Centaurs in Greek mythology are creatures with the head and torso of a man and the body of a horse. Centaurs had horse ears, rough and bearded faces. As a rule, they were naked and armed with a club, a stone or a bow. In the earliest images, centaurs were endowed with both human and horse genitalia. According to Pindar's Pythian, the centaurs were considered descendants - direct or through their common ancestor Centaur - the Thessalian king of the Lapith tribe, the titan Ixion, the son of Ares, and the cloud, which, at the behest of Zeus, took the form of Hera, which Ixion attempted( ) Harpies - hideous winged maidens from Greek lore
In ancient Greek myths, harpies are depicted as vicious winged creatures of a hideous appearance with the head, chest and hips of a woman and the body of a bird with vulture wings, long sharp hooked claws and cheeks eternally pale from hunger. Images of harpies and sirens similar to them (they were considered cousins) were preserved on tombstones and antique vases. Thanks to these images, one can judge what these creatures looked like (at least, as the ancient Greeks saw them). Harpies were considered one of the most ferocious and ugly characters in Greek mythology. They suddenly swooped in and disappeared( ) Sirens - half-maiden-half-birds with a divine voice from Greek mythology
Sirens were presented in the form of winged maidens, maidens with a fish tail or maidens with a bird's body and clawed bird paws. Apollodorus or Pseudo-Apollodorus in the "Mythological Library" wrote about three sirens: Peisinoe, Aglaoth and Telxiepia. They were virgins of wonderful beauty with a charming voice, which they inherited from their mother Melpomene, Terpsichore or Calliope. One of the sirens played the cithara, the other sang, the third played the flute. With the sounds of their songs, the sirens lulled the travelers, and then tore them apart and devoured them. The wild and vicious disposition of the sirens was inherited from their father Phorkis or Achelous( )
Which of the mythical creatures has the body of a horse? and got the best answer
Answer from Yamil Musin[guru]
Centaurs (other Greek Κένταυροι, singular Κένταυρος) in Greek mythology are a race of creatures with the head and torso of a man on the body of a horse.
Centaurs (K e n t a u r o i) wild creatures, half-humans, half-horses, mortal inhabitants of mountains and forest thickets, distinguished by violent temper and intemperance. Their mixanthropism is explained by the fact that they were born from Ixion and a cloud that, at the behest of Zeus, took the form of Hera, whom Ixion attempted (Pind. Pyth. II 21-48).
Centaurs live on Mount Pelion and fight with their neighbors Lapiths (centauromachia), trying to steal wives from this tribe for themselves (Ovid. Met. XII 210-535). A special place among the centaurs is occupied by two - Chiron and Foul, embodying wisdom and benevolence.
After the centaurs were defeated by Hercules, they were ousted from Thessaly and settled throughout Greece. Poseidon took the centaurs under his protection. In heroic myths, some of the centaurs are the educators of heroes (Jason, Achilles), others are hostile to the world of heroes (Eurition tries to kidnap the bride of Pirithous, Ness attempts on Dejanira and is the cause of the death of Hercules).
The word "centaur" (other - Greek κένταυρος, kentauros), or the Latinized version - "centaur" (lat. centaurus), is traditionally raised to a word formation consisting of two Greek roots: kenteo - to prick and tauros - bull, which can be interpreted and as a bull-killer or bull hunter, and as a bull-driver or even a cowboy.
Known Centaurs:
Chiron - teacher of Achilles, Jason and other heroes
Nessus - responsible for the death of Hercules
Anky - fought with Hercules during his campaign for the Erifman boar
Agria - fought with Hercules during his campaign for the Erymanthian boar
Ouray - fought with Hercules during his campaign for the Erymanthian boar
Gilaeus - fought with Hercules during his campaign for the Erymanthian boar
Foul - accidentally scratched by Hercules' poisoned arrow during the latter's fifth labor and died
Homad - tried to dishonor Eurystheus' sister Alcyone. Killed by Hercules
Pilenor - washed the wound from the arrow of Hercules in the river, which is why the river acquired a bad smell
Mole (Krotos) - half-brother of the Muses, lived on Helikon, became the constellation of Sagittarius
Eurytus (Eurition) - at the wedding of Hippodamia and Pirithous, he tried to kidnap the bride, because of which the war of the Lapiths with the centaurs began
Answer from Ўlya Shiralieva[guru]
centaur
Answer from Stormbringer[guru]
centaur
Answer from A drop[guru]
The centaurs.
Answer from Otter (that one)[guru]
Centaurs [edit] From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This term has other meanings, see Centaur (disambiguation). Centaurs (other Greek Κένταυροι, singular Κέ&
Answer from Olga Romanova[guru]
Minotaur
Answer from Kira[master]
Centaurs.
Answer from Ivan Razumov[guru]
Sobchak (the head is also part of the body)
Answer from Evgeny Melnikov[guru]
Minotaur on two legs was with a bull's head and horns
Answer from Dmitry Kosyakov[expert]
centaur
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Hipogryph. The back half is horse, and the front half is from a bird of prey. In Harry Potter (3 hours or something), they drew him well.
Answer from ALIA 102[guru]
People, well, you give! Minotaur, cinematograph. seen avatars...
companion
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Centaur
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Centaur
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Centaur
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Hello! Here is a selection of topics with answers to your question: Which of the mythical creatures has the body of a horse?
The centaur could also be winged. In all these cases, he remained a man-horse. In the Middle Ages, the onocentaur (a combination of a man and a donkey), the bukentaur (a buffalo man) and the leontocentaur (a lion man) appeared. IN Indian art known image of a man with the legs of a buffalo (or horse) and the tail of a fish. To refer to creatures that do not look like a horse, but retain the features of a centaur, the term "centauroids" is used in the scientific literature. The image of the centaur, apparently, arose in Babylon in the 2nd millennium BC. e. Kassite nomads who came to Mesopotamia from Iran around 1750 BC. e., waged a fierce struggle with Egypt and Assyria for dominion in the Middle East. Along the borders of their empire, the Kassites erected huge stone statues of guardian gods, among them centaurs. One of them depicted a winged creature with a horse's body, two faces - a human, looking forward, and a dragon, looking back, and two tails (horse and scorpion); in the hands - a bow with a stretched bowstring. Another well-known monument is a sculpture of a classical centaur without wings, with one head and one tail, ready to shoot at the enemy with his bow. Of course, the fact that the Kassites depicted the centaur in their sculptures does not mean at all that they invented it, but since the Kassite empire ceased to exist by the middle of the 12th century BC. e., we can rightfully assert that the history of the centaur has more than three thousand years.
