| Centaurs | |
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Real Name |
Centaurs, Hippocentaur, Ixionidae |
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First Appearance |
Greek Myth |
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Created by |
Greek Myth |
Origin[]
A centaur is a creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse that was said to live in the mountains of Thessaly. In one version of the myth, the centaurs were named after Centaurus, and, through his brother Lapithes, were kin to the legendary tribe of the Lapiths.
The centaurs were usually said to have been born of Ixion and Nephele. As the story goes, Nephele was a cloud made into the likeness of Hera in a plot to trick Ixion into revealing his lust for Hera to Zeus. Ixion seduced Nephele and from that relationship centaurs were created. Another version, however, makes them children of Centaurus, a man who mated with the Magnesian mares. Centaurus was either himself the son of Ixion and Nephele (inserting an additional generation) or of Apollo and the nymph Stilbe. In the latter version of the story, Centaurus's twin brother was Lapithes, ancestor of the Lapiths.
Another tribe of centaurs was said to have lived on Cyprus. According to Nonnus, the Cyprian Centaurs were fathered by Zeus, who, in frustration after Aphrodite had eluded him, spilled his seed on the ground of that land. Unlike those of mainland Greece, the Cyprian centaurs were ox-horned.
The Centaurs are best known for their fight with the Lapiths who, according to one origin myth, would have been cousins to the centaurs. The battle, called the Centauromachy, was caused by the centaurs' attempt to carry off Hippodamia and the rest of the Lapith women on the day of Hippodamia's marriage to Pirithous, who was the king of the Lapithae and a son of Ixion. Theseus, a hero and founder of cities, who happened to be present, threw the balance in favour of the Lapiths by assisting Pirithous in the battle. The Centaurs were driven off or destroyed. Another Lapith hero, Caeneus, who was invulnerable to weapons, was beaten into the earth by Centaurs wielding rocks and the branches of trees.
Public Domain Appearances[]
All published appearances of Centaurs from before January 1, 1929 are in the public domain in the US.
Notable appearances include:
Public Domain Literary Appearances[]
- The Iliad
- The Odyssey
- Catalogues of Women Fragments
- Odes
- Pindar, Fragments
- Greek Elegaic Theognis, Fragments
- Apollodorus, The Library
- The Argonautica
- The Library of History (Diodorus Siculus)
- Strabo, Geography
- Description of Greece
- Plutarch, Lives
- Aelian, On Animals
- Aelian, Historical Miscellany
- Philostratus the Elder, Imagines
- Callistratus, Descriptions
- Ptolemy Hephaestion, New History
Public Domain Comic Appearances[]
- Captain Wizard #1
- Meteor #1
- Amazing Mystery Funnies #8-24
- Wham Comics #1