Ancient Greek Centaurs: The Monster's Body

A similar view can be found in Strabo’s ethnography when he describes the tribe’s people of Gaul as barbaric and exotic due to their custom of hanging the decapitated heads of their enemies around their horses necks after a victorious battle (Strabo 12). Both Strabo and Ammianus insinuate that the tribes violent cultures result from their exotic customs and gruesome characteristics. These prejudice undertones are born out of the Roman value of mos maiorum (the way of the elders). The Romans avoided change and valued keeping old traditions and customs passed down from previous generations; to illustrate, Strabo and Ammianus were prejudice towards the lack of uniformity and continuity of the tribes peoples strange customs and differing characteristics. Prejudice is only one of the ways we can see Roman bias in these ethnographies.

Today’s society defines a monster as a person or animal with unnatural qualities. These characteristics can be physical, mental, and can pertain to the way someone acts among other human beings. Any action or look that is beyond what humankind perceives as normal adopts the title of monster. Often in literature the monsters that are created are meant to portray the thoughts that society has as to what qualifies someone to be a monster. Many humans can have monstrous qualities, but the significance is in whether or not those qualities determine the trajectory of the person’s life and makes them unrecognizable that they can be described as a monster. Gilgamesh and Grendal seek to fulfill their monstrous desires motivated by ego and jealousy, but it is when one loses touch with their humanity that they become a monster.

Commonly characterized as a mythological creature containing the upper half of a human and the lower half of a horse, Merriam-Webster defines a centaur as the following: “any of a race of creatures fabled to be half human and half horse and to live in the mountains of Thessaly” (“Centaur”). But how did the conception of a centaur first occur? What and where is its origin? And what about centaurs has captured the attention of people for hundreds of years? Many scholars, both modern and ancient, have debated over the origin and role of centaurs, and have come up with conclusions ranging from descendance from Gods to the misinterpretation of a skilled horseback rider. However, these scholars, with a few exceptions, have come to the conclusion that most centaurs represent the wildness of life, animal desires, barbarism. From the ancient Library of Apollodorus, to J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter series, ancient and modern authors alike have written about centaurs in books and stories. This paper discusses the potential origins of centaurs, how their description developed over time, and their role in both Ancient Greek mythology and modern literature.

They are under beds, hiding in the dark, and slithering in the sea. The word, “monster”, has a specific meaning to it that most associate with a big, frightening figure. However, use of the word monster has changed throughout time do to pagan influences and American slang. It is still associated with a beastly creature, but can be used to describe amazing feats and wonders as the old French word once did. The definition of Monster has stayed consistent due to storytelling, yet evolved from its humble beginnings.

The tales of heroes and monsters have been interwoven into humanity’s storytelling since the age of oral history, through the times of Greek tragedies and Shakespeare, chugged along through the origins of the world’s most famous mouse, and transplanted themselves into modern iterations of the same principal tales. Many of these stories are created in an attempt to explain, rationalize or debunk certain fears, or sociological ideals, that are present in the era. These stories are so diverse in content as well as context that one can only look at a small portion of these fables at a time. A common, recurring theme within these stories is the role that religious interpretation plays in the creation of the monster, a concept that transcends religious

In the myths of the Centauromachy and the Amazonomachy, the Greeks found a manuscript for moral and disciplinary guidance in their dealings with the women of the time. By assigning the women of Greece hybris, Greek men targeted the women of Greece to intense programs of subjugation and social retribution in order to prevent the emergence of Centaurian or Amazonian traits, which would destroy the patriarchal nature of Archaic Greek culture. Generally, Greek myths tend to exemplify gender profiling as a way to polarize the sexes in order to maintain a stable and workable patriarchy. This is evidenced in the Centauromachy and Amazonomachy, which identify undesirable and inherent

Horace Miner writes about the Nacirema, a culture steeped in magic and superstition. Their ways of life are portrayed as uncivilized and barbaric. The Nacirema perform rituals and rites that are strange to us here in the civilized world. The description and portrayal of this tribe make it very hard for the reader to connect or even begin to understand such a strange people. Miner starts of the article creating an atmosphere of wonderment; “if all of the logically possible combinations of behavior have not been found somewhere in the world, he(anthropologist) is apt to suspect that they must be present in some yet undescribed tribe”(Miner:1956:503). And that tribe is the Nacirema, a foreign and strange people to whom we in the western

