Centaur

A centaur (Greek: Κένταυρος Kentauros, plural Κένταυροι Kentauroi; Latinised Centaurus, Centauri) is, according to Greek mythology, a being half man, half horse. In astronomy, the so-called centaurs were named after them, a group of asteroids between Jupiter and Neptune, such as Chiron (discovered in 1977), Pholus (1992) and Nessus (1993), which are presumably "extinct" comets that have already largely lost their volatile components, which otherwise form the typical comet tail, through sublimation.

Mythological background

The centaurs are said to be descended from Ixion, the Thessalian king of the legendary Lapiths, who had been raised to heaven by Zeus and gifted with immortality. When the drunken Ixion saw Hera at a feast of the gods and desired to love her, Zeus created an image of his wife from a cloud of mist. Ixion, in the ecstasy of love, embraced the cloud, which was shaped like Hera, and begat with her the centaur, who later mated with the mares of Magnesia and thus begat the race of the centaurs. Enraged by Ixion's sacrilege, Zeus had him tied to a fiery wheel as punishment, which has been driven around in eternal whirl through the air ever since.

The centaurs are generally regarded as a lustful, unrestrained people, full of the lower instincts - quite in contrast to the noble Lapiths, who according to the oldest traditions were regarded as giant storm demons or the personification of the storm itself. The centaurs were the arch-enemies of the Lapiths and were driven out of Thessaly to the Peloponnese by the latter when the centaurs "heated by wine" at the wedding of the noble king of the Lapiths, Pirithous, attacked their wives.

Chiron (Greek: Χείρων Cheiron „hand“) is known as the noblest of all the centaurs, who was skilled in healing and was the wise educator of many Greek heroes. As such, he was also the teacher of Asclepius.

„Asclepius, the son of Apollo, is the father of Greek physicians, so to speak. And what are we told about him in Greek myth? His father takes him to the mountains in his youth, where he can become the pupil of the centaur Chiron. And it is Chiron the centaur who instructs Asclepius, the father of medicine, in the healing powers of plants and other healing powers found on earth. Chiron, the centaur, what kind of being is he? He is a being that is characterised to us as such as they were before the descent of man before the Lemurian time: a being, half man, half animal. This myth conceals the fact that in the corresponding mystery those powers are shown to Asclepius which were the great powers of health, which could bring forth health before man entered the first incarnation.“ (Lit.:GA 107, p. 234f)

Literature

• Rudolf Steiner: Geisteswissenschaftliche Menschenkunde, GA 107 (1988), ISBN 3-7274-1070-1 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
• Rudolf Steiner: Geschichtliche Notwendigkeit und Freiheit. Schicksalseinwirkungen aus der Welt der Toten., GA 179 (1977), Vierter Vortrag, Dornach, 11. Dezember 1917 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org

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