On Representations of Centaurs in Greek Vase-Painting

Sidney Colvin

doi:10.2307/623617

On Representations of Centaurs in Greek Vase-Painting

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 August 2012

Sidney Colvin

Article contents

Extract
References

Get access

Rights & Permissions

Extract

Before coming to the discussion of the three unpublished vase-paintings which illustrate this article, and of the questions which they suggest (Plates I., II., III.), it will be proper to give some account of the Centaurs in general, as figured on the painted vases of the Greeks. The passages or episodes of the Centaur myth habitually illustrated in this form of art are five in number, viz.:—

1. The battle of the Centaurs and Lapithae at the wedding feast of Peirithoos and Hippodameia, or Deidameia, on Mount Pelion; when the Centaurs, being present as guests, maddened themselves with wine, and one of them seized the bride; whereupon a general conflict ensued, ending in the rout of the monsters and their expulsion from Thessaly.

This battle is said by Aelian to have been made the subject of a separate poem by an early epic writer, Melisandros of Miletus; but neither of Melisandros nor his work have we any other record. In our extant writings, allusion is made to the battle twice in the Iliad: once where Nestor extols the Lapith warriors, whom he had known in his youth, as having been the mightiest of earthly heroes, and having quelled the mightiest foes, to wit the Centaurs; and again in the catalogue of ships, where the Thessalian leader Polypoites is commemorated as the son begotten of Hippodameia by the Lapith king Peirithoos on the day when he chastised the monsters and drove them from Pelion.

Type: Research Article
Information: The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 1 , November 1880 , pp. 107 - 167

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/623617 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1880

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

^{page 107 note 1} A sketch of some of the characteristic points of the Centaur legend was given by the present writer in the Cornhill Magazine, vol. xxxviii. (1878), pp. 284 and 409. The modern literature of this curious subject is contained in: Bochart, Hierozoĩcon, pt. ii. lib. vi., ch. 10; Baschet, Gaspar, de Méziriac, Sieur, Comm. sur les Épitres d' Ovide, vol. i. p. 149sqq.Google Scholar; the Banier, Abbé, Mythol. expliquée par l' Histoire, vol. iii. ch. 12Google Scholar; Fréret, and Maizeray, in Mémoires Litt., t. viii. p. 319, and t. xii. p. 249Google Scholar; Millin, Gal. Encycl.; Voss, , Mythologische Briefe, Br. lxxi.Google Scholar; Böttiger, C. A., Griech. Vasengemälde, iii. pp. 75—162Google Scholar; Stackelberg, , Der Apollotempel zu Bassae, p. 66sqq.Google Scholar; Welcker, , Kl. Schriften, Th. iii. p. 18sqq.Google Scholar; Gerhard, , Griech. Myth., i. 544Google Scholar, and Id., Auserl. Vasenbilder, 121, 130; Preller, , Griech. Myth., ii. p. 9, sqq. 194—196Google Scholar; Stephani, , Compte Rendu de la Comm. imp. d' Archéol. de St. Pétersbourg, 1865, p. 102sqq.Google Scholar; 1873, p. 90 sqq.; &c.

^{page 107 note 2} Ael. Var. Hist. xi. 2.

^{page 108 note 1} Il. i. 262 sqq.

^{page 108 note 2} Il. ii. 741 sqq.

^{page 108 note 3} Od. xxi. 295.

^{page 108 note 4} Hes. Scut. Herc. 128 sqq., see below, p. 161.

^{page 108 note 5} Pind. ap. Athen. xii. 51 (Fr. 143, ed. Bergk).

^{page 108 note 6} Pind. Fr. 144, ed. Bergk.

^{page 109 note 1} Ov. Met. xii. 182–535.

^{page 109 note 2} Plut. Thes. xxx.

^{page 109 note 3} Diod. iv. 13; Apollod. ii. 5, 4.

^{page 109 note 4} Plut. Thes., loc. cit.

^{page 109 note 5} Isokr. on the Kentauromachia of Theseus, Helena, 16; on the Amazonomachia, Paneg., 68, 70; Archid. 42; Areop., 75; Panathen., 193.

^{page 109 note 6} Paus. iii. 18, 7.

^{page 109 note 7} Paus. i. 17, 2.

