper body of a woman). The synonym
is hippocentaur.
(2) In
astronomy, the constellation Centaurus (initial capital).
(3) In
astronomy, any of a group of icy bodies with the characteristics of both
asteroids and comets, orbiting the Sun in elliptical paths mostly in the region
between Saturn & Neptune.
(4) In
modern slang, a skillful (male or female) rider of a horse.
(5) In
rocketry, a US-designed and built upper stage (with re-startable
liquid-propellant engine), used with an Atlas or Titan booster to launch
satellites and probes.
(6) In
chess, team comprising a human player and a computer.
(7) By
extension, in AI (artificial intelligence), a human and some form or AI, working
together.
1325–1375:
From the Middle English, from the Old English, from the Latin centaurus, from the Ancient Greek, from Κένταυρος
(Kéntauros), thought to mean “a
member of a savage race from Thessaly” although some etymologists are
sceptical. Historically, Thessaly was
known as Αἰολία (Aiolía (Aeolia in modern use)) and that’s
how it was referred to in the Odyssey (Homer’s
epic poem from the eighth or seventh century BC); the gentlemen in Athens were
very quick to describe as savages or barbarians, those from elsewhere. The half-human, half horse Centaur from Greek
mythology belongs in the class of mixtumque
genus, prolesque biformis (a mixed or blended race, offspring of two forms),
the phrase made famous when it appeared in the Roman poet Virgil’s (Publius
Vergilius Maro (70–19 BC)) Aeneid (29-19 BC) description of the Minotaur, the
mythical creature with a bull's head and a human body. Centaur & centaurdom are nouns, centaurian
is a noun & adjective and centauresque, centaurial & centauric are
adjectives; the noun plural is centaurs.
The most common use of the adjective centauric was a reference to the
mythological creatures (resembling or of the nature of a centaur) but in the
sometimes weird world of spiritualism it was defined as "characterized by
an integration of mind and body for consciousness above the ego-self"
(whatever that means). When the
adjective is used in SF (SciFi or science fiction) it's with an upper case if
referring to the residents or natives of the constellation Centaurus. The case difference matters because there no
reason why in SF half human, half-horse beasts can't be part of the ecosystem in
Centaurus and they would have to be described as Centauric centaurs. In fantasy fiction, a centauress was a female
centaur (a she-centaur) and the term centaurette has also been used; it does
not (as the -ette prefix might be thought to imply) mean a “a small centaur”. Presumably, a centauress, while possessing
the secondary sex characteristics of a human female could, anatomically, in the
hind quarters either colt, stallion, filly or mare so it could be helpful if
authors differentiated centauress & centaurette thus.
Centaurus, copperplate engraving by Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius (1611–1687) from Firmamentum Sobiescianum sive Uranographia (1687), his atlas of constellations. In English, the southern constellation of Centaurus has been so described since the 1550 but was known by that name to the Romans and known as a centaur to the Greeks. The ninth largest constellation, visible in the far southern sky in the months around March, since classical times, it has been confused with Sagittarius.
Centaurus is one of two constellations said
to represent Centaurs and is associated primarily with Chiron (Cheiron), a
wise, immortal being who was King of the Centaurs and said to be a scholar and
prophet skilled in the healing arts. In
some of the myths, from his cave on Mount Pelion, he is said to have raised,
tutored, or counselled several figures prominent in Greek mythology, including
Jason, Heracles and Asclepius. Of Chiron's
association with the constellation, there are several tales. In one legend, Chiron was the first to
identify the constellations and teach them to mortal humans, placing an image
of himself in the sky to help guide Jason on his quest for the Golden Fleece. A different story has Chiron was placed in the
sky by Zeus and of this telling there are variants but the most common element
is Chiron being accidentally wounded by a poisoned arrow and giving up his
immortality as a way to escape the never-ending pain. A twist on this has Chiron simply bored with
life and wanting it to be over and this came to the attention of Prometheus,
the Titan undergoing permanent torture for stealing fire from the gods to give
to humans. For Prometheus to be released
from his torture, an immortal had to volunteer to renounce eternal life and go
to Tartarus in his place. Someone (Zeus,
Heracles, or Chiron himself depending on the author) suggested Chiron's offer
be used to release Prometheus and for this Zeus honored Chiron with his place
in the sky. There’s even a tale in which
the constellation represents the Centaur Pholus, honoured thus by Zeus for his
skill in prophecy.
