Editing Centaur (section)

==Literature==
===Classical literature===
Jerome's version of the ''Life'' of St [[Anthony the Great]], written by [[Athanasius of Alexandria]] about the hermit monk of Egypt, was widely disseminated in the Middle Ages; it relates Anthony's encounter with a centaur who challenged the saint, but was forced to admit that the old gods had been overthrown. The episode was often depicted in ''The Meeting of St Anthony Abbot and St Paul the Hermit'' by the painter [[Stefano di Giovanni]], who was known as "Sassetta".<ref>[[National Gallery of Art]], Washington, DC: [http://www.wga.hu/support/viewer/z.html illustration] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210109131636/https://www.wga.hu/support/viewer/z.html |date=January 9, 2021 }}.</ref> Of the two episodic depictions of the [[Anthony the Great|hermit Anthony]]'s travel to greet the hermit Paul, one is his encounter with the demonic figure of a centaur along the pathway in a wood.

[[Lucretius]], in his first-century BC philosophical poem ''[[On the Nature of Things]],'' denied the existence of centaurs, based on the differing rates of growth of human and equine anatomies. Specifically, he states that at the age of three years, horses are in the prime of their life while humans at the same age are still little more than babies, making hybrid animals impossible.<ref>Lucretius, ''On the Nature of Things'', book V, translated by William Ellery Leonard, 1916 ([https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Lucr.+5.878 The Perseus Project].) Retrieved July 27, 2008.</ref>

===Medieval literature===
Centaurs are among the creatures which 14th-century Italian poet [[Dante]] placed as guardians in his ''[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]]''. In Canto XII, Dante and his guide [[Virgil]] meet a band led by [[Chiron]] and [[Pholus (mythology)|Pholus]], guarding the bank of [[Phlegethon]] in the seventh circle of Hell, a river of boiling blood in which the violent against their neighbours are immersed, shooting arrows into any who move to a shallower spot than their allotted station. The two poets are treated with courtesy, and [[Nessus (mythology)|Nessus]] guides them to a ford.<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Dante]] |title=[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]] |at=12.55-139}}</ref> In Canto XXIV, in the eighth circle, in Bolgia 7, a ditch where thieves are confined, they meet but do not converse with [[Cacus]] (who is a giant in the ancient sources), wreathed in serpents and with a fire-breathing dragon on his shoulders, arriving to punish a sinner who has just cursed God.<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Dante]] |title=[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]] |at=25.17–33}}</ref> In his ''[[Purgatorio]]'', an unseen spirit on the sixth terrace cites the centaurs ("the drunken double-breasted ones who fought Theseus") as examples of the sin of [[gluttony]].<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Dante]] |title=[[Purgatorio]] |at=24.121–123}}</ref>

===Modern day literature===
{{Main|Centaurs in popular culture}}
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[[C.S. Lewis]]'s ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]'' series [[Narnian Centaurs|portrays centaurs]] as wise and courageous creatures, who are gifted in fields such as astronomy and medicine.<ref>Kaleta, p. 77.</ref> [[John Updike]]'s 1963 novel ''[[The Centaur]]'' contains numerous references to mythological centaurs.<ref>Leuker, "B.3. Early modern period", para. 9.</ref> The author depicts a rural Pennsylvanian town as seen through the optics of the myth of the centaur. An unknown and marginalized local school teacher, just like the mythological Chiron did for Prometheus, gave up his life for the future of his son who had chosen to be an independent artist in New York.

In [[J.K. Rowling]]'s ''[[Harry Potter]]'' series, centaurs inhabit the [[Forbidden Forest (Harry Potter)|Forbidden Forest]] near [[Hogwarts]], and are talented archers and healers; they are also known to their proficiency in astrology.<ref>Kaleta, p. 77.</ref> The centaurs in [[Rick Riordan]]'s ''[[Percy Jackson & the Olympians]]'' are portrayed as wild party-goers, with the exception of Chiron, who serves as the main director of activities at the series' demigod training facility.<ref>Kaleta, p. 77.</ref>
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