^{page 110 note 1} Paus. i. 28, 2.

^{page 110 note 2} Mon. dell' Inst. iv. pl. 56; Arch. Zeitung, 1850, pl. 23.

^{page 111 note 1} Cat. of Vases in Brit. Mus., ii. no. 1266.

^{page 111 note 2} Especially Ov. Metam. xii. 235 sqq.

^{page 111 note 3} See particularly the fine example at Florence (Heydemann, , Die Antikensammlungen Mittelitaliens, Florence, p. 86Google Scholar, no. 16, and pl. iii. no. 1.)

^{page 113 note 1} Stesich, . ap. Athen. Deipnos., xi. 499 A.Google Scholar

^{page 113 note 2} Bernhardy, , Grundr. der Griech. Lit., 2te Bearb., pt. ii. vol. ii. p. 463, 464.Google Scholar

^{page 113 note 3} Paus. iii. 18, 10.

^{page 113 note 4} Paus. v. 19, 2.

^{page 113 note 5} Smyrn., Quint.Posthom. vi. 273sqq.Google Scholar

^{page 113 note 6} Soph., Trach. 1095sqq.Google Scholar

^{page 113 note 7} Eur., Herc. Fur. 181sqq.Google Scholar, 364 sqq., 1271 sqq.

^{page 113 note 8} Theokr., Idyl. vii. 149.Google Scholar

^{page 114 note 1} Lucian, , Symp. 13, 14.Google Scholar

^{page 114 note 2} Philostr., Heroic. p. 328.Google Scholar

^{page 114 note 3} Apollod. ii. 5, 4.

^{page 114 note 4} Diod. iv. 13.

^{page 114 note 5} Tzetz., Chil. v. 111–137Google Scholar.

^{page 115 note 1} Compte Rendu, etc. 1873, p. 90 sqq. and pl. v.

^{page 115 note 2} Cat. of Vases in the British Museum, 661.

^{page 115 note 3} Gerhard, , Auserlesene Vasenbilder, pl. 119, 7Google Scholar; see also nos. 3 and 5 of the same plate.

^{page 115 note 4} Compte Rendu, etc., 1873, pl. iv.; and see Stephani, loc. cit.

^{page 115 note 5} Stephani, loc. cit. nos. 5; 11; 17, = resp. Jahn, , Vasens. Königs Ludwigs, 661Google Scholar; Archäol. Zeitung, 1865, pl. 201; Gerhard, , Auserl. Vasenb. ii. p. 128, note 24 e.Google Scholar

^{page 115 note 6} Mus. Greg. ii. pl. 39.

^{page 116 note 1} Gerhard, , Auserl. Vasenb. pl. 119, 1.Google Scholar

^{page 117 note 1} Bergk., Poet. lyr., Archil. Fr. 147.Google Scholar

^{page 117 note 2} Soph., Trach. 555–557.Google Scholar

^{page 117 note 3} Ov. Met. ix. 98, sqq.; Heroid. ix. 141.

^{page 117 note 4} Seneca, , Herc. Oet. 500, sqq.Google Scholar

^{page 117 note 5} Diod. iv. 36.

^{page 117 note 6} Apollod. ii. 7, 6.

^{page 117 note 7} Mus. Borbon. vi. 36.

^{page 117 note 8} Hancarville, , Ant. Etr. iv. pl. 31Google ScholarCat. of Vases in the British Museum vol. i. 932.

^{page 117 note 9} Apollod. ii. 5, 5; Diod. iv. 33 Pedias, , de Herc. labor. 5Google Scholar; Paus. vii. 18, 1; Hyg. fab. 31, 33.

^{page 118 note 1} Bergk, , Poet. lyr. Bacchyl. Fr. 60.Google Scholar

^{page 118 note 2} Schol. ad. Callim., Hymn. in Del. 102Google Scholar; and the inscription on the Naples vase, Mus. Borb. vol. v. pl. 5.

^{page 118 note 3} Compte Rendu, etc., 1865. p. 102, sqq., and pl. iv.

^{page 119 note 1} See Bergk, in Zeitschr. für Alterthumwissenschaft, 1850, p. 406Google Scholar, sqq., Welcker, , Der epische Cyclus, ii. pp. 92, 132Google Scholar; and on the other side Overbeck, , Bildwerke zum theb. u. troisch. Heldenkreis, pp. 171, 172.Google Scholar

^{page 119 note 2} See Overbeck, op. cit. p. 172, note 3, and Markscheffel, De Catalogo et Eois.