In astronomy, a
centaur is a small, icy celestial body orbiting the Sun in an in elliptical
paths, most tracking between Jupiter and Neptune, the name gained from them typically
having the characteristics of both asteroids and comets, the dual-nature the link
with the half-human, half-horse from mythology.
Centaurs are considered transitional objects which may originally have
been Kuiper Belt Objects and often have unstable orbits due to gravitational
interactions with the giant planets.
Orbiting mostly between 5.5-30 AU (an “astronomical unit the average
distance between the Earth and Sun (about 150 million km (93 million miles))
from the sun, such is the gravitational effect of the big planets that most
centaurs (which range in diameter between 100-400 km (60-250 miles) are
expected over millennia to be sent into the inner solar system or even ejected
into interstellar space. Astronomers
first became aware of the objects in 1977 with the discovery of Chiron but the
technology of the time didn’t permit the structure fully to be understood and
the body was thus initially classified both as a comet (95P/Chiron) and minor
planet. It was improvements in
observational hardware which demonstrated that while appearing as asteroids,
when closer to the sun the comet-like behavior of developing a coma or tail will
manifest. The largest known centaur is 10199/Chariklo. Listed as a minor planet, it orbits the Sun
between Saturn and Uranus and in 2014 it was announced it possessed two rings
(nicknamed Oiapoque and Chuí after the rivers that define Brazil's borders),
the existence confirmed by observing a stellar occultation. One implication of the rings is that it
likely also has at least one shepherd moon and infrared images indicate the Chariklo
is named after the nymph Chariclo (Χαρικλώ), the wife of Chiron and the
daughter of Apollo.
Front (left) and rear (right) covers of the album Ride a Rock Horse (1975) by The Who's lead singer Roger Daltrey (b 1944). The artwork was done by his cousin Graham Hughes who produced a number of album covers during the 1970s.
Things rarely were consistent in the evolution of the myths from Antiquity and the mythical centaurs were described variously as being wholly equine from (human) torso down or with the from parts of the legs also human, the latter a popular depiction during the Medieval period while in Classical era, they had four horses' hooves and two human arms. Living on raw flesh and inhabiting mountains and forests, they were descended either from Centaurus (the son of Apollo & Stilbe) or of Ixion & Nephele although the Centaurs Chiron and Pholus were of a different descent lineage: Chiron was the son of Philyra & Cronus while Pholus was fathered by Silenus and born of an unnamed Nymph; what distinguished that pair was that unlike the other herds, they were hospitable and non-violent. The cooking of food being a marker of civilization, it was recorded that when Heracles was hunting the Erymanthian boar, he visited Pholus who received him hospitably, giving him cooked meat whereas Pholus himself ate exclusively raw food. When Heracles asked for wine, Pholus told him that there was only one jar, which either belonged communally to the Centaurs or had been a gift from Dionysus who had told them to open it only if Heracles should be their guest. Telling his host not to be afraid, Pholus broke the seal but when the Centaurs smelled the wine they galloped from the mountains, armed with rocks, fir trees and torches to attack the cave. The first two Centaurs to attack were Anchius and Agrius (killed by Heracles) but Pholus was killed in the aftermath of the fight: while burying a fallen Centaur he drew one of Heracles' poisoned arrows from a wound but it fell from his grasp, piercing his leg and almost instantly he died. Heracles drove off the remaining Centaurs and pursued them to Cape Malea where they took refuge with Chiron. In the ensuing battle Heracles shot Elatus in the elbow, but Chiron either dropped one of Heracles' arrows on his foot or was shot in the knee by Heracles. The wounds of Heracles' arrows could not be healed and the immortal Chiron begged the gods to make him mortal. It was Prometheus agreed to take on his immortality, and Chiron died, leaving most of the Centaurs to take refuge in Eleusis. Their mother (Nephele) aided them by summoning a rain storm but that didn’t deter Heracles who slaughtered a dozen including Daphnis, Argeius, Amphion, Hippotion, Oreius, Ispoples, Melanchaetes, Thereus, Doupon, Phrixus & Homadus.
