"He met with the same as himself,"
and obtained with them, if not sympathy, at least companionship.
Chiron was the wisest of the Centaurs. Music, divination, astronomy, and
medicine, were equally familiar to him, and his name is blended with those
of the principal sages of Greece, whom he instructed in the use of plants
and medicinal herbs.
The battle of the Centaurs with the Lapithae at the bridal of Perithous is
famous in history, and was the cause of their destruction.
The Centaurs inflamed with wine, behaved with rudeness and even offered
violence to the bride, and to the women that were present.
"Now brave Perithous, bold Ixion's son,
The love of fair Hippodame had won.
The cloud begotten race, half men, half beast,
Invited came to grace the nuptial feast:
In a cool cave's recess the treat was made,
Whose entrance, trees, with spreading boughs o'ershade,
They sat; and summoned by the bridegroom, came,
To mix with those, the Lapythaean name:
----------------The roofs with joy resound,
And Hymen, Ioe Hymen, rung around.
Raised altars shone with holy fires: the bride
Lovely herself, (and lovely by her side
A bevy of bright nymphs, with sober grace,)
Came glittering like a star, and took her place.
Her heavenly form beheld, all wished her joy;
And little wanted, but in vain their wishes all employ.
For one, most brutal of the brutal brood,
Or whether wine or beauty fired his blood,
Or both at once, beheld with lustful eyes
The bride: at once resolved to make his prize.
Down went the board, and fastening on her hair,
He seized with sudden force the frighted fair.
'Twas Eurytus began; his bestial kind
His crime pursued, and each as pleased his mind
On her, whom chance presented, took. The feast
An image of a taken town expressed."