^{page 119 note 3} Pind., Nem. iii. 56, 95, iv. 60 68Google Scholar, Isthm. viii. 59–143.

^{page 119 note 4} Il. xviii. 84, 432, xxiv. 59.

^{page 119 note 5} Il. xvi. 867, xvii. 195, 443.

^{page 119 note 6} Il. xvi. 140, sqq. xix. 387, sqq.

^{page 119 note 7} Eur., Iph. in Aul. 700–707, 1036–1080.Google Scholar

^{page 119 note 8} Ov., Met. xi. 220–265.Google Scholar

^{page 119 note 9} Apollod. iii. 13, 5.

^{page 120 note 1} Overbeck, , Bildwerke, etc., p. 172–197.Google Scholar

^{page 120 note 2} Gerh., Auscrl. Vasenb. pl. 227Google Scholar, Overbeck, Heroisch. Bildw., pl. vii. no. 5.

^{page 120 note 3} Mon. dell' Inst. i. pl. 4; Overbeck, op. cit. pl. viii. no. 4.

^{page 120 note 4} Inghirami, , Mus. Chiusino, i. pl. 46, 47Google Scholar; Overbeck, op. cit. pl. viii. no. 6.

^{page 121 note 1} Il. xi. 832.

^{page 121 note 2} Pind., Nem. iii. 75–100Google Scholar

^{page 121 note 3} Apollod. iii. 13, 6.

^{page 121 note 4} See, e.g., Pindar, loc. cit., and especially Xenophon, , Cyneget. 1Google Scholar.

^{page 121 note 5} Philostr., Imagg. ii. 2.Google Scholar

^{page 122 note 1} Zahn, , Die merkwürdigsten Ornamente, &c., iii. pl. 32.Google Scholar

^{page 122 note 2} Overbeck, op. cit. pp. 281–284. See also Collignon.

^{page 122 note 3} Pind., Nem. iii. 46.Google Scholar

^{page 122 note 4} Philostr., Heroic, p. 308.Google Scholar

^{page 123 note 1} Stat., , Achill., i. 110sqq.Google Scholar

^{page 123 note 2} Opp., Cyneget. ii. 5.Google Scholar

^{page 123 note 3} See below, p. 130, and Salzmann, La Necrop. de Kamcirus.

^{page 124 note 1} For all that relates to the hunting habits of Centaurs, consult again Stephani, , Compte Rendu, &c. 1862, p. 71Google Scholar, and esp. 1867, p. 77, 89, 113.

^{page 124 note 2} e.g. Jahn, , Vasens. Königs Ludwigs, 155 BGoogle Scholar, = Micali, , Storia, 92, 7Google Scholar; ibid. 583 B.

^{page 124 note 3} Cat. of Vases in B. M. i. no. 849.

^{page 124 note 4} Jahn, Vasens. Königs Ludwigs, no. 18, see ibid, Einleitung, p. cxvii., xcix.

^{page 124 note 5} On the characteristics of this group, see Brunn, , Probleme in der Geschichte der Vasenmalerei, § 12.Google Scholar

^{page 125 note 1} Of the vases yet known, that which offers the closest analogy to our present example is a small skyphos of similar form and fabric, with a similar distribution of ornament, and of the same exceptional thinness, found at Argos, and representing, but with less spirit and movement, the story of Herakles and the Hydra. Pub. by Conze, , Arch. Zeitung, 1859, pl. 125Google Scholar, 3, and p. 34.

^{page 127 note 1} Paus. iii. 59, 2.

^{page 127 note 2} Voss, J. H., Mythologische Briefe, vol. ii. Br. 71.Google Scholar

^{page 127 note 3} Pind., Pyth. ii. 41, sqq.Google Scholar of Ixion and the cloud put in place of herself by Hêrê:—

The ordinary genealogy makes them spring direct from the embrace of Ixion and Nephelè, without the intervening savage sire, the eponymous Κένταυρος.

^{page 128 note 1} Böttiger, , Vasengemälde, iii. 94, sqq.Google Scholar

^{page 128 note 2} Od. xxi. 304.

