Page:Greek and Roman Mythology.djvu/72

 58 GREEK AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY rage, devastate tilled lands, carry off women (just as Acheloiis and Alpheiis were ardent suitors), hurl rocks and trees torn up by the roots, and hunt, i.e. surprise, the wild animals hiding in the dry channels, and carry them along with them. Like the waves of the sea, which go swiftly raging by, they are represented as having the form of a horse. In the oldest sculptures the hinder part of a horse's body is simply joined to the back of a complete human body ; later, the human body near the hips is represented as changing into the forequarters of a horse, producing a formation which reminds one of the shape of the river gods and Tritons. The Centaurs fought (by inundations ?) in the plains of Thessaly with that mythical-historical people, the Lapithae (' stone- men '). The Lapithae may be regarded as the builders of the rocky citadels of Thessaly (and closely related to the Phlegyae and Minyae), especially since the in- habitants of most of these localities venerated as their founders heroes of the Lapithae with names similar to those of the places themselves. 78. The king of the Lapithae was Ixion, son of Phlegyas. Ixion was regarded as the father of the Centaurs. Because he had boasted of the favor of Hera, Zeus caused him to be punished by being twisted upon a swiftly-turning wheel in the lower world. He was succeeded by his son Pirithous, the friend of The- seus. In consequence of their mania for drink, an idea whose origin can be easily explained in the nature of wild torrents, the Centaurs came into conflict with Her- cules, as well as with Theseus and Pirithous, and in such struggles were annihilated by those heroes. Quite unlike the other Centaurs was Chiron ('the handy/