The appearance of the image of a centaur indicates that already during the time of the Kassites, the horse played important role In human life. The oldest mention of a horse - "donkey from the west" or "mountain donkey" - we find on a clay Babylonian tablet dating back to 2100 BC. e. However, centuries passed before the horse became a familiar companion in the Middle East. It is very likely that the Kassite nomads contributed to the spread of the horse and chariots. Perhaps the ancient farmers perceived horse riders as an integral being, but, most likely, the inhabitants of the Mediterranean, prone to inventing “composite” creatures, having invented the centaur, thus simply reflected the spread of the horse.
So, the creature known as the centaur appeared in the Middle East between 1750 and 1250 BC. e. and served as a guardian spirit, whose main weapon was a bow and arrow. The Kassites, who had extensive trade relations, brought the centaur to the Mycenaean civilization, which also disappeared by the middle of the 12th century BC. e. From Crete he came to Ancient Greece. Depiction of Theseus' battle with a centaur on an amphora of the 8th century BC. e. indicates that by this time the Greeks had already managed to develop a mythology that absorbed the Mycenaean heroes.
Centaurs in Greek mythology are creatures with the head and torso of a man and the body of a horse. Centaurs had horse ears, rough and bearded faces. As a rule, they were naked and armed with a club, a stone or a bow. In the earliest images, centaurs were endowed with both human and horse genitalia.
According to the "Pythian" of Pindar (c. 518-442 or 438 BC), the centaurs were considered descendants - direct or through their common ancestor of the Centaur - the Thessalian king of the Lapith tribe, the titan Ixion, son of Ares, and the cloud, which took on the will of Zeus in the form Hera, whom Ixion attempted (according to another interpretation, the descendants of Ixion and the titanides of the clouds of Nephele, other Greek “cloud”, “cloud”) “And Ixion lit the imperious heart of the goddess Hera with the fire of a titan. That fire did not hide from the peacekeeper, he decided to punish Ixion. And, according to the insidious intention of Kronid, a cloudy ghost in the form of Hera descended from the sky to Ixion to cool the heat of the fire in the leader of the Lapits. And it was not a deceitful ghost, but the goddess of the clouds Nephele: she deceived Nephele the sly Zeus. And from Ixion the Titan gave birth to Nephele a wonder: not a man, not a horse, not a tree, not a titan, not a god and not a beast, but both, and another, and the third: he was a horse, and a man, and a tree - a piece of the beast , god and titan. He was mortal and he was immortal. Ya.E. Golosovker "Tales of the Titans"
According to the Thessalian legends as presented by Lucan (39-65 AD), Nephele gave birth to centaurs in the Pelephronian cave. According to another myth, they were the children of the Centaur - the son of Apollo and the Oceanid (daughter of the Ocean and Tethys) or the daughter of the river god Peneus and the nymph Creusa, Stilba. According to another legend, the centaurs were the sons of Apollo himself. Diodorus Siculus (approx. 90 - 30 BC) cites in the "Historical Library" the views that existed in his time that the centaurs were raised on the Pelion peninsula by nymphs and, having matured, entered into a relationship with the Magnesian mares, from which gave birth to two-natural centaurs or hippocentaurs. According to another myth, a descendant of Apollo, the Centaur, entered into a relationship with the Magnesian mares. Isidore of Seville (c. 560 - 636). in "Etymology" he wrote "Hippocentaurs have a mixed nature - a man and a horse, their head is covered with hair, like animals, but otherwise they look like ordinary people and can even speak, but since their lips are unaccustomed to human speech, then from the published they cannot isolate words from sounds. They are called hippocentaurs, because it is believed that they combined human and horse nature.
Pliny (c. 23-79 AD) in his Natural History wrote that he saw a hippocentaur preserved in honey and sent from Egypt as a gift to the emperor. “Caesar Claudius, brother of Caligula, writes that a hippocentaur was born in Thessaly and died on the same day, and during the reign of this emperor we saw how a similar creature was brought in honey from Egypt” The Odyssey describes the story of how a centaur Eurytion, invited to the wedding of Peyritoon, got drunk with wine and tried to dishonor the bride. As punishment, they cut off his ears and nose and threw him out. The centaur called his brethren to revenge, and after some time a battle took place in which the centaurs were defeated.
The Greeks, who bred and loved horses, were well acquainted with their temper. It is no coincidence that it was the nature of the horse that they associated with the unpredictable manifestations of violence in this generally positive creature. The Greek centaur is practically a man, but his behavior changes dramatically under the influence of wine. Homer writes: “It is wine that is responsible for the atrocities that the famous centaur Eurytion perpetrated in the palace of the generous Peyritoon in Lapit. His mind went wild with intoxication. And in his rage, he did a lot of trouble in the house of Peyritoon ... Since then, the enmity between people and centaurs has continued. And he was the first to feel the evil of drunkenness." The centaur was a popular subject in vase painting. Its artistic embodiment depended on which centaur was depicted on the vase. The two most "civilized" centaurs - Cheiron and Tholos - were usually depicted with human legs, while the entire back of their bodies remained horse-like. Heiron is almost always dressed, he could have human ears. Pholos, on the contrary, most often appears naked and always with horse ears.
The centaur with four horse legs was perceived by the Greeks more as an animal than as a man. Despite having a human head, his ears are almost always those of a horse, and his face is rough and bearded. The centaur, as a rule, was depicted naked, with male and horse genitals at the same time. The image of a centaur, of course, was not common to all of Greece: in its continental part, centaurs were depicted with disheveled long hair, and in Ionia and Etruria - with short ones. These creatures did not necessarily carry a bow, more often a log or cobblestone. The depiction of the death of Caineus at the battle of Lapita can be called a classic: the centaurs bury the dying hero under a mountain of logs and stones.