^{page 128 note 3} Hom., Merc. 221–:5.Google Scholar

^{page 128 note 4} The crucial passage was that in Kallistratos, , Stat. 12Google Scholar, where he describes the statue of a Centaur as being This would hardly in any case bear the meaning forced upon it, that the Centaur according to Homer had the figure of a man: and a convincing emendation of Niebuhr's gave the true meaning of the passage. For θηρίω read ῥίῳ, and we have a direct quotation of the Homeric simile, used in describing the Cyclops, Od. ix., 191—

^{page 129 note 1} Mon. dell' Inst. iv. pl. 34. Ross, L., Archäol. Aufsätze, p. 105, note 1, by mistake says the contrary.Google Scholar

^{page 129 note 2} See Curtius, , Das archaische Bronzerelief aus Olympia, 1880.Google Scholar

^{page 129 note 3} For this so-called Asiatic Artemis on the chest of Kypselos, see Paus. v. 19, 1:

^{page 130 note 1} Representations exactly analogous to this last, except that the monsters have human forelegs, occur in the rude coinage of Orreskioi, Zaielioi, and… naioi, towns in the Pangæan mountains of Eastern Macedonia.

^{page 130 note 2} See Ross, , Archäol. Aufsälze, pl. vi. pp. 104–105Google Scholar; Müller-Wieseler, Denkmäler, Nos. 590, 591, 592; the vase figured No. 591 is now in the British Museum. This and a few similar would seem to be of local Etruscan manufacture; they may therefore perhaps be taken as representing the peculiar Etruscan Centaur, Marês, recorded by Aelian.

^{page 131 note 1} Dion. Hal. vii. 72; Pollux, iv. 118, 142; see Müller, , Archäol. d. Kunst, § 386, 5Google Scholar; Preller, , Griech. Myth. i. p. 578, note 4.Google Scholar

^{page 131 note 2} See Bernhardy, , Grundr. der griech. Lit. 2te Bearb., 2te Th. 2te Abth. pp. 451–471Google Scholar, and Müller, , Gesch. der Dorier, iii. 7.Google Scholar

^{page 131 note 3} E.g. incised drawing on a bronze helmet, Gerhard, , Ant. Bildw. lv. 2Google Scholar, and Müller - Wieseler, , Denkm. 579Google Scholar; marble group, Mon. dell' Inst. 1854, 81; vases, Jahn, , Vasenb. pl. 1Google Scholar; Overbeck, , Heroisch. Bildw. ii. 3Google Scholar; and especially two vases in the British Museum, of which one (Lenormant, , Él. céram. ii. pl. 69Google Scholar) shows Marsyas in such a tufted garment playing the double pipes before Artemis and Apollo, and another (Coll. Castellani) a reclining woman with whom a Seilenos, or actor representing a Seilenos, plays the game of κότταβος, dancing the while in a manner precisely recalling the lines of Anakreon, xxxviii. 11:—

^{page 132 note 1} Both in this particular and in the form of the ornament at the back of the vase, though not in colour nor in the shape of the spout, our example offers a somewhat close analogy to that figured in Lau, Die griech. Vasen, &c., pl. xv. figs. 1, 1a, 1b.

^{page 132 note 2} Overbeck, , Heroisch. Bildw. p. 283, No. 3.Google Scholar

^{page 132 note 3} Ibid. p. 282, No. 1.

^{page 133 note 1} Welcker, Kl. Schriften, Th. iii., zu den Alterthümern der Heilkunde, 1, Cheiron der Phillyride, and Id., Der epische Cyclus, ii. p. 410, sqq.

^{page 133 note 2} Il. xi. 832.

^{page 133 note 3} Pind., Nem. iii. 47Google Scholar; comp. Pyth. iv. 115.

^{page 133 note 4} Pind. Pyth. iii. ad. init; and compare iv. 119,

^{page 134 note 1} See Welcker, , Kl. Schriften, Th. iii. p. 5, note 13.Google Scholar

^{page 134 note 2} Schol. ad Apollon. i. 554. The same commentator says, in the same connection, that Suidas, ἐν τοῖς Θετταλικοῖς, represented Cheiron as a son of Ixion like the other Centaurs.

