CHIRON

                                                       

 

In Greek mythology, Chiron was held to be the superlative centaur among his brethren.  Chiron was notable throughout Greek mythology for his youth-nurturing nature.  His personal skills tend to match those of Apollo, his foster father, sometimes along with Artemis, medicine, music, archery, hunting, and prophesy.  His parents were Cronus and Phylira.

 

Like the satyrs, centaurs were notorious for being wild and lusty, overly indulgent drinking, and carouses given to violence when intoxicated and generally uncultured delinquents.  Chiron by contrast was intelligent, civilized, and kind. He was related to the other centaurs.  He was famous for his knowledge and skills in medicine.

 

According to an archaic myth, Chiron’s lineage was different from the other centaurs who were born of sun and raincloud rendered by Greeks of the classical period as from the union of King Ixion, consigner to the fiery wheel and Nephele (cloud) which in the Olympian telling Zeus invented to look like Hera.  Myths attribute Chiron’s peaceful character and intelligence to the teaching of Apollo and Artemis in his younger days.

 

Some sources speculate that Chiron was originally a Thessalian god, later submerged to the great pantheon as a centaur.

 

Chiron lived on Mount Pelion, where he married the nymph Charicho, who bore him three daughters and one son.

 

A great healer, astrologer, and respected oracle, Chiron was said to be the first among centaurs and highly respected as a teacher and tutor. Among his pupils were many heroes: Asclepius, Ajax, Aeneas, Caeneus, Theseus, Achilles, Jason, Telemon, Perseus and sometimes Hercules, Aelius Phoenix, and in Byzantine tradition, even Dionysos, according to the Ptolemean Chenas of Alexandria.

 

There is also a persistent link with Peleus through Chiron’s myths. Chiron saved the life of Peleus when Acastus tried to kill him by taking his sword and by leaving him out in the woods to be slaughtered by the centaurs.  Chiron retrieved the sword of Peleus.  He then explained to Peleus how to capture the nymph Thetis, leading to their marriage.

 

His nobility is reflected in the story of his friend as Prometheus sacrificed his life, allowing mankind to obtain the use of fire.  Being the son of Cronus he was immortal so it was left to  Hercules to arrange a bargain with Zeus to exchange Chiron’s immortality for the life of Prometheus, who had been chained to a rock and left to die for his transgressions. 

 

Chiron had been poisoned by an arrow belonging to Hercules that had been dipped in the blood of Hydra or other versions, a poison that Chiron had given to the hero when he had been under the centaur’s tutelage.

 

According to a scholium on Theocritus that had taken place during the visits of Hercules to the cure of Pholus on Mount Pelion in Thessaly when he visited his friend during his 4^th labour in defeating the Erymanthean  Boar.  While they were all at supper, Hercules asked for some wine. Pholus who ate his food raw was taken aback.  He was given a vessel of sacred wine by Dionysos earlier, to be kept in trust for the rest of the centaurs until the right time for its opening. At Hercules’ prompting, Pholus was forced to produce the vessel of sacred wine.

 

The hero grasped the wine from him and forced it open.  Thereupon the vapor of the sacred wine wafted out of the cave and intoxicated the wild centaurs let by Nessus, who had gathered outside. They attacked the cave with stones.  Hercules was forced to shoot many arrows, poisoned by the blood of the Hydra to drive them back. 

 

During this assault, Chiron was hit in the thigh by one of the poisoned arrows.  After the centaurs had fled, Pholus emerged from the cave to obscure the destruction.

 

Being in a philosophical mood, he pulled one of the arrows found on the body of the dead centaur.   At that instant, he let slip the arrow and it dropped on his hoof killing him instantly.

 

Ironically, Chiron the master of healing could not heal himself.  So, he willingly gave up his immortality. He was honored in a place in the sky identified by Greeks, as the constellation of the Centaurus. 

 

Chiron made a promise to Zeus, that when he was needed as a trainer of demi-gods, he may exist in this world.  He is among us today not only as a constellation but also as an inspiration. 

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