On the vase of the work of Clytius (560 BC), both types of centaurs are depicted: on the one hand, Cheiron, dressed in a tunic and leading the procession of the gods in honor of the newlywed couple (Peleus and Thetia), friendly welcomes the groom; on the reverse side is a scene from the Battle of Lapita. The painting symbolizes the dual nature of the centaurs, opposing Cheiron, who obeyed the order established by people, and other centaurs who threaten this order with their wild disposition.
These two types are not the only ones, but only the most common in Greece. In addition to them, winged centaurs were depicted, indicating that the Kassite tradition did not die completely. Several Cypriot terracotta figures of the 7th century BC. e. can rightly be called "centauroids." Unlike the Minotaur with a human body and a buffalo head, these creatures have human heads (sometimes with horns) and buffalo bodies, which is probably associated with the cult of the bull, the god of fertility.
Most often, centaurs were characterized as wild and unrestrained, with an unpredictable manifestation of violence, creatures in which animal nature prevailed. Centaurs were distinguished by riot, a penchant for drunkenness and hostility to people. But wise centaurs were also known among them, first of all, the already mentioned Phol and Chiron, friends and teachers of Hercules and others. A popular poetic plot of antiquity, displayed in the Parthenon of Phidias (c. 490 BC - c. 430 BC), sung in Ovid's Metamorphoses (43 BC - 17 AD). BC) and Rubens was inspired by the centauromachia - the battle of the Lapiths with the centaurs, which flared up due to the unbridled temper of the latter at the wedding feast of the king of the Lapiths, Pirithous. “The Odyssey of Homer also describes the story of how the centaur Eurytion, invited to the wedding of Pirithous, got drunk on wine and tried to dishonor the bride. As punishment, they cut off his ears and nose and threw him out. The centaur called his brethren to revenge, and after some time a battle took place in which the centaurs were defeated.
If in Greece the centaur was the embodiment of animal qualities incompatible with human nature, unbridled passions and immoderate sexuality, then in Ancient Rome he turned into a peaceful companion of Dionysus and Eros. The greatest contribution to the formation of the Roman version of the image of the centaur was made by Ovid (43 BC - c. 18 AD) in Metamorphoses.
The death of the centaurs and their role in the death of Hercules
Centaurs lived in the mountains of Thessaly until the day when they were defeated by the Lapiths and Hercules scattered them throughout Hellas. Most of the centaurs, according to the tragedy of Euripides "Hercules" (416 BC) were killed by Hercules. Those who escaped him listened to the sirens, stopped eating and starved to death. According to one story, Poseidon hid them in a mountain in Eleusis.
The centaur Nessus, according to Sophocles, played a fatal role in the death of Hercules. He tried to kidnap Hercules' wife Dejanira, but was struck down by an arrow with the poison of the Lernaean Hydra. Dying, Ness decided to take revenge on Hercules, advising Dejanira to collect his blood, as she supposedly would help her keep Hercules' love. Dejanira soaked the clothes of Hercules with the poisonous blood of Nessus, and he died in terrible agony. Centaurids - female centaurs
Along with male centaurs, centaurids (centaurs) were sometimes described in Greek legends. Their image is quite rare in myths and paintings, and even then, they are more often characterized as nymphs. The few authors who mention the existence of centaurids described them as beautiful creatures physically and spiritually. The most famous centaurid was Gilonoma, the wife of the centaur Killar (Zillar). Varieties of centaurs. Centauroids
There are quite a few variations in the appearance of centaurs. Sometimes they were even depicted as winged, with a second dragon head (in Babylon, Crete). To refer to creatures similar to a horse, but retaining the features of a centaur, the term "centauroids" is used in the literature. Centauroids were especially popular in the Middle Ages. These included onocentaur (donkey man), bukentaur (bull man), kerasty (buffalo man), leontocentaur (lion man), ichthyocentaur (a creature that combines elements of fish, horses and humans in its appearance). The most ancient terracotta figures of centauroids with the head of a man and the body of a buffalo of the 7th century BC. BC. met in Cyprus.
A large number of various creatures - chimeras, close to the centauroids described above, were observed by me in the Thai temple of Wat Po in Bangkok. Polkan and Kitovras
The centaurs also included the Slavic demigods Polkan and Kitovras (the demon Asmodeus among the Jews) and their relatives (probably Polkan and Kitovras were the same creature). Polkan was unusually strong and quick. He had the body and build of a man to the waist, and below the waist he was a horse. When the ancient Slavs fought, Polkan and his relatives tried to come to their aid and fought so bravely that their glory survived the centuries. Kitovras had the same appearance as Polkan and was famous for his intelligence. Caught by King Solomon, he amazed him with his wisdom
No less a mystery than the image of the centaur itself is its name. Neither Homer nor the other ancient Greek poet Hesiod, mentioning centaurs, describe their appearance, unless, of course, one considers the characteristic “hairy animal people”. Although images of horses with human heads have been found since the 8th century BC. e., there is no reason to believe that in the time of Homer the idea of \u200b\u200b"semi-animal" creatures was so widespread that it did not need comment. The modern English writer Robert Graves, who turned a lot in his work to the era of antiquity, believed that Homer refers to the representatives of a warlike tribe who worshiped the horse as centaurs. Under the leadership of their king Heiron, the centaurs opposed their enemies, the Lapits, together with the Achaeans.
The debate about the origin of the word "centaur" has never subsided. According to different versions, it could come from the Latin "centuria" - "hundred" or the Greek "centron" - "goat", "kenteo" - "hunt, pursue" and "tavros" - "bull".
The first ancient Greek poet to mention the horse nature of the centaurs was Pindar (c. 518-442 or 438 BC). In the Pythian, he speaks of the rise of the centaurs. Lapit named Ixion falls in love with Hera, and in retaliation Zeus sends a cloud to him, resembling a goddess in appearance, Ixion copulates with the cloud, and it gives birth to a child: “This mother brought him a monstrous offspring. There has never been such a mother, nor such a child, which was not accepted by either people or gods. She raised him and named him the Centaur. From his union with the Magnesian mare, an unprecedented tribe was born, inheriting the lower part from the mother, and the upper part from the father. On the other hand, according to Pindar, the origin of Cheiron was quite different. He is "the son of Philir, a descendant of Kron, who once ruled a vast kingdom and was a son of Heaven." Heiron married a girl named Hariko, and they had a completely human-looking daughter. He, apparently, was the only "home" centaur. It was Cheiron who was the tutor of Achilles and Hercules.