^{page 134 note 3} Pind., Nem. i. 67.Google Scholar

^{page 134 note 4} Pherek. fr. ed. Sturtz, 33.

^{page 134 note 5} This is, indeed, the natural interpretation of the often-quoted words of Galen, when he says that Pindar was quite right as a poet in adopting the popular myth of the Centaurs, but quite wrong in attempting to improve upon it by explanatory additions. (here is quoted Pyth. iv. 45, sqq.) De us. part. iii.

^{page 134 note 6} Argon. ii. 1231–1243 and in like manner Verg., Georg. iii. 92Google Scholar; Ov., Metam. vi. 126.Google Scholar

^{page 135 note 1} Eur., Iph. in Aul. 1058sqq.Google Scholar

^{page 135 note 2} Hom., Καμ. 17.Google Scholar

^{page 135 note 3} Apollod. iii. 13, 3.

^{page 135 note 4} Pind., Pyth. iv. 102.Google Scholar

^{page 135 note 5} e.g. Paus. ii. 29, 7.

^{page 136 note 1} e.g. Hes. Theog. 1001; Pind., Pyth. iii. 1, ix. 30Google Scholar; Apollonios, i. 554; Verg., Georg. iii. 550Google Scholar; Propert. ii. 1, 60.

^{page 136 note 2} e.g. Pind., Pyth. iv. 103Google Scholar, Nem. iii. 43; Apollonios, ii. 1233; Verg., Georg. iii. 92Google Scholar; Val. Flacc. v. 153; Ov., Metam. ii. 676, vii. 352.Google Scholar

^{page 136 note 3} See also Koch, , Die Bäume und Sträuche Griechenlands, p. 234.Google Scholar

^{page 137 note 1} e.g. Overbeck, Heroisch. Bildw. pl. vii. fig. 8, and viii. fig. 5.

^{page 139 note 1} Nonn., Dion. xiv. 50.Google Scholar

^{page 139 note 2} Philostr., , Heroic. 9.Google Scholar

^{page 139 note 3} Desc. by Heydemann, , Mittheilungen aus den Antikensammlungen in Ober- und Mittel-Italien, p. 84, no. 5.Google Scholar

^{page 140 note 1} Apollod. iii. 9, 2.

^{page 140 note 2} Eur., Iph. in Aul. 1036–1080.Google Scholar

^{page 141 note 1} Pind., Isthm. viii. 41.Google Scholar

^{page 141 note 2} Separate comedies on this theme were, according to Athenaeus, attributed to Epicharmos (Deipn. xiv. 648 d), to Pherekrates or Nikomachos (Ib. viii. 364a, ix. 368a, b), and to Kratinos the younger (Ib. xi. 460f). An instance of an unrecorded Cheiron adventure being copied by vase-painting from the stage is obviously furnished by the well-known vase in the British Museum (Lenormant, and De Witte, , El. céram. ii. pl. xciv. p. 306, sqq.Google Scholar), in which Apollo figures as a quack doctor, to whose stage there mounts a blind Cheiron, represented by two actors, of whom the hindmost grotesquely shoves the foremost up the ladder; all the personages alike wearing comic masks of the broadest description. Comic masks are also given to the Centaurs and to their driver in that (I believe) unique vase at the Louvre, which represents a team of four of them harnessed abreast to a car.

^{page 141 note 3} See Welcker, , Alte Denkmäler, iii. pl. xvi. 1, 2, and p. 243, sqq.Google Scholar, where that author gives a full exposition both of his own view and of those of previous inquirers.

^{page 142 note 1} See Matz, in Ann. dell' Inst. vol. xliv. 1872, p. 294sqq.Google Scholar, and Mon. dell' Inst. ix. pl. 46; also Urlichs, , Der Vasenmaler Brygos (Würzburg 1875), p. 5.Google Scholar

^{page 142 note 2} Aristoph., Nub. 1190–1261.Google Scholar

^{page 142 note 3} Nauck, , Trag. Frag. 582.Google Scholar

^{page 142 note 4} The date of Brygos has been much discussed, and particularly, on grounds both of art and epigraphy, by Urlichs, op. cit., who agrees with Matz in deciding for the end of the fifth century and the beginning of the fourth, about Ol. 90–100.

