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"If the poet's tongue
might breathe the prayer that is on the lips of
all, I would pray that Chiron, son of Philyra, who
is dead and gone, were now alive again ... and I
would want him to reign again in the glens of
Pelion, that rugged monster whose mind was friendly
to men; just as he was when once he reared
Asclepius, that gentle craftsman who drove
pain from the limbs that he healed, that hero who
cured all types of diseases." [Pindar,
Pythian
Odes
3.1]
Clytaemnestra:
Did Thetis or his father
train
Achilles?
Agamemnon:
Chiron brought him up, to
prevent his learning the ways of the
wicked.
Clytaemnestra:
Ah! wise the teacher, still
wiser the one who gave his son.
[Euripides,
Iphigenia
in Aulis 708]
"Brought up in godly
Chiron's halls myself, I learned to keep a single
heart."
[Achilles. Euripides,
Iphigenia
in Aulis 926]
"Daughter of Nereus, you
shall bear a son, a dazzling light to Thessaly; for
he shall come with an army of Myrmidon spearmen to
the famous land of Priam, to set it in a
blaze..." [Chiron to Thetis. Euripides,
Iphigenia
in Aulis 1064]
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Deep-thinking Chiron is the civilized Centaur
who trained several famous disciples, being known
for his wisdom and justice. Chiron, who was not a
drunkard like other
CENTAURS, never used
his weapons against a man. Instead he spent his
Old Age learning about
herbs, and teaching to play the lyre to his pupils.
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Born a Centaur
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Chiron was born in very ancient times, for some
have said that he was conceived at the time when
Zeus was hiding in
Crete, and his father
Cronos, anxious to devour
the little god, was looking for him throughout the
earth. And Chiron, they say, was born a Centaur
because Cronos begot him
in a horse's shape.
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No medicine without him
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Without Chiron, they say, there would not be art
of healing. For
Asclepius, despite the
fact that he was the son of
Apollo, the god of
healing, learned medicine from the Centaur Chiron.
And as it has been pointed out, the art that
Asclepius' sons
Machaon and Podalirius performed at the time of the
Trojan War, as when
Machaon cured Menelaus,
was the same art that Chiron had taught to his
disciple Asclepius.
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Wide education
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But Chiron taught the art of healing to his
other disciples too, for that is what the wounded
Eurypylus 1 says to
Patroclus 1 when they
were fighting at Troy:
"I want you to
cut out this arrow from my thigh, wash off the
blood with warm water and spread soothing ointment
on the wound. They say you have some excellent
prescriptions that you learnt from
Achilles, who was taught by Chiron ..."
[Eurypylus 1 to
Patroclus 1. Homer,
Iliad
11.829]
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Restores sight to blind
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Phoenix 2, who later accompanied
Achilles to the
Trojan War, was
blinded by his father King Amyntor 1 of Ormenium,
son of Ormenus 3, son of Cercaphus 2, son of
Aeolus 1, son of Hellen
1 the eponym of the
Hellenes, son of
Deucalion 1 the man
who survived the Flood.
Amyntor 1, doing exactly as
Phineus 2, blinded his
son on the strength of a false accusation of
seduction made against him by Phthia 3, concubine
of Amyntor 1. But Peleus
brought Phoenix 2 to Chiron, and the Centaur
restored his sight.
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Lives with wife and mother
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Although it has been told that Philyra 1 was
turned into a tree when she discovered that she had
given birth to a monster, others say that Chiron
lived in a cave in Mount Pelion, which is in
Magnesia (Thessaly), with both his wife and his
mother, and that is what
Jason, who was one of the
disciples of this Centaur, says:
"... I shall
give proof of Chiron's training; for I come from
his cave, from the presence of Chariclo and
Philyra, where the holy daughters of the Centaur
raised me." [Jason
to Pelias 1. Pindar,
Pythian
Odes
4.112]
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Chiron and Cyrene
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Chiron is regarded as a civilized Centaur,
sometimes wiser than the gods, and certainly wiser
than men, whom he surpasses in justice. As it is
told, not even Apollo
knew, or seemed to know, who
Cyrene was when he found
her near Mount Pelion without spears wrestling
alone with a lion. But the god asked the Centaur to
leave his cave, and tell him all about her. And
Chiron showed amazement at the god's question:
"Do you ask of
the maiden's birth? You who know the end supreme of
all things, and all the ways that lead thereto, the
number of the leaves that the earth puts forth in
spring, the number of the sands that, in the sea
and the rivers, are driven before the waves
..." [Chiron to
Apollo. Pindar,
Pythian
Odes
9.45]
However, Apollo was
not ignorant, says Chiron, but instead reluctant to
show his love openly:
"Secret, O
Apollo! are the keys of wise Persuasion,
that unlock the shrine of love; and both gods and
men blush to take the pleasure of a bed for the
first time openly. For even in your case, for whom
it is unlawful to touch on falsehood, a gentle
impulse has swayed you to dissemble your words."
[Chiron to Apollo
Pindar, Pythian
Odes
9.39]
After this, Apollo
carried Cyrene off to
that part of the land of Libya where in later times
he founded a city and named it, after her, Cyrene.
