Page:Modern Greek folklore and ancient Greek religion - a study in survivals.djvu/253

 inserted after the [Greek: t] of [Greek: kentauros], the sound of vr was reduced to r only, though certainly the loss of the v-sound might have occurred, apart from any such predisposing modification, as in the common word [Greek: xerô] (I know) for [Greek: êxeurô].

Since then the etymological conditions of the problem are satisfied by the identification of the word [Greek: kantzaros] with the ancient [Greek: kentauros], it remains only to show that the name of 'Centaurs' fitly belongs to the monsters whom I have described; and my contention will be that the simple word [Greek: kantzaros], 'Centaur,' surviving now only in the dialectic diminutive form [Greek: skatzari], adequately expresses every sort and condition of Callicantzaros that has been depicted; that [Greek: kallikantzaros], the general word, of which so many dialectic varieties occur, being simply an euphemistic compound of [Greek: kantzaros] with [Greek: kalos] such as we have previously seen in the title [Greek: kallikyrades] given to the Nereids, expresses precisely the same meaning as the simple word [Greek: kantzaros], 'Centaur'; and that [Greek: lykokantzaros] originally denoted one species only of the genus Centaur, namely a Callicantzaros whose animal traits were those of a wolf.

What then did the ancients mean by the word 'centaur'?

The mention of the name is apt to carry away our minds to famous frieze or pediment, where in one splendidly impossible creation of art the excellences of man, his head and his hands, are wed with the horse's strength and speed. This was the species of Centaur which the great sculptors and painters in the best period of Greek Art chose to depict, and these among educated men became the Centaurs par excellence. Yet even so it was not forgotten that they formed only one species, and were strictly to be called [Greek: hippokentauroi], 'horse-centaurs.' Moreover two other species of Centaur are named in the ancient language, [Greek: ichthyokentauroi] or fish-centaurs, and [Greek: onokentauroi] or ass-centaurs. Of the former nothing seems to be known beyond the mere name, but this matters little inasmuch as they can assuredly have contributed nothing to the popular conception of the wholly terrestrial Callicantzari. The ass-centaurs will prove of more interest.

But the list of ancient species of Centaur does not really stop here. No other compounds of the word Centaur may exist, but none the less there were other Centaurs—other creatures, that