But while Herodotus and Vespucci use similar strategies in evoking the marvels of the far reaches of the world, what of the darker shadows on the edge? Both authors do claim that monstrous things can hide on the fringes of maps, and as Grafton points out, Vespucci’s descriptions of his “monsters” often echo older texts like the Histories. For example, both Europeans of Vespucci’s day and Herodotus’s Greeks loathed cannibalism, so cannibals serve as appropriate menaces for the reader seeking knowledge about the world’s farther regions. In his Histories, Herodotus writes that a people called the Padaei have a custom that “when a man falls sick, his closest companions kill him because, as they put it, their meat would be spoiled if he were

Although the idea of daemons as animal-shaped, external companions found their full appeal in the worlds of His Dark Materials, the concept of daemons itself is far older. The word originates from the Ancient Greek daimon, which meant “god” or “guiding spirit,” aptly describing its role in ancient Greek mythology (Daimon, dictionary.com). Zeus, the king of the gods, assigned daemons as nameless protectors, guiding humans throughout their lives. As such, they served as guardian spirits with the status of lesser deities (Bruner, pages 15 – 16). In particular, one Ancient Greek philosopher, Socrates, mentioned daemons by name when he claimed that an inner voice often warned him against unwise decisions. He called this voice a “daimonion,”

When hearing words honor, shame, and fate, many people regard this concepts as a something that was only significant far back in the past. These concepts, however, always play a dominant role in a society because it provides different cultural values to each country. This function of honor, shame, and fate in the social life is where the individual sense of one’s identity comes from. In the works of The Iliad and Chushingura, this concept of honor, shame, and fate play different roles, therefore, separate one culture from the other, but these factors ultimately unites together to explain prominent social values in both cultures.

Greek mythology had an extensive use of anthropomorphism (anthro.) and mythical creatures that were considered symbolic. Such as the three headed dog, who has been believed to be the guardian of the realm of death, or hades, Cerberus. It was said that he would prevent those who crossed The River of Death (Styx). The River of Death or Styx was supposed to be the boundary between Earth and the Underworld; it was so long that the Underworld was encircled nine times.

“They were half man, half horse and for the most part they were savage creatures more like beast than men (hamilton 40). I think of centaurs as very crazy with outgoing appearances. I'm pretty sure most of them were like that. “Because of their behavior centaurs were something showen pulling the chariot of dionysus (Bacchus), the god of wine and revelry. At other times they were pictured being ridden by Eros the god of love, because of their lustful ways (centaurs). But that was only some of them. “Not all creatures were savage brutes. One such exception was charon who became a teacher of medicine, music, hunting, and archery.”(“centaurs”). “Most centaurs brutal violent creatures known for their drunkenness and law less behavior. They lived mainly around mount pelion in thessaly, a region at north eastern greece.(“centaurs”).All of them were different in many ways like us they all have different personalities. “Origin of centaurs, according to one account centaurs were centaurs, a son of

Rituals contain symbols with significance, and often a deeper meaning. The symbols used in the Ancient Greek animal sacrifice were the altar, water, barley seeds and the knife (machaira). The knife (machaira) is a knife was used in sacrifices, it was confined only to sacrificial use and not battlefield, the use of this knife was to symbolise that it was non violent because, it was not considered a violent weapon as it had not been in human battles and as sacrifices were made sure to be non violent with all participants willing. Water, water is used in the ritual when the priest sprinkles the animals head with it, this is a symbol of purity as the sacrificial victim needed to be pure for the gods to accept.

This book is about mythology, mythology is very vast and it consists of many topics. I prefered to read about mythical beasts because most of the creatures are very unique and I enjoy learning how these treacherous creatures were defeated. Furthermore, the beasts created by these cultures are very unique and powerful. It’s onerous to explain but reading about these mythical creatures is very captivating and compelling. An example of a mythical beast is the Chimera.

In Ancient Greece and Rome, famous people, such as Archimedes, were known to have worked with marionettes. Aristotle referenced the pulling strings to control heads, hands, eyes, and other such things. Plato made writings about puppeteering. The oldest written record of puppetry can be found in the written records of Xenophon, dating from around 422 B.C. In children’s tombs, clay and a few ivory dolls were found (“History” Wel Ya). These dolls had articulated arms and legs, and rods, or strings, in it to control it from above. It is so fascinating that archaeologists have been able to find evidence of puppetry from so long