The story of another centaur - Nessos - has come down to us thanks to the tragedy of Sophocles (5th century BC). Hercules brings his bride Deianeira to his house. Centaur earns money by transporting people across the river Even. Deianeira sits on his back to cross to the other side, but in the middle of the river Nessos grabs her and tries to dishonor her. Hercules saves the bride by spearing the centaur in the chest. Dying, Nessos advises Deianeira to collect his blood and use it as love potion in case Hercules ever falls in love with another woman. Deianeira dips the hem of her tunic in centaur blood. When Hercules puts on the tunic, the poison-soaked cloth sticks to his body and causes such excruciating pain that he throws himself into the fire. If in Greece the centaur was the embodiment of animal qualities incompatible with human nature, unbridled passions and immoderate sexuality, then in ancient Rome he turned into a peaceful companion of Dionysus and Eros. The greatest contribution to the formation of the Roman version of the image of the centaur was made, of course, by Ovid (43 BC - c. 18 AD) in Metamorphoses. The poet brings many details into the story of Peyritoon's marriage and the ensuing battle. Not only Tholos and Nessos participate in the battle, but also other centaurs, who are the fruit of Ovid's imagination. Among them, the most interesting are Zillar and Gilonoma.
Zillar is a young, fair-haired centaur, Gilonoma is his beloved, a centaur girl with long hair adorned with roses, violets and white lilies, "who was not more beautiful in the forests." When Zillar dies in battle, Gilonoma throws herself on the spear that pierced her lover and merges with him in a last embrace. This story of a beautiful centaur, his feminine lover, their true love and touching suicide contrasts with the image of a wild and unbridled Greek centaur.
The oldest horoscope that has come down to us was compiled around 410 BC. e. in Babylon. There is no doubt that the zodiac Sagittarius (Centaur), as well as Scorpio and Capricorn (Ay's "antelope of the underground ocean") are images inspired by the Kassite border monuments. Along with the constellation Centaur-Sagittarius, there is also the Southern Centaur. Under the name of the zodiac Capricorn, the centaur also passed into the art of the Islamic world.
The fixation of the centaur as one of the zodiac symbols played a role in the fact that the memory of him was preserved in the Middle Ages. In bestiaries, the image of the onocentaur, the donkey-man, was unambiguously associated with the devil. The medieval centaur was always depicted wearing a tunic or cloak and certainly holding a combat bow in his hands. This can be seen on the coat of arms of the English King Stephen I. There are also images of a centaur with human hands, awkwardly standing on the only hind horse legs.
On the Bayonne tapestry depicting scenes of the Norman conquest of England (11th century AD), in the episode depicting Harold on the way to William the Conqueror, there are five long-haired dressed centaurs, two of them are winged. And in the episode "Harold Saves Two Soldiers", a centaur with lion's paws is depicted. A stone statue of another leontocentaur can be seen in Westminster Abbey in London.
In Dante's "Divine Comedy" we meet Cheiron, Nessos and Tholos in the seventh circle of hell, where they dump the souls of the "rapists" into the river from the boiling blood. Dante manages in a small passage to list most of the mythological features of the centaurs. When Cheiron spots Dante and Virgil, he takes an arrow from the quiver hanging at his hips and straightens his beard so that it does not interfere with his conversation. Heiron is not devoid of intelligence: he sees that the foot of "the one who is behind moves what he touches" and understands that Dante is alive. Nessos remembers his lifetime craft and transports Dante and Virgil across the bloody Phlegeton River. The centaurs of the seventh circle are "guardians and stewards of eternal justice."
The only thing that Dante missed in describing the “fast-footed animals” was that he did not indicate their equine nature. The educated Italian, no doubt, not only read Ovid, but also saw the bronze Roman centaurs, believing that his readers are no less familiar with them. However, comedy illustrators seem to have had a significant gap in this regard. One of them depicted a centaur with a human head growing directly from the chest of a horse, of course, without arms and torso. Faced with the task of depicting centaurs-archers, the artist was completely at a loss and painted them simply as naked men.
In the "History of Troy" by Lefevre, the centaur, for some unknown reason, becomes an ally of the Trojans. The centaur “with a mane like a horse, eyes red as coals, accurately shot from his bow; This beast inspired fear in the Greeks and struck many of them with his arrows. Apparently, this story was known to Shakespeare. In "Troilus and Cressida" the hero of the Trojan War Menelaus says: "The terrible centaur has instilled fear in our warriors." In Shakespeare's centaur, the Greek image of this creature is revived - a threat to public order. In the 19th century, the image of the centaur attracted even greater interest in literature and art. Goethe made Cheiron one of the central figures in the description of Walpurgis Night in Faust. Here Heiron again becomes a wise and kind being. It is he who takes Faust to meet Elena. For Goethe, Cheiron is the personification of male beauty - "he is half-human and flawless in running."
The centaur was depicted on their canvases and in the occultures of Botticelli, Pisanello, Michelangelo, Rubens, Beckling, Rodin, Picasso and many others. He is the subject of many literary works and scientific papers. In the 19th century, the centaur also did not remain forgotten.
CENTAUR: ANATOMY, PHYSIOLOGY, EVOLUTION
The centaur is an unusual, paradoxical creature, an unsolved mystery of nature. It is nature - now we can say this with absolute accuracy. For a long time, scientists did not have more or less reliable evidence of the reality of the existence of a centaur. It was mistakenly believed that this is a purely mythological character, which does not exist in nature and never existed.
However, it would be strange if an absolutely fictional creature was so often mentioned in various literary sources, so often depicted by sculptors and painters. After all, it is widely known that real animals with the same name served as the prototype of sea sirens, and monitor lizards of truly dragon size have been preserved on Komodo Island.
Recently, supporters of the version of the reality of the centaurs received irrefutable evidence of their correctness. Archaeological excavations near El Ayum (Western Sahara) dispelled all secrets and conjectures - more than a dozen skeletons of centaurs were found there, many of which are quite well preserved. Professor of the California Institute of Natural Sciences J.R.R. Epstein, using the method of Professor Gerasimov, restored appearance centaur.