Wedding reception gone bad: Rape of Hippodamia (The Lapiths and the Centaurs) (1636-1637), oil on canvas by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain. The painting was one of a large cycle of mythologies by Rubens for the Torre de la Parada, Philip IV's (1605–1665; King of Spain 1621-1665 and (as Philip III) King of Portugal 1621-1640) newly built hunting lodge on the outskirts of Madrid. One of Rubens’ oil sketches for the work is on display at Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique in Brussels, Belgium and is of interest to art students and critics because of the detail differences in the final composition.
The Centaurs also fought a legendary battle against the Lapiths (a Thessalian people who originally inhabited Pindus, Pelion and Ossa; they drove out the native people, the Pelasgians). Pirithous invited the Centaurs (who regarded themselves as his parents) to his wedding feast and it went well until, unaccustomed to the effects of wine, the Centaurs became drunk and one of them tried to rape (in the classical sense of "abduction") Deidamia (Pirithous' bride and more commonly known as Hippodamia), resulting in a violent brawl which ended with the Lapiths driving the Centaurs out of Thessaly after killing many. Containing so many wonderful subjects (Centaurs, a feast, a rape scene, a brawl), the disrupted wedding reception (which came to be known as “the Centauromachy”) for centuries drew artists to the theme. In Antiquity the Centaurs got a bad press because and they appear in other appear in other legends involving rape, abductions and violence. In many ways the myths can be deconstructed as violent soap operas with an undercurrent of licentiousness, typified by the tales of Eurytion attempting to rape Hippolyta or Mnesimache, the daughter of Dexamenus. In one version Dexamenus had betrothed his daughter to Azan (an Arcadian) and Eurytion (again as a guest at the wedding feast) attempted a kidnapping but was saved by the hero Heracles arrived in time to kill him, returning bride safely to groom. Most scribes were member of the Heracles admiration society and there also the story of how Heracles, on his way to Augias, seduced the girl, promising to marry her upon his return. While he was away, forcibly she was betrothed to Eurytion but just as the wedding ceremony was about to begin, Heracles stormed in, killed the Centaur and had himself declared her husband.
Whatever processes led to Chrysler Australia adopting the name “Centura” for their local version of the European Chrysler 180 (1970-1982) may still exist in the corporation’s archives but it seems the details have never been published though it can be assumed it was not an Anglicized adaptation of the Romanian centură (belt, girdle). In Latin centum meant "one hundred" and the term centuria referred to (1) a unit of the Roman army, nominally consisting of 100 soldiers (historians suggest in practice the establishments varied between 60-160) and headed by a centurion, (2) in real estate a unit of area, equal to 100 heredia or 200 iugera (circa 125 acres (50 hectares)), (3) a group of citizens eligible to vote, the system apparently one of the reforms introduced by Servius Tullius (king of Rome 578-535 BC) and based on the ownership of land, one of the many systems which, over millennia, have codified a relationship between ownership of property (usually land) with a right to in some way participate in the polity (usually by voting) and (4) figuratively or literally, things in some way related to "100". In modern Romance languages, things of course evolved: the Romanian centura (belt or girdle) was from the French ceinture (belt), from the Latin cinctura (girdle, belt), thus by extension used also to refer to the to beltways (ring roads) around cities. In Spanish & Portuguese, the related cintura (waist; belt) is from the same Latin root cingere (to gird; surround).
The name of the short-lived Chrysler Centura (1975-1978) may have been an allusion to the Centaurs of myth because, like them it had a dual nature, combining the platform of a European four-cylinder with a much more powerful (and heavier) Australian built six. That had been a concept Holden (the General Motors (GM) outpost) in 1969 introduced when they installed their six-cylinder engine in a modified Vauxhall Viva and called it the Torana. It proved a great success and Ford Australia in 1972 responded by fitting it’s even bigger sixes to the Cortina which, being longer than the Viva, didn’t need the four inch (100 mm) odd stretch of the wheelbase required for things (tightly) to fit in the Torana. Given the way local journalists would within a few years decry the inherently unbalanced Cortina six, it is remarkable how well the press received it upon debut.
Had the Centura been
released in 1973 as planned, it might have been a success but the timing was
unfortunate, the decision by the French government of Georges Pompidou
(1911–1974; President of France 1969-1974) to conduct tests of nuclear weapons
in its South Pacific territories causing the trade unions to blacklist French
goods arriving in ports (Australian trade unions in those days running an
independent foreign policy and the ACTU (Australian Council of Trade Unions) a
kind of co-government). As a consequence,
it wasn’t until 1975 the Centura arrived in showrooms and by then the market
had moved on, competition rather more intense.
