chapter 6 From Chiron to Foaly: The Centaur in Classical Mythology and Fantasy Literature1
Lisa Maurice
The figure of the centaur is a well-known, yet ambiguous, character in classical mythology that, even in the ancient world, represented the union of human and animal in both a positive and negative light. These different traditions associated with centaurs have filtered through to the portrayal of centaurs in fantasy literature, where they feature regularly. In this paper I outline the figure of the centaur in classical Greek mythology, and then briefly consider its recep- tion through the medieval period to modern juvenile fantasy literature in the writing of C.S. Lewis, J.K. Rowling, Eoin Colfer, Rick Riordan, Diana Wynne Jones and Ellen Jensen Abbot, contextualizing these receptions within the framework of recent work in animal studies.
1 Centaurs in Classical Mythology
1.1 The Physical Appearance of the Centaur With the exception of Chiron, who is depicted wearing clothing, and with human legs with the hindquarters of a horse attached to them (See Figure 6.1),2 centaurs are usually depicted with the torso of a human joined at the waist to the horse’s withers, and unclothed, although some early painted vases from Attica and Boeotia depict them as naked versions of the Chiron model. The physical difficulties of such a cross breed were not lost on the ancients. Lucretius, for example, stated that centaurs could not exist since humans and animals mature and develop at different rates.3 Galen, too, explains at length why cen- taurs were a physical impossibility.4 This did not prevent their continuing popularity, however, as the subject of art and literature throughout the Greco- Roman world. But how were these creatures portrayed, and what was their nature? In truth, the figure of the centaur, even in the ancient world, represented
1 I am very grateful to Brill’s anonymous reader for many helpful comments on this paper. 2 Musée du Louvre G3;ARV2, 11.53 no. 1, 1618; bad 200435. 3 Lucretius De Rerum Natura 5.878–91. 4 Galen de Usu Partium 3.1–3 (3.168–184 K=1.123–134 Helmreich).
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���� | doi 10.1163/9789004298606_008
Figure 6.1 Vase depicting a clothed Chiron, together with Achilles, sixth century bce. Photocredits: photo © RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre)/Hervé Lewandowski the union of human and animal in a very ambivalent way, for two parallel tra- ditions seem to have emerged, the first concerning one particular centaur, Chiron, and the second regarding the rest.
1.2 Chiron Chiron was markedly different to the rest of the tribe of centaurs, not only in character, but also in origin. Unlike the other centaurs, Chiron was immortal, a son of Chronos and the nymph Philyra. According to one version of the myth, Philyra turned herself into a mare in an attempt to escape Chronos, but was thwarted when he too turned himself into a stallion and fell upon her.5 An alternative account omits the rape motif and presents Philyra as a willing mate, explaining that the pair were in the act of procreating when Rhea, the wife of Chronos, appeared, and that Chronos transformed himself into a horse to escape his wife’s notice. According to both traditions, the result of this coupling between Kronos and Philyra was Chiron, a son who was half horse, half man.6
5 Sch. Ap. Rh. 1.554. 6 Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 8 – 9; Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 2. 1231–41 with Sch. Ap. Rh. Ibid.; Callimachus, Hymn 4 to Delos 104 ff; Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 138; Ovid, Metamorphoses 6. 126 ff and 7. 352 ff; Pliny the Elder, Natural History 7. 197; Nonnus, Dionysiaca 48. 77 ff.