The dimensions of the centaur are by no means gigantic: at the withers - about a meter, from the front hooves to the top of the head - about eighty meters. The volume of the brain is somewhat smaller than that of humans, but larger than that of chimpanzees and gorillas. Of great interest to researchers was the question of how the internal organs in two cavities. It turned out that the entire upper-anterior (humanoid) part was filled with respiratory organs. Powerful lungs with large bronchi made the centaurs unusually hardy, in addition, obviously, the centaurs were very loud, and therefore deaf. In the lower back part, immediately behind the middle girdle of the limbs, guarded by the collarbones and shoulder blades, there was a huge heart. Behind the heart is a voluminous stomach and a long intestine, which indicates that the centaurs ate mainly grass. On the sides, near the ribs, the centaurs had air bubbles similar to those of birds. During inhalation, they were filled with air, so that later, during exhalation, fill the lungs with this air. Thus, centaurs were the only mammals with double breathing.
Classifying the centaur proved extremely difficult. Most likely, this is a special class of six-legged vertebrates such as dead-ended chordates. The prehistoric ancestors of the centaurs obviously lived in the forests, moved on all six limbs and were much slower. The protocentaurs (Protocentaurus vulgaris) looked different: the limbs were short and awkward, the front part did not at all resemble a human one. They lived in dens and were omnivores. However, with climate change, protocentaurs became steppe animals, which required them to be more high speed movement. At the same time, the front part of the body came off the ground and became lighter, while the back, on the contrary, became more massive, the middle and hind limbs noticeably stretched out. Further, in the process of evolution, the back of the body more and more resembled a horse, since the living conditions and lifestyle of the centaurs were exactly the same as those of wild horses. The front part, lightened and becoming vertical, freed up for useful work, the forelimbs gradually began to resemble human hands. Thus, with full confidence it can be stated that labor made a protocentaur - a real centaur (Centaurus centaurus).
Whether centaurs were sentient remains a mystery. Mythology says "Yes" (see the myths about Jason, about Lapith, etc.), but science does not have reliable data on this. Unfortunately, this riddle is unsolvable, since all centaurs have already become extinct. It can be assumed that people are to blame for this. Many literary sources - for example, the myth of Lapith - tell of the enmity of people and centaurs. Obviously, bulky and clumsy, centaurs could not stand the competition with dexterous and mobile people. Presumably, already in the first millennium BC, the centaurs were completely ousted from the territory Ancient Greece and from Europe in general. Driven into the sands of the Sahara, dwindling groups of centaurs may have survived until the first centuries of our era. The last mention of a meeting with centaurs can be found in Capaglia's treatise "My Journeys to Distant Shores".
Images of gods with zoomorphic and anthropogenic features - the heads of animals and human bodies - are found among different peoples.
The joint Australian-American expedition, which studied the cave paintings of primitive people, in Australia and South Africa more than five thousand images of the Stone Age were discovered, among which there are sketches of half-humans, half-animals - with the body of a lion and the head of a man or with the head of a bull and a human torso. The drawings of unknown creatures discovered by the expedition were made at least 32 thousand years ago. Cambridge anthropologist Christopher Chippendale and Sydney historian Paul Tacon, who studied ancient petroglyphs, came to the conclusion that primitive artists painted mysterious creatures "from nature", that is, depicted what they saw with their own eyes. It is noteworthy that prehistoric Australians and Africans, who lived on different continents, decorated their caves with drawings of the same creatures.
In Australia, scientists have found images of centaurs, although it is reliably known that horses were not found on this remote mainland. How the Australian aborigines managed to depict a horse with a human torso is unknown. It remains to be assumed that in ancient times on our planet, hybrids of people and animals really existed.
Probably, all these mysterious creatures are the result of alien genetic experiments. Moreover, the hybrids created in the "test tube" were intelligent. For example, the god Thoth was considered by the Egyptians to be a scientist:
The son of the god Kron and Philyra, the centaur Chiron, trained by Apollo and Artemis in hunting, healing, music and divination, was the teacher of the heroes of Greek myths - Achilles, Asclepius, Castor, Polideukos, Jason.
Centaurs in Greek mythology are creatures with a horse's body and a human torso (there are also images of hybrids with a man's torso and the body of a bull, donkey, sheep or goat).
According to Greek tradition, the centaurs lived in the mountains of Thessaly and Arcadia and were, with the exception of Chiron and Foul, wild and violent creatures. One of the most famous deeds of the centaurs is an attempt to kidnap Hippodamia, the bride of the Lapith king Pirithous. In the battle with the Lapiths, they were defeated. Legends say that horse people came to Greece from the mountains, but because of their excessive craving for alcohol, they were expelled from Hellas by people.
On a superbly preserved Mayan fresco, discovered in one of the temples of the city of Bonampak in the Mexican state of Chiapas, you can see strange gods with mandibles instead of mouths and crocodile faces. Similar images are found among the Olmecs, Toltecs, Aztecs.
Before the creation of man, hybrids of man-beasts or animals endowed with reason were a kind of attendants of the gods and performed some economic functions. In Egypt, near the village of Deir el-Medina, a settlement of builders of the Theban necropolis was opened. Among them were scribes and artists who painted the walls of the tombs. The ancient Egyptian masters left rough sketches and sketches of drawings made on clay fragments or limestone tiles, later called "ostracons" by the famous French Egyptologist Gaston Maspero. During the excavations, about 5 thousand drawings depicting scenes from the life of the Egyptians were discovered. Many of them baffle scientists. For example, an Egyptian papyrus in the British Museum depicts jackals guarding goats. Both "shepherds" walk on their hind legs, carrying baskets behind their backs. The procession is closed by a jackal playing a flute. Ahead of the whole group, a cat stands on its hind legs and drives geese with a twig. Another drawing even shows a "chess tournament" between a lion and a gazelle: they are sitting in chairs in front of the board; the lion grinned, as if saying something, making a move; the gazelle "spread its hands" and released the figure.
François Champollion, who was the first to decipher and read Egyptian hieroglyphs, believed that such drawings were a kind of political satire. But there is no evidence of the existence of this literary genre among the ancient Egyptians.
Some figurines depict mysterious animals that command people or dictate something to scribes.