Although the Centura offered class-leading performance (indeed, in a straight line
it could out-run some V8s) by virtue of its optional 4.0 litre (245
cubic inch) straight-six, increasingly buyers were more tempted by the
equipment levels and perceptions (sometimes true) of superior build quality and
economy of operation offered by vehicles with origins in the Far East. As it was, Chrysler in 1976 began local
production of the Japanese Mitsubishi Sigma and it proved a great success, even
without the six cylinder engine once thought such a selling point. Tellingly, although a prototype Centura with
the 5.2 litre (318 cubic inch) V8 was built, the project rapidly was abandoned. Officially, the explanation was the body
structure lacked the rigidity to come with the additional torque, the same
reason Ford never contemplated their V8 Cortina entering production; engineers
familiar with the structures of both platforms agree that was true of the
Cortina but maintain the Centura was robust enough and suspect both companies,
having observed the subdued demand for the V8 Holden Toranas (1974-1978)
decided Holden was welcome to its exclusive presence in the niche sector. Fewer than 20,000 Centuras were built during
its dismal three year run, a fraction of what was projected as its annual
production.
It’s not known if than Donald Trump (b 1946; US
president 2017-2021 & since 2025) is a student of Greek mythology (stranger
things have happened) but he did provide us with his unique version of the half
horse, half human beast, labeling pornographic actress & director Stormy
Daniels (Stephanie Gregory Clifford; b 1979) “horse face”. In
May, 2024, the memorable phrase returned to the news as matters came before
court related to “hush money” allegedly paid to Ms Daniels (on behalf the of
the President) in exchange for her maintaining a silence about a certain “intimate
encounter” they had shared, their apparently brief tryst including
her spanking him on the butt with a rolled-up magazine featuring his picture on
the cover. Mr Trump denies not only the
spanking but the very encounter, claiming it never happened. To give a flavor of the proceedings, at one
point counsel asked Ms Daniels: “Am I correct in that you hate President Trump?”
to which she replied: “Yes.” No
ambiguity there and although not discussed in court, her attitude may not
wholly be unrelated to Mr Trump’s rather ungracious description of her as “horse face”. Really, President Trump should have been more
respectful towards a three-time winner of F.A.M.E.'s (Fans of Adult Media and
Entertainment) much coveted annual “Favorite
Breasts” award.
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Born on the Isle of Mann,
Arthur Lemon spent his childhood in Rome before moving to California to work as
a cowboy; there he became a devotee of what he would call en plain air (by which he meant “an outdoor life”. Later he would return to Europe to study art
and for the rest of his life he would travel between Italy and England where
regularly he staged exhibitions at London's Royal Academy; his work most
associated with scenes of the Italian countryside and the daily lives of the
rural peasantry. Lemon's fine eye for
painting a Centaur was a thing of practice.
He became close friends with English artist Henry Scott Tuke
(1858–1929), noted for his prolific output of works in the Impressionist
tradition focused on nude adolescent boys and during the 1880s the pair for a time
lived Florence where they “spent time sketching male nudes in the Italian sunshine.”
Daphnis possessed the youthful beauty of the kind idealized by Tuke and
the many nymphs who so adored him. A
victim of that beauty, his life ended badly.
The artistic approach of Lemon and Tuke was interesting in that their
nude youths often were shown in a contemporary setting and in that they
differed from the many paintings and sculptures of Ancient Greek gods and mythological
which, historically, enabled an exploration of the male nude without upsetting
public decency; what Lemon and Tuke especially did was eroticise their young
subjects. From his time as a cowboy,
Lemon was well acquainted with the physicality of the horse and knew from his
studies that in Greek art Centaurs often were depicted as highly sexed figures;
being not wholly human, Centaurs could be treated as creatures able to ignore
the strict moral expectations of society and accordingly, formed their own
community. Lemon and Tuke in their own
ways noted this and both took the Centaur as something of a model although
while Lemon devoted much of his energy to painting horses, Tuke’s attention on
the nude male youth was an obsession and today, among sections of the gay
community, he’s a minor cult.
