Editing Centaur (section)

==Variations==
===Female centaurs===
{{main|Centaurides}}
[[File:GiorcesBardo55.jpg|thumb|Female centaurs flanking [[Venus (mythology)|Venus]] (Mosaic from Roman Tunisia, 2nd century AD)]]
Though female centaurs, called [[centaurides]] or centauresses, are not mentioned in early Greek literature and art, they do appear occasionally in later antiquity. A [[Macedon]]ian mosaic of the 4th century BC is one of the earliest examples of the centauress in art.<ref>Pella Archaeological Museum</ref>  [[Ovid]] also mentions a centauress named [[Hylonome]]{{efn-lr|The name ''Hylonome'' is Greek, so Ovid may have drawn her story from an earlier Greek writer.}} who committed suicide when her husband [[Cyllarus]] was killed in the war with the Lapiths.<ref>[[Ovid]], ''Metamorphoses'' 12.210 ff.</ref>

===India===
The Kalibangan [[cylinder seal]], dated to be around 2600–1900 BC,<ref name="MMA239" /> found at the site of [[Indus-Valley civilization]] shows a battle between men in the presence of centaur-like creatures.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Ameri |first1=Marta |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mu9UDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT255 |title=Seals and Sealing in the Ancient World: Case Studies from the Near East, Egypt, the Aegean, and South Asia |last2=Costello |first2=Sarah Kielt |last3=Jamison |first3=Gregg |last4=Scott |first4=Sarah Jarmer |date=2018 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781108168694 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="MMA239">{{cite book |title=Art of the first cities : the third millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus. |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |pages=239–246 |url=https://archive.org/details/ArtOfTheFirstCitiesTheThirdMillenniumB.C.FromTheMediterraneanToTheIndusEditedByJ/page/n263 |language=en}}</ref> Other sources claim the creatures represented are actually half human and half tigers, later evolving into the [[Hindu]] [[Durga|Goddess of War]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Deciphering the Indus Script| publisher=Cambridge Univ. Press|last=Parpola |first=Asko}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.harappa.com/blog/indus-cylinder-seals |title=Indus Cylinder Seals |date=May 4, 2016 |website=Harappa.com |access-date=July 16, 2019 |archive-date=October 23, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201023084326/https://www.harappa.com/blog/indus-cylinder-seals |url-status=live }}</ref> These seals are also evidence of [[Indus-Mesopotamia relations]] in the 3rd millennium BC.

In a popular legend associated with [[Pazhaya Sreekanteswaram Temple]] in [[Thiruvananthapuram]], the curse of a saintly [[Brahmin]] transformed a handsome [[Yadava]] prince into a creature having a horse's body and the prince's head, arms, and torso in place of the head and neck of the horse.

[[Kinnara kingdom|Kinnaras]], another half-man, half-horse mythical creature from [[Indian epic poetry|Indian mythology]], appeared in various ancient texts, arts, and sculptures from all around [[India]]. It is shown as a horse with the torso of a man where the horse's head would be, and is similar to a Greek centaur.<ref>Devdutt Pattanaik, "Indian mythology : tales, symbols, and rituals from the heart of the Subcontinent" (Rochester, USA 2003)  P.74: {{ISBN|0-89281-870-0}}.</ref><ref>K. Krishna Murthy, ''Mythical Animals in Indian Art'' (New Delhi, India 1985).</ref>

===Russia===
A centaur-like half-human, half-equine creature called ''[[Polkan]]'' appeared in Russian folk art and [[lubok]] prints of the 17th–19th centuries. Polkan is originally based on ''Pulicane'', a half-dog from [[Andrea da Barberino]]'s poem ''I Reali di Francia'', which was once popular in the Slavonic world in prosaic translations.