People with a dog's head were also depicted on old Orthodox icons - Saint Christopher
Pliny, Paul the Deacon, Marco Polo, Adam of Bremen wrote about people with dog or jackal heads as real beings. Anubis, in the beliefs of the ancient Egyptians, originally the god of death, the patron of the dead, as well as necropolises, funeral rites and embalming, was usually depicted in the guise of a wolf, a jackal, or a man with a jackal's head. The god of wisdom Thoth was depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or baboon, the goddess Sokhmet as a woman with the head of a lioness, etc. The killing of a sacred animal was punished by death among the Egyptians. Sacred animals and birds were embalmed after death and buried in special cemeteries.
In the early 1960s, during the construction of a highway in the Crimea, a bulldozer turned a stone “box” onto the surface of the earth. The workers opened the lid of the sarcophagus: it contained a human skeleton with a ram's head, and the skeleton was solid, the head was one with the skeleton. The roadmaster called archaeologists whose expedition was working nearby. Those, looking at the bones, decided that the road builders had played a trick on them, and immediately left. Convinced that the find did not represent any historical value, the workers razed the sarcophagus to the ground.
Archaeologists sometimes find ancient burials in which the bones of animals and humans are mixed, as well as the skeletons of various animals, and often there is no human head in the grave or there is an incomplete set of animal bones. It is believed that these are the remains of sacrificial gifts. But it is quite possible - these are hybrids created by aliens.
Unusual artifacts are found in various parts of the world. Not far from Glauberg, in 1997, a Celtic settlement of the 5th century BC was discovered. e. There, in a mound plundered in the Middle Ages, German archaeologists found a statue of a Celtic leader 1.8 meters high. The warrior is depicted in chain mail, with a Roman-style shield. And the head of the leader is decorated with huge "hare" ears.
It is curious that images of people with long ears are found quite often, and in areas that are significantly remote from each other. There are similar drawings on a rock near the Jordan River, on a burial box found in the Altai Mountains. Huge ears crown the heads of "stone women" in the Krasnoyarsk Territory and Khakassia, as well as Chinese figurines of demons.
Myths about anthropoid animals have been preserved among many peoples. In Greek mythology, the Minotaur is a monster human body and the head of a bull, was born by Pasiphae, the wife of King Minos, from a bull sent by Poseidon to Crete for slaughter. Minos refused to sacrifice the bull, then Poseidon inspired Pasiphae with an unnatural passion for the animal. The fruit of their relationship, the Minotaur, was imprisoned in an underground labyrinth built by Daedalus. Every year, seven young men and women were sacrificed to him, sent by the Athenians as a tribute to Minos and as atonement for the murder of Minos' son in Attica. A terrible monster devoured the unfortunate. The Athenian prince Theseus voluntarily went to Crete among those destined to be devoured by the Minotaur, killed the monster and, with the help of the thread of the royal daughter Ariadne, who was in love with him, got out of the labyrinth.
Especially often images, reliefs and statues of bulls with human heads are found among the Assyrians and Persians.
Aliens conducted experiments on the hybridization of a variety of animals. The historian Eusebius, based on more ancient sources, describes the monsters created by the gods in ancient times:
Human beings with goat thighs and horns on their heads; others are half human, half horse (centaurs); bulls with human heads; dog-like creatures with fish tails; dog-headed horses and other dragon-like creatures.
In 1850, the famous French archaeologist Auguste Marryat discovered huge vaulted crypts (the so-called crypts) in the area of the Saqqara pyramid, in which hundreds of sarcophagi carved from solid pieces of granite were preserved. Their dimensions surprised scientists: length - 3.85 meters, width - 2.25 meters, height - 2.5 meters, wall thickness - 0.42 meters, cover thickness 0.43 meters; the total weight of the "coffin" and the lid was about 1 ton.
Inside the sarcophagi were crushed animal remains, mixed with a viscous liquid similar to resin. In some burials, small figurines with images of ancient gods were found. After examining the fragments of the bodies, Marryat came to the conclusion that they were hybrids of a wide variety of animals. The ancient Egyptians believed in life after death and were convinced that a living being could be reborn only if its body was embalmed and retained its appearance. They were afraid of the creatures created by the gods and, in order to prevent the resurrection of monsters in a new life, they dismembered their bodies into small pieces, placed them in coffins, filled them with tar, and covered them with massive lids on top.
During excavations in the Gobi desert, the Belgian scientist Friedrich Meissner discovered a human skull with horns. At first, he suggested that the horns were somehow cut into the skull, that is, they were transplanted, but the pathologist's studies showed that these were natural formations: they formed and grew during the life of this creature.
Perhaps the aliens carried out genetic experiments to create humanoids, as well as various hybrids of people and animals in the Middle Ages. The annals of the Mongols preserved curious evidence of unusual children:
To a khagan named Sarva, who was the son of Kushal, the khagan of the Indian Magada, the youngest of five sons was born with turquoise hair, his arms and legs were flat; his eyes were closed from the bottom up...
Since Duva Sohor had a single eye in the middle of his forehead, he could see at a distance of three nomads.
Medieval scientists reported on the birth of various freaks: A Pare, U. Aldrovandi, Lykosfen. There is information about the birth of children with the head of a cat, dog, and also with the body of a reptile.
Currently, the media provides numerous reports of the birth of deformed children with gills, cat-like, vertical pupils, Cyclopes with one eye in the forehead, with webbed fingers and toes, with green or blue skin. In March 2000, a message appeared that in India, in one of the hospitals in the city of Pollachi (Tamil Nadu), a “mermaid” was born - a girl with a fish tail instead of legs. She lived for a very short time, her body was transferred to one of the medical institutions for study. In March 2001, the Ananova news agency reported that in India, not far from Parappanangadi, a strange cub was born to an ordinary sheep. The unusual lamb had no hair on its body, and the nose, eyes, mouth, tongue and teeth were similar to human ones, and its entire muzzle as a whole resembled the face of a bald man in dark sunglasses. The mutant (or hybrid?) lived only a few hours after birth. Perhaps all these freaks are echoes of experiments conducted by aliens in the distant past on people. Another option is not ruled out - genetic experiments on our planet continue.
AND eternal fight! Rest only in our dreamsThrough blood and dust...