^{page 142 note 5} This seems to be the view of Heydemann in his short description, loc. cit.

^{page 143 note 1} Even Müller, K. O., Archäol. der Kunst, § 389Google Scholar, classes the Centaurs with Satyrs, Panes, and Maenads, among the thiasos of Bacchus. Preller, , Gr. Mythol. ii. 14Google Scholar, sqq., is better advised in dissociating them from this connection and grouping them among the mythologic enemies of the heroes.

^{page 143 note 2} Nonn., Dion. xvi. 241.Google Scholar

^{page 143 note 3} Ibid. v. 611–615; xiv. 193–202; xxxii. 71, 2.

^{page 143 note 4} Ibid. xiv. 143–193.

^{page 143 note 5} e.g. two fine examples in the Trésor de Bernay at the Bibliothèque Nat. in Paris and another in the Antiquarium, Munich.

^{page 144 note 1} Didymus ap. Casaub., de Sat. Graec. Poes. i. 1, 23Google Scholar. Böttiger proposes to read Γίγαντας for Αἴαντας.

^{page 144 note 2} Iph. in Aul. 1058.

^{page 145 note 1} Theokr., Idyl. vii., 147Google Scholar. The scholiast on this passage says the gift was a reward to Pholos for adjudging in favour of Dionysos a quarrel between him and Hephaistos for the island of Naxos. Preller suggests that this account may be due to Stesichoros, who is known to have written (see Schol., Il. xxiii. 92Google Scholar) on the Naxian legends of Dionysos and Hephaistos.

^{page 147 note 1} Of the form (Jahn, , Vasens. Königs Ludwigs, 18Google Scholar), illustrated by Lau, pl. xix. 1. Cat. of Vases in Brit. Mus., vol. i. No. 661.

^{page 147 note 2} Jahn, op. cit., No. 957.

^{page 147 note 3} Hamilton, , Vases Etrusques, vol. i. pl. 41.Google Scholar

^{page 148 note 1} Diod. iv. 70; Plin., Hist. Nat. vii. 202Google Scholar; Verg., Georg. iii. 113.Google Scholar

^{page 149 note 1} Palaeph. de Incred.

^{page 149 note 2} Plin., Hist. Nat. viii. 45Google Scholar; Suet., Claud. 21.Google Scholar

^{page 149 note 3} Boeckh, Pind., vol. ii., pt. i., p. 319, note 2 ad Schol. Pyth. 78.

^{page 150 note 1} Stackelberg, , Der Apollotempel zu Bassae, p. 66sqq.Google Scholar; K. O., MüllerArchäol. der Kunst, § 389, 1Google Scholar, Welcker, Kl. Schriften, vol. iii. loc. cit.

^{page 150 note 2} Tzetz, , Chil. vii. 18.Google Scholar

^{page 150 note 3} Gal., De Usu part., iii. 1Google Scholar, Another difficulty, which exercises Galen, as to how a Centaur could climb a ladder, seems to have furnished a recognised blague upon the comic stage, judging by the grotesque vase, to which we have above referred (p. 141, note 2).

^{page 151 note 1} There is only one horse-bearing district of Thessaly, which shows the figure of a Centaur on its coins; and that is the hill-country of the Magnetes, between Pelion and the sea, a district which was in fact associated with the Centaur myth as early as Pindar. But these coins are of very late date, and no argument can be drawn from them.

^{page 152 note 1} Diod. iv. 12, 5.

^{page 152 note 2} Stephani, , Compte rendu, 1873, p. 95Google Scholar, No. 2=Jahn, , Vasens. Königs Ludw. 435Google Scholar; p. 103, No. 13= Mus Gregs. ii. pl. 77, 1.

^{page 152 note 3} Hygin., Poet. Astronom. ii. 27Google Scholar, and to exactly the same effect Eratosth., Katast. 28Google Scholar. This is the more noticeable inasmuch as there would seem to be authority for attributing human weapons to Cheiron at least from the time of Pindar; since it was under his tuition that Achilles learnt to kill wild animals, πτανοῖς βέλεσι. Compare the spicula in the passage above quoted from Statius.

^{page 152 note 4} Stephani for once makes a slip, where (Compte rendu, 1873, p. 99, note 4) he includes Hesiod among the writers who give spears to the Centaurs. In the lines, the context makes it perfectly clear that the ἔγχϵα are the weapons of the Lapithae, the ἐλάται of the monsters.

