"_... the dreadful sagittary
Appals our numbers._"
"Troilus and Cressida," Act v. sc. 5.
"_Feasts that Thessalian centaurs never knew._"
THOMSON, "Autumn."
Under these names is blazoned a fabled monster of classic origin, half
man, half horse, holding an arrow upon a bended bow. It is one of the
twelve signs of the Zodiac, commonly called Sagittarius, otherwise
Arcitenens, and marked by the hieroglyph ♐. In its signification in arms
it may properly be applied to those who are eminent in the field.
The arms traditionally assigned to King Stephen are thus described by
Nicholas Upton: "_Scutum rubeum, in quo habuit trium leonum peditantium
corpora, usque ad collum cum corporibus humanis superius, ad modum signi
Sagittarii, de auro_." In this, as in some other early examples, it is
represented as half man, half lion.
[Illustration: The Sagittary--Centaur.]
The arms of Stephen are sometimes represented with but one sagittary, and
is said to have been assumed by him in consequence of his having commenced
his reign under the sign of Sagittarius. Others say because he gained a
battle by the aid of his archers on entering the kingdom. Others, again,
say that the City of Blois used the ensign of a sagittary as an emblem of
the chase; and Stephen, son of the Compte de Blois, assumed that ensign in
his contest with the Empress Maude or Matilda. There is no contemporary
authority, however, it must be confessed, for any of these derivations. A
sagittary is seen upon the seal of William de Mandeville (_temp._ Henry
III.), but not as an heraldic bearing.
The crest of Lambart, Earl of Cavan, is: _On a mount vert, a centaur
proper, drawing his bow gules, arrow or_. It also appears as the crest of
Askelom, Bendlowes, Cromie, Cruell, Lambert, Petty, Petty-Fitzmaurice.
The term _Centaur_ is most probably derived from the words κεντέω (to
hunt, or to pursue) and ταῦρος (a bull), the Thracians and Thessalians
having been celebrated from the earliest times for their skill and daring
in hunting wild bulls, which they pursued mounted on the noble horses of
those districts, which were a celebrated breed even in the later times of
the Roman Empire. A centaur carrying a female appears on a coin of Lete,
which, according to Pliny and Ptolemy, was situated on the confines of
Macedonia, and the fables of the centaurs, &c., in that and neighbouring
districts abounding in a noble breed of horses, arose no doubt from the
feats performed by those who first subjugated the horse to the will of
man, and who mounted on one of these beautiful animals and guiding it at
will, to approach or retreat with surprising rapidity, gave rise in the
minds of the vulgar to the idea that the man and the horse were one being.
[Illustration: Ipotane, from Mandeville's travels.]
Sir John de Mandeville in his travels (printed by Wynken de Worde, 1499),
tells us that in Bacharie "ben many Ipotanes that dwellen sometime in the
water and sometime on the land; and thei ben half men and half hors and
thei eten men when thei may take him."
We have in modern history a singular and interesting example of a similar
superstition. When the natives of South America--where the horse was
unknown--first saw their invaders, the Spaniards, mounted on these animals
and in complete armour, they imagined that the cavalier and steed formed
but one being of supernatural powers and endowments.
Such groups as those exhibited on the rude money of Lete and other places
were doubtless the first steps toward the treatment of similar subjects by
Phidias, the celebrated Greek sculptor, whose works illustrating the
battle of the Lapithæ and the Centaurs adorned the metopes of the
Parthenon at Athens, to which they also bear a striking affinity in the
simplicity of their conception.
A curious example of the compounded human and animal forms similar to the
sagittary is represented upon a necklace found in the Isle of Rhodes, and
now in the Musée Cluny, Paris. It is formed of a series of thin gold
plates whereon is represented in relief the complete human figure
conjoined to the hinder part of a stag (or horse). This is alternated with
another compound figure, human and bird, holding up two animals by the
tails, both subjects, each in their own way, suggestive of the fleet and
dexterous hunter.
[Illustration: Compound figures, gold necklace, Musée Cluny, Paris.]
In Homer's account the centaurs are obviously no monsters, but an old
Thessalian mountain tribe, of great strength and savage ferocity. They are
merely said to have inhabited the mountain districts of Thessaly, and to
have been driven thence by the Lapithæ into the higher mountains of
Pindus. Their contest with the Lapithæ is generally conceived as a symbol
of the struggle of Greek civilisation with the still existing barbarism of
the Early Pelasgian period. This may be the reason why Greek art in its
prime directed itself so especially to this subject.
[Illustration: Centaur, Greek sculpture.]
The origin of this contest is referred to the marriage feast of Pirithous
and Hippodamia, to which the principal centaurs were invited. The centaur
Eurytion, heated with wine, attempted to carry off the bride. This gave
rise to a struggle for supremacy which, after dreadful losses on both
sides, ended in the complete defeat of the centaurs, who were driven out
of the country. The custom of depicting the centaurs as half man, half
horse arose in later times, and became a favourite subject of the Greek
poets and artists.
Amongst the centaurs, Chiron, who was famous alike for his wisdom and his
knowledge of medicine, deserves mention as the preceptor of many of the
heroes of antiquity. Homer, who knew nothing of the equine shape of the
centaurs, represents him as the most upright of the centaurs, makes him
the friend of Achilles, whom he instructed in music, medicine and hunting.
He was also the friend of Heracles, who, by an unlucky accident, wounded
him with a poisoned arrow. The wound being incurable, he voluntarily chose
to die in the place of Prometheus. Jupiter placed him among the stars,
where he is called Sagittarius.
_Bucentaur_, from Greek Βοῦς (bous) an ox, and κένταυρος (kentauros) a
centaur, was, in classic mythology, a monster of double shape, half man,
half ox. The state barge of the Doge of Venice was so termed.
The _Minotaur_ slain by Theseus had the body of a man and the head of a
bull.