Flying, flying steppe mare
And crumples the feather grass ...
A. Blok
The horse plays an important role in many mythological systems. They are an attribute (or image) of a number of deities. The symbolism of the horse is extremely complex and not completely clear. The horse symbolizes intelligence, wisdom, nobility, light, dynamic strength, agility, speed of thought, the passage of time. This is a typical symbol of fertility, courage and powerful power. Also, this image is an ancient symbol of the cyclic development of the world of phenomena (the horses carrying Neptune with a trident out of the deep sea embody the cosmic forces of primitive chaos).
The horse in the tradition of many peoples is revered as a sacred animal. He acts as a necessary attribute of the highest pagan gods and at the same time is a chthonic creature associated with the cult of fertility and death. Among the Slavs (and not only among them), those dressed as horses participated in calendar ceremonies, including Kolyada, Christmas time, etc. The Dictionary of Slavic Mythology reports:
“... The horse was equally considered the brainchild of Belobog (the element of light) and Chernobog (the element of darkness), moreover, it was dedicated to the good god White horse, and evil - black. With the division of power over the world and all the phenomena of its existence, white horses are transferred in the popular imagination to the sun god, the god of thunder (first to Perun, then to Svyatovid and, finally, to Svetlovid-Yarila), while black horses become the property of Stribog and all the violent winds - Stribog's grandchildren . The sun is a heavenly horse, during the day running around the sky from end to end and resting at night.
Skates on the roofs of Russian huts are still placed to this day as a sign of the sun, calling for the harvest, and, consequently, prosperity for the house. And in the old days, when building a house, a horse was laid in the foundation, while moving the house, its skull was taken out of the ground and buried under the foundation in a new place. The city wall was erected in the same way.
In ancient Russian pagan mythology, the Horse is one of the most revered sacred animals, an attribute of the highest pagan gods, special creatures associated simultaneously with the productive power of the earth (water) and the mortifying potency of the underworld. In ancient Rus', it was believed that the horse was endowed with the ability to portend fate, and above all death, to its owner. In pagan times, a horse was buried along with its owner.
The veneration of the horse in Russia was such that even in Christian times, special patron saints and horse holidays were established for him. The patron saints of horses were St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, St. Flor and Laurus, St. George the Victorious and St. Elijah the Prophet. Special "horse holidays" were celebrated on the day of memory of Sts. Flora and Lavra and on spring St. George's day.
The Indian Upanishads describe the ritual of sacrificing a horse to the gods. This is also present in the Shatapatha Brahmana, Vajasaneyi Samhita of the Yajurveda, which indicates the creation of the world from the parts of a horse during its sacrifice.
Horses were also worshiped by the Zoroastrians, in whose mythology the chariot of the god Ardvisura Anahita is harnessed by four white horses: wind, rain, cloud and sleet. And the Thunderer Tishtriya, personifying Sirius, according to legend, descends from the sky every year in the form of a white golden-eared horse to fight with the demon of drought Apaoshi, acting in the form of a black, shabby, ugly horse. From the outcome of their battle, according to the beliefs of the Iranians, it depended whether it would rain, therefore, fertility and life itself.
In the Komi-Permyak tradition, horses are the holders of the earth: “The earth rests on three horses: black (crow), red and white. When a black horse holds - hunger and pestilence on earth, when a white one - there are continuous wars and deaths on earth, when a red one - peace, tranquility and prosperity reign.
In China, the horse represents heaven, fire, yang, south, speed, perseverance, good omen. In Japan, the goddess Bato Kannon, the merciful Great Mother, appears either as a white horse, or with a horse's head, or in a crown with the figure of a horse.
Buddhism considers the horse a symbol of indestructibility, the hidden nature of things. The winged horse Cloud is one of the images of Avalokiteshvara. Another winged horse, Pegasus, represented in ancient mythology. He was the son of Poseidon and Medusa. Poseidon is generally considered the creator, father or giver of horses. Once he pursued Demeter, inflamed with love for her. Trying to escape, she turned into a horse, but he took the form of a horse and managed to achieve his goal. From this marriage was born Arion, a divine horse that could speak.
In the Roman pantheon, there was a goddess-protector of horses borrowed from the Celts named Epona, associated with fertility, abundance, healing, and at the same time with the cult of death (acting as a guide and guardian of dead souls during the transition to the kingdom of the dead). The Celts generally had a lot to do with horses. In Ireland and Wales, the word "horse" (Irl. Ech) is present in the names of many mythical characters associated with the solar cult and the other world. For example, the good god Dagda bears the name Eochaid, the Father of all, and one of the rulers of the Fomorians is called Eoho Ekhkend ("Eoho horse head").
The goddess Epona was considered the heavenly patroness of horses. She was invariably depicted surrounded by horses, often with symbols of fertility and abundance. Epona was often identified with healing, in particular with hydrotherapy. In addition, her cult is associated with death; it is believed that she played the role of a guide and guardian who guarded the souls of the dead during the transition to the underworld.
In Norse mythology, the horse is dedicated to Odin, who rode the eight-legged mare Sleipnir. Clouds are war horses Valkyries.
In Christianity, the horse symbolizes the Sun, courage, nobility. It is the emblem of the saints (George and others). Finally, the four horses of the Apocalypse are war, death, famine and epidemic.
Being a symbol of the Sun or the solar god, the horse gradually became an attribute of royal power. But how can a solar symbol be associated with a death cult? Yes, it is very simple: just as the Sun makes a cycle through the day and night sides of the world, so the horse must carry its rider through death to a new rebirth, to a new life.
Among the peoples of the Caucasus (Abkhazians, Ossetians, etc.), the horse participates in funeral and memorial rites, in particular, it is dedicated to the deceased, circling around the body, putting the bridle into the hand of the deceased and cutting the horse’s ear or cutting off the hair. On the day of the commemoration, circles of animal lard and pieces of meat were hung on the trunk of a branchy tree, and a fire was made under it. Riders at the races competed in the art of snatching fat and meat from the flames of a fire, the winner was awarded a ram, which he brought as a memorial sacrifice. However, the customs of equestrian games at weddings, calendar holidays, etc. are well known.
