Chiron

Achilles Educationby Delacroix (French of Bourbon Palace in Paris)

In Greek mythology Chiron sometimes Queirón or Chirón (in ancient Greek Χείρων Cheírôn, in Latin Chīron) was an intelligent, wise and good-natured centaur, unlike most of his kind. He was the son of Crono and Fílira, a daughter of Océano, and father of Ocírroe with the nymph Cariclo. Chiron lived in a cave on Mount Pelion in Thessaly and was a great educator in music, art, hunting, morals, medicine and surgery, and tutor to several of the greatest heroes in Greek mythology.

Etymology

Her name is a derivative of χείρ «hand» and could be translated as «skillful with her hands». It is related to the medical term χειρουργός "surgeon, who works with his hands".

In classical mythology

Origin

The birth of Chiron occurs when Cronus, the titan son of Uranus, was looking for Zeus on earth. Upon reaching an island in Thrace, he met the oceanid Filira who captivated him. To prevent Rhea, his wife, from finding out, Crono transforms into a horse and copulates with Fílira. However, Rea finds out and Crono flees away. Tormented, Fílira also escapes to the heights of the Pelasgian mountains, where she finally gives birth to Chiron. To her surprise, the being born had a terrible morphology because from the navel up it was a divine figure, but the lower part was that of a horse. Finally Fílira asks to be transformed, being granted the wish of her ends up being a linden tree. A variant in the representation of the fact says that Crono transforms into a horse with robust manes when Rhea discovers them, fleeing with Fílira at a gallop. There is also another variant that changes the plot of the story. In it, it is Fílira who transforms into a mare out of modesty before Crono, in the first instance with the aim of escaping from her. But Cronus also mutates into a horse and violates it. Another completely different interpretation of the origin of Chiron can be seen in the works of Suidas the Greek historian who makes him the son of Ixion.

Disciples

According to various ancient mythographers, Chiron was the tutor of Achilles, Ajax (the great),Asclepius, Jason, Aristeo and Actaeon. Xenophon, in his work On the Hunt, offers a broader list of heroes who learned the art of hunting from Chiron which includes Cephalus, Melanion, Nestor, Amphiaraus, Peleus, Telamon, Meleager, Theseus, Hippolytus, Palamedes, Castor, Pollux, Machaon, Podalirio, Antilochus and Aeneas.

Chiron and Peleus

His fame as a wise and prudent doctor spread throughout Greece. Chiron met Peleus when Acasto, to take revenge for an alleged betrayal of his love, invited him to a hunt during which he stole the wonderful sword that Hephaestus had given him and abandoned him to his fate among the centaurs. However, he was saved by Chiron, who recovered the sword, professing a great friendship between them ever since.

When Peleus fell in love with Thetis, he asked Chiron for advice on finding a way to seduce her since, like all Nereids, he could change shape at will. Chiron recommended that once he touched and caught her not to let go, and so, when she turned into a squid, he held her by one arm and did not let go until she returned to her female form, with which Peleus was able to take her to the force.

When Thetis abandoned Peleus, he handed over Achilles to Chiron so that he could educate him along with his mother Philyra and his wife, Chariclo, the nymph daughter of Apollo. Thetis left Peleus because he reproached him for the rituals he performed on Achilles to endow him with immortality, consisting of burning him and then curing his burns with ambrosia. Peleus snatched Achilles without giving Thetis time to cover the child's heel with nectar, and for this reason he gave the child Achilles with the burned heel to Chiron, so the first thing the centaur did was take the heel bone of Dámiso, a recently deceased giant runner, and with him replace Achilles' taba.

Death

Heracles accidentally shot him with an arrow poisoned with the blood of the Hydra during a fight with the Centaurs, who were fleeing towards Chiron's abode. He received a crush that caused him a painful incurable wound, leading him to give up his immortality to Prometheus, in order to die and escape pain. It was located in the sky as the constellation Sagittarius, located in the elliptic of the Zodiac and visible from both hemispheres, or according to other sources, as Centaurus, visible in the southern hemisphere.

Some sources speculate that Chiron was originally a Thessalian god, later subsumed into the Greek pantheon as a centaur.

Chiron is also considered the first veterinarian, since he used his great medical knowledge to cure creatures of all species.

Offspring

• With the nymph Cariclo or Nais:
  • Ocírroe, a prophetic nymph
  • Pelionid ninphas (from Mount Pelion; without specifying names)
  • Caristo, eponymous hero
• Without specifying the consort:
  • Endeide, wife of Eaco
  • Melanipa, seduced by Eolo

Subsequent references

The character Chiron has been adapted in works of fiction, notably in Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy, in which he is the chief guardian of the seventh circle of Hell. John Updike's novel The Centaur is an expansion and interpretation of the story of Chiron, set against the backdrop of a 20th century American town. He is also a character in the saga of Percy Jackson and the Olympians , series of books by Rick Riordan, being the tutor of the protagonists.