Centaurs, half-man and half-horse monsters that according to the fable were born of Ixion and a cloud. Those who claim to find meaning in all of the visions of credulous antiquity say that the centaurs were inhabitants of the region of Thessaly near Mount Pelion who domesticated the first horses; and as people had not previously seen a man on horseback, they took the man and the horse on which he was mounted, for one and the same animal. Be this explanation as it may, it is certain that the centaur Chiron, tutor of Achilles, was merely an excellent horseman. Those centaurs who attended the wedding of Pirithous and Deidamia quarreled there with the Lapiths, whom Hercules avenged by chasing the centaurs from Thessaly. Were there really centaurs, or are these monsters fictitious? It is not easy to decide. Plutarch says that one that had just been born to a mare was presented to the seven sages; Pliny that he saw one that had been brought from Egypt to Rome, embalmed as was the custom of that country; Saint Jerome that Saint Anthony met a centaur in the desert, etc. If one wants to decide the question based on natural history, one will find a great number of animals who originate from the combination of two species, showing sufficient reason to admit the possibility of centaurs, fauns, etc. As for the fabulous way in which they were born of Ixion and the cloud, there are several versions: some claim that Ixion, who fell in love with Juno at Jupiter's table, dared to declare his passion for the goddess; and that Jupiter, far from being offended by that foolish boldness, provided Ixion's burning passion with a cloud that resembled Juno, from which was born a centaur: others says that Ixion, in the hope of some compensation, engaged some young Thessalians from a village near the mountain called Nephele or Cloud , to fight some bulls that were ravaging the countryside around Mount Pelion, the (real) name of the mountain, and the success of these young people against the bulls gave birth to the fable of Ixion and the centaurs: finally Tzetzes assures the Jupiter, whose wife Juno was loved by Ixion, was a king of Thessaly who condescended to Ixion's passion, not to give up his wife to him, but to substitute one of her ladies in waiting named Nephele (Cloud) for her, from whom was born a son named Imbrus , and later nicknamed centaur , from κεντῶν, pointed , and from ὀυρὰ, tail . Others give as the etymology κεντεῖν τοὺς ταύρους, pungere tauros (goad bulls) , because, it is said that the centaurs were guards of the king of Thessaly, who returned to their stable some frightened bulls who had fled.