The suit of the horse is not accidental. IN various traditions you can see the predominance of two colors: gray and red. On Russian icons depicting snake fighting, the horse is almost always either white or fiery red. In these cases, the red color is clearly the color of the flame, which corresponds to the fiery nature of the horse. White is the color of otherworldly creatures, creatures that have lost their physicality - wherever the horse plays a cult role, it is always white. Thus, the Greeks sacrificed only white horses; in the Apocalypse death sits astride a "pale horse"; in German folk representations, death is riding on a skinny white nag.
The horse personifies unbridled passions, natural instincts, the unconscious. In this regard, in ancient times, he was often endowed with the ability to predict. In fairy tales (for example, those of the Brothers Grimm), the horse, as possessing the qualities of clairvoyance, was often entrusted with the task of warning its owners in a timely manner. Jung believes that the horse expresses the magical side of Man, intuitive knowledge.
The most important and famous Vedic ritual is the "horse sacrifice", ashvamedha. In its structure, elements of a cosmogonic nature are visible - the horse practically personifies the Cosmos and its sacrifice symbolizes (i.e. reproduces) the act of creation. The ritual was intended to cleanse the entire country from sin and ensure fertility and prosperity. Traces of this ritual can be found among the Germans, Iranians, Greeks and Latins.
Shaman tradition:
The horse occupies a very special place in shamanic ritual and mythology. The horse - primarily a carrier of souls and a funeral animal - is used by the shaman in various situations as a means to help achieve a state of ecstasy. It is known that an eight-legged horse is a typical shamanic attribute. Eight-hoofed or headless horses are recorded in the mythology and rituals of the Germanic and Japanese "male unions". The horse is a mythical image of Death, it delivers the deceased to the other world, makes the transition from one world to another.
Throughout history, horses have been credited with the gift of clairvoyance, which allows them to see invisible danger. Therefore, they are considered especially susceptible to the plots of witches. In times past, the witches took them at night to go to the sabbath, they ran on them for a long time and returned at dawn exhausted and covered in sweat and foam. To thwart "witch racing", witchcraft and the evil eye, horse owners placed trinkets and amulets in their stalls and attached copper bells to their reins. During the witch hunt, it was believed that the devil and the witch could turn into horses.
Unicorn. It is one of the most romanticized images and has different names, appearance and attributes in different cultures. One of the most popular incarnations of the unicorn in modern Western culture is a white horse with a long, often golden horn growing from its forehead. In Eastern culture, the unicorn is depicted as a cross between a horse and a goat with artiodactyl limbs and a goat's beard. The Japanese unicorn is called "kirin", and in China it is called "ki-lin". Both words come from the Hebrew “re”em, which means “one horn.” The Greek historian Ktesias wrote the following about unicorns in 398 BC: outwardly, it resembles a wild bull, the size of a horse, has a white body, dark a red head, blue eyes, and a single horn, probably the result of the colorful stories of travelers who imagined the unicorn as a cross between a wild bull, a Himalayan antelope, and an Indian rhinoceros.
Various magical qualities were attributed to the unicorn horn. For example, the ability to heal the sick and wounded and even resurrect the dead. In some images, the horn is white at the root, black in the middle and with a red tip. One medieval tale tells of a unicorn who dipped his horn into poisoned water, thereby purifying it and giving the animals a drink. This is probably where the tradition of noble and royal families drink from vessels in the form of a unicorn horn, thereby protecting yourself from the danger of poisoning.
In Western culture, the unicorn is considered an inaccessible wild animal, in Eastern culture, on the contrary, it is an affectionate and submissive creature.
A similar mythological animal called the indrik exists in Russian folklore. The indrik had two horns, he lived on a holy mountain and was the lord of all animals and the owner of the waters.
Centaurs are very popular mythological characters. From head to hips they have the body of a man, while the rest is of a horse. Ancient peoples considered centaurs to be bright and kind creatures that do good. The exception to this was a Greek legend that tells of several centaurs who were invited to a feast, where they drank wine and fought a battle that resulted in the death of many centaurs.
The most famous centaur was Chiron, who was educated by Apollo and Artemis and was an excellent hunter, herdsman, healer and soothsayer. According to legend, Chiron became the teacher of the great warrior Achilles. This centaur was so respected by the gods that after his death, Zeus took him to heaven and turned him into the constellation Sagittarius.
The Trojan Horse was a huge hollow wooden horse that helped the Greeks conquer Troy. The Trojan prince Paris fell in love with the beautiful Helen, the wife of the Greek Menelaus, kidnapped her and took her to his kingdom. In retaliation, Menelaus gathered a huge Greek army and began the siege of Troy, which lasted ten years. Finally, the cunning Odysseus came up with the idea of how to outwit the Trojans. He proposed to make a huge wooden horse and climb inside the Greek army, before that pretending that it had departed for its homeland, and the horse left was a gift to the gods. The Trojans believed, opened the gates and dragged the horse into the city. The Greeks got out of it and captured the city. Since then, the expression "Trojan horse" has been a household name, which means "cunning, trick".
And fabulous horses (“Golden Horse”, “Sivka-Burka”, “Humpbacked Horse”, the horse of Ilya Muromets, finally)! They are subject to space and time, they have the ability to carry the hero not only over vast distances - “above a standing forest, below a walking cloud”, but also between worlds. In addition, they transform the hero, who, for example, climbing from the horse's left ear to the right, turns from a ragamuffin into a prince. In addition, they are faithful companions, they help out even after death, finding living and dead water, etc., which means they help to get through and overcome death.
Long gone are the ancient times, and those in which horses were the main means of transportation and the main draft force, too. No, they did not become useless, but the beauty of the appearance and the expressiveness of the look retained their attraction for us too ...
Look: over there, on that rock - Pegasus!
Yes, it is he, shining and stormy!
Hail these mountains. The day is gone
but there is no night... Greet the purple hour.
Above the slope is a huge white horse,
like a swan, splashing its white wings, -
and soared, and into the clouds, over the rocks,
splashed silver fire hooves ...
Hit them, burned one, another
and disappeared in a frenzied purple.
The night has come. There is no world, no heaven, -
everything is just night. Greet the night naked.
Look at her: the hoof trail is steep
recognize in a star that silently fell.
And the Milky Way floats over the darkness
airy loose mane.
