Editing Centaur (section)

==Mythology==
[[File:Foundry Painter ARV 402 22 Lapiths fighting centaurs (01).jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Centauromachy, [[Tondo (art)|tondo]] of an [[Red-figure pottery|Attic red-figure]] [[kylix (drinking cup)|kylix]], {{Circa|480 BC}}|alt=]]

===Creation of centaurs===
The centaurs were usually said to have been born of [[Ixion]] and [[Nephele]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Nash |first=Harvey |date=June 1984 |title=The Centaur's Origin: A Psychological Perspective |journal=The Classical World |volume=77 |issue=5 |pages=273–291 |doi=10.2307/4349592 |jstor=4349592}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Alexander |first=Jonathann |title=Tzetzes, Chiliades 9 |url=https://www.theoi.com/Text/TzetzesChiliades9.html#20 |access-date=February 28, 2019 |website=Theoi.com |publisher=Theoi Project |archive-date=November 23, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201123201140/https://www.theoi.com/Text/TzetzesChiliades9.html#20 |url-status=live }}</ref> Another version, however, makes them children of [[Centaurus (Greek mythology)|Centaurus]], a man who mated with the [[Magnesia (regional unit)|Magnesia]]n 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 (hero)|Lapithes]], ancestor of the [[Lapith]]s.

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.<ref>[[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]''  5.611 ff., 14.193 ff. & 32.65 ff.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=CYPRIAN CENTAURS (Kentauroi Kyprioi) - Half-Horse Men of Greek Mythology |url=http://www.theoi.com/Georgikos/KentauroiKyprioi.html |website=www.theoi.com |access-date=March 15, 2016 |archive-date=November 23, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201123192044/https://www.theoi.com/Georgikos/KentauroiKyprioi.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

There were also the '''Lamian Pheres''', twelve rustic [[daimon]]es (spirits) of the [[Lamos (Cilicia)|Lamos river]]. They were set by [[Zeus]] to guard the infant [[Dionysos]], protecting him from the machinations of [[Hera]], but the enraged goddess transformed them into ox-horned Centaurs unrelated to the Cyprian Centaurs. The Lamian Pheres later accompanied Dionysos in his campaign against the Indians.<ref>{{Cite web |title=LAMIAN PHERES - Centaurs of Dionysus in Greek Mythology |url=http://www.theoi.com/Georgikos/PheresLamioi.html |website=www.theoi.com |access-date=March 15, 2016 |archive-date=June 6, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190606105253/https://www.theoi.com/Georgikos/PheresLamioi.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

The centaur's half-human, half-horse composition has led many writers to treat them as [[liminal being]]s, caught between the two natures they embody in contrasting myths; they are both the embodiment of untamed nature, as in their battle with the Lapiths (their kin), and conversely, teachers like [[Chiron]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Chiron {{!}} Greek mythology {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Chiron-Greek-mythology |access-date=October 27, 2022 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en |archive-date=October 27, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221027002108/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Chiron-Greek-mythology |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Centauromachy===
[[File:Centaur lifting a rock, Attic red-figured kylix, by the Bonn Painter, 510-500 BC, inv. 16514 - Museo Gregoriano Etrusco - Vatican Museums - DSC01053.jpg|thumb|Centaur carrying a boulder, [[Attica|Attic]] red-figured [[kylix]], c. 510&ndash;500 BC]]
[[File:Ac marbles.jpg|thumb|Centaur in battle with a [[Lapith]], on South Metope 31 of the [[Parthenon]], c. 447&ndash;438 BC<ref>[[British Museum]], [https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1816-0610-15 1816,0610.15].</ref>]]
The Centaurs are best known for their fight with the [[Lapith]]s 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 (wife of Pirithous)|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.<ref>[[Plutarch]], ''Theseus'' 30</ref><ref>Ovid, ''Metamorphoses'' 12.210</ref><ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]]iv. pp. 69-70.</ref> Another Lapith hero, [[Caeneus]], who was invulnerable to weapons, was beaten into the earth by Centaurs wielding rocks and the branches of trees. In her article "The Centaur: Its History and Meaning in Human Culture", Elizabeth Lawrence claims that the contests between the centaurs and the Lapiths typify the struggle between civilization and barbarism.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lawrence |first=Elizabeth Atwood |date=1994 |title=The Centaur: Its History and Meaning in Human Culture |journal=Journal of Popular Culture |volume=27 |issue=4 |page=58 |doi=10.1111/j.0022-3840.1994.2704_57.x}}</ref>

The Centauromachy is most famously portrayed in the [[metopes of the Parthenon]] by [[Phidias]] and in the ''[[Battle of the Centaurs (Michelangelo)|Battle of the Centaurs]]'', a relief by [[Michelangelo]].