^{page 153 note 1} A hint of the same view is given, in passing, Schol., Il. ii. 266.Google Scholar

^{page 153 note 2} See Welcker, Kl. Schriften, Th. iii. loc. cit.

^{page 154 note 1} Zeitschr. für vergleich. Sprachforschung, vol. i. pp. 523–542.

^{page 154 note 2} Ibid. vol. vii. p. 81, sqq.

^{page 154 note 3} Ibid. v. 41.

^{page 156 note 1} A point in favour of my argument, to which my attention has been drawn by Prof. Percy Gardner, is that on some of the Thessalian coins already alluded to; e.g. those of Pherai, where the fore half of a horse is represented cut off, emerging from amidst rocks, the representation is clearly meant to be metaphorical, and to symbolize the sacred spring or fountain of the town.

^{page 156 note 2} See Pott, loc. cit.

^{page 156 note 3} Theophr., De Sign. Pluv. 22.Google Scholar

^{page 156 note 4} Luc., Phars. vi. 386.Google Scholar

^{page 157 note 1} Eur., Herc. Fur. 368sqq.Google Scholar

^{page 157 note 2} Verg., Aen. vii. 674sqq.Google Scholar

^{page 157 note 3} Diod. iv. 12, 6.

^{page 157 note 4} Ibid.

^{page 158 note 1} See Jahn, , Ficoroni'sche Cista, p. 371Google Scholar, and Preller, . Gr. Myth. i. 573sqq.Google Scholar

^{page 159 note 1} Wörterbuch der gr. Eigennamen, sub voce.

^{page 159 note 2} Pott, in Zeitschr. für vergleich. Sprachforschung, vii. 81, sqq.Google Scholar Mythoetymologica, Ixion, Eurytos.

^{page 159 note 3} Apollod. iii. 14, 2, 2.

^{page 160 note 1} See above, p. 140, note 1, and cf. Lucan, Phars. vi. 389:

‘teque sub Oetaeo torquentem uertice uulsas

Rhoece ferox quae uix Boreas inuerteret ornos.’

In the form of the name, which is also that of a giant, the Latin poets vary between Rhoecus and Rhoetus; see Hor. Od. ii. 9, 23; iii. 4, 55; Ov. Met. xii. 271, sqq.; Verg. Georg. ii. 456.

^{page 160 note 2} Curtius, , Greek Etym. vol. i. 243Google Scholar; and comp. Preller, , Gr. Myth. ii. 246.Google Scholar

^{page 160 note 3} Strab. ix. 427; Paus. x. 38, 2; Plut, . Quaest. Gr. 15.Google Scholar

^{page 160 note 4} Preller, , Gr. Myth. ii. 194, n. 3.Google Scholar

^{page 161 note 1} Ov, . Met. xii. 310, 313.Google Scholar

^{page 161 note 2} It is a fact worth noticing in this connection, that a vase in the British Museum, to which allusion has already been made, and which is probably of local Etruscan manufacture, shows Pegasos and a Centaur together; the latter being of the primitive shape, and flinging one human foreleg in a kind of grotesque cancan over the body of the former. For other traditions connecting Pegasos with the Centaurs, see Schol, . ad Il. i. 226.Google Scholar

^{page 163 note 1} Jahn, , Vasenb. (Hamburg, 1839)Google Scholar, gives a list of satyr names, pp. 17–28. That which he reads Eurytion, merely from the precedent of the Centaur so called, stands in the vase in the ambiguous form ΕϒΛϒϒΙωΝ.

^{page 164 note 1} But see Schol, . Il. i. 226Google Scholar, for another genealogy, making them the descendants of the nymph Stilbé and of Apollo.

^{page 165 note 1} Hesiod, ap. Strab. 471.

^{page 165 note 2} Eur., Herc. fur. 181Google Scholar; comp. Soph., Trach. 1085Google Scholar:—

Article contents

On Representations of Centaurs in Greek Vase-Painting

Extract

Access options

References

Save article to Kindle

Save article to Dropbox

Save article to Google Drive

Reply to: Submit a response

Your details

You have entered the maximum number of contributors

Conflicting interests