And this was decided that very day when
Apollo saw the girl, for
as it is said:
"Swift is the
achievement, short are the ways of gods, when bent
on speed." [Pindar, Pythian 9.68]
Cyrene, who was
daughter of King Hypseus 1 of the
LAPITHS, gave birth to
Aristaeus, who himself became a disciple of Chiron,
and the discoverer of honey and the olive.
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Mortally wounded...
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Chiron was mortally wounded in the following
way:
Heracles 1, in his
wanderings, came to the cave of the Centaur Pholus
1, who received him and set roast meat before him.
Heracles 1, then,
asked for wine, but Pholus
1 said that he feared to open the jar since it
belonged to all
CENTAURS in common.
After some discussion on this matter, the jar was
opened and the
CENTAURS, scenting the
smell, arrived armed at the cave of Pholus 1. A
battle ensued, and
Heracles 1 shot and
repelled many of them, who took refuge with Chiron.
At that point, Heracles
1 shot an arrow at Elatus 3, which passed
through his arm, sticking in Chiron's knee.
Distressed at this,
Heracles 1 applied a
medicine which the Centaur gave him. But the wound
was incurable, because the arrows of
Heracles 1 had been
dipped in the gall of the Hydra, and were therefore
utterly poisonous.
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...in one way or another
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However, others have said that it was when
Heracles 1 once
visited Chiron and they were examining his arrows,
that one of them fell on the Centaur's foot,
bringing about his death. And still others have
said that Chiron himself tried to draw the bow, and
the arrow, slipping from his hand, fell on his
foot, wounding him.
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His fate foretold by his daughter
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In any case Chiron, who was in pain, wished to
die, but, being immortal, he could not. So when
Heracles 1, after some
time, released
Prometheus 1, he
presented Chiron to Zeus,
who consented to die in
Prometheus 1's
stead. This had been prophesied by Chiron's
daughter, the seeress Ocyrrhoe 2:
"You also,
dear father, who are now immortal and destined by
the law of birth to last through all the ages,
shall some day long for power to die, when you will
be in agony with all your limbs burning with the
fatal Hydra's blood. But at last, from immortal the
gods shall make you capable of death, and the three
goddesses shall loose your thread."
[Ocyrrhoe 2 to Chiron. Ovid,
Metamorphoses
2.649]
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Among the stars
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This genial Centaur, who renounced immortality,
reared famous disciples, and surpassed men in
justice, conscientiousness and diligence, was put
among the stars, and is known today as the
constellation Centaur (Centaurus).
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Achilles
When Achilles'
mother Thetis left home and returned to the
NEREIDS,
Peleus brought his son
Achilles to Chiron, who
received him as a disciple, and fed him on the
inwards of lions and wild swine, and the marrows of
bears.
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Actaeon
Actaeon, who was bred
by Chiron to be a hunter, is famous for his
terrible death; for he, in the shape of a deer, was
devoured by his own dogs. The dogs, ignorant of
what they had done, came to the cave of Chiron
seeking for their master, and the Centaur fashioned
an image of Actaeon in
order to sooth their grief.
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Aristaeus
The MUSES were,
according to some, those who taught Aristaeus the
arts of healing and of prophecy. Aristaeus
discovered honey and the olive. After the death of
his son Actaeon he
migrated to Sardinia.
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Asclepius
The great medicine of
Asclepius is based on
Chiron's teaching. Apollo
killed Asclepius'
mother Coronis 2 while still pregnant but snatched
the child from the pyre, bringing him to Chiron who
reared him and taught him the arts of healing and
hunting.
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Jason
Aeson gave his son
Jason to the Centaur
Chiron to rear at the time when he was deposed by
King Pelias 1.
Jason is the Captain of
the ARGONAUTS.
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Medus
Medus, who some call Polyxenus 3 and others
Medeus, is the man after whom the country Media was
called. He was the son of
Medea by either
Aegeus 1 or by
Jason.
Medus died in a military campaign against the
Indians.
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Patroclus 1
Patroclus 1's
father left him in Chiron's cave, to study, side by
side with Achilles, the
chords of the harp, and learn to hurl spears and
mount and ride upon the back of genial Chiron.
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Peleus
Peleus, father of
Achilles, was once
rescued by Chiron: Acastus, son of
Pelias 1, purified
Peleus for having killed
(undesignedly) his father-in-law Eurytion 2.
However, Acastus' wife, Astydamia 2, fell in love
with Peleus, and as he
refused her she intrigued against him, telling
Acastus that Peleus had
attempted her virtue. Acastus would not kill the
man he had purified, but took him to hunt on Mount
Pelion and when Peleus
had fallen asleep Acastus deserted him, hiding his
sword. On arising and looking for his sword,
Peleus was caught by the
CENTAURS and would have
perished, if he had not been saved by Chiron, who
also restored him his sword, after having sought
and found it. Chiron arranged the marriage of
Peleus with Thetis,
bringing Achilles up
for her. He also told
Peleus how to conquer the
Nereid Thetis who, changing her form, could prevent
him from catching her. But others say that it was
Proteus 2 who helped
Peleus. When
Peleus married Thetis, he
received from Chiron an ashen spear, which
Achilles took to the
war at Troy. And as they
say, no one among the Achaeans was able to wield
that heavy and huge spear. This spear is the same
with which Achilles
healed Telephus, by
scraping off the rust.
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