20 Facts About Chiron

Chiron was notable throughout Greek mythology for his youth-nurturing nature.

Chiron was known for his knowledge and skill with medicine, and thus was credited with the discovery of botany and pharmacy, the science of herbs and medicine.

Chiron was the son of the Titan Cronus and the Oceanid Philyra, and thus possible brother to Dolops and Aphrus, the ancestor and eponym of the Aphroi, i e the native Africans.

Chiron lived predominantly on Mount Pelion; there he married the nymph Chariclo who bore him three daughters, Hippe, Endeis, and Ocyrhoe, and one son Carystus.

Chiron is often depicted carrying a branch with dead hares he has caught hanging from it.

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Chiron is often depicted wearing clothes, demonstrating he is more civilised and unlike a normal centaur .

Chiron has retained an element of clothing and gained a laurel wreath, suggesting the artist wished to portray nobility, or even divinity, more consistent with the traditional view.

Chiron's lineage was different from other centaurs, who were born from Ixion, consigned to a fiery wheel, and Nephele, which in the Olympian telling Zeus invented to look like Hera.

Some sources speculate that Chiron was originally a Thessalian god, later subsumed into the Greek pantheon as a centaur.

Great healer, astrologer, and respected oracle, Chiron was said to be the first among centaurs and highly revered as a teacher and tutor.

Chiron saved the life of Peleus when Acastus tried to kill him by taking his sword and leaving him out in the woods to be slaughtered by the centaurs.

Chiron then explained to Peleus how to capture the nymph Thetis, leading to their marriage.

Chiron is connected with the story of the Argonauts, whom he received kindly when they came to his residence on their voyage, for many of the heroes were his friends and pupils.

Chiron was a renowned mentor, and brought up some future heroes such as:.

Chiron's nobility is further reflected in the story of his death, as Prometheus sacrificed his life, allowing mankind to obtain the use of fire.

Chiron was pierced with an arrow belonging to Heracles that had been treated with the blood of the Hydra, or, in other versions, poison that Chiron had given to the hero when he had been under the honorable centaur's tutelage.

Chiron had been given a vessel of sacred wine by Dionysus sometime earlier, to be kept in trust by the centaurs until the right time for its opening.

Chiron is shown in a paternal capacity, rather than that of merely a teacher, and is depicted as far from animal.

Statius creates an image of Chiron that is not only a loving father, but a strict and wise teacher, disassociated with the bestial aspects of centaurs.

Chiron Instructing Achilles in the Bow by Giovanni Battista Cipriani .