Encyclopedia > Chiron

  Article Content

Chiron

In Greek mythology, Chiron ("hand") was a centaur who was unlike most centaurs in that he was kind, intelligent and civilized. He was a son of Cronus and Philyra.

He was probably a Thessalonian god, later subsumed into the Greek pantheon as a centaur.

He tutored Asclepius, Theseus, Achilles, Jason and Heracles.

Heracles accidentally shot him with a poisonous arrow (see: Erymanthian Boar) and Chiron willingly gave up his immortality to escape the pain. He was placed in the sky as the constellation Sagittarius.

Chiron also 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 retrieved his sword.

With the nymph Chariclo, Chiron was the father of Ocyrhoe.

Alternative: Cheiron


In astronomy, 2060 Chiron is the name of an object discovered in 1977 by Charlie Kowal.



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
East Hampton North, New York

... 1.62% Asian, 0.08% Pacific Islander, 5.94% from other races, and 2.43% from two or more races. 16.62% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. There are 1,445 ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 37.1 ms