CENTAURS, in Greek mythology, a race of beings part horse part man, dwelling in the mountains of Thessaly and Arcadia. The name has been derived (1) from κεντεῖν (goad) and ταῦρος (bull), implying a people who were primarily herdsmen, (2) from κεντεῖν and the common termination -αυρος or αὔρα (“air”) i.e. “spearmen.” The former is unsatisfactory partly from the philological standpoint, and the latter, though not certain, is preferable. The centaurs were the offspring of Ixion and Nephele (the rain-cloud), or of Kentauros (the son of these two) and some Magnesian mares or of Apollo and Hebe. They are best known for their fight with the Lapithae, caused by their attempt to carry off Deidameia on the day of her marriage to Peirithous, king of the Lapithae, himself the son of Ixion. Theseus, who happened to be present, assisted Peirithous, and the Centaurs were driven off (Plutarch, Theseus, 30; Ovid, Metam. xii. 210; Diod. Sic. iv. 69, 70). In later times they are often represented drawing the car of Dionysus, or bound and ridden by Eros, in allusion to their drunken and amorous habits. Their general character is that of wild, lawless and inhospitable beings, the slaves of their animal passions, with the exception of Pholus and Chiron. They are variously explained by a fancied resemblance to the shapes of clouds, or as spirits of the rushing mountain torrents or winds. As children of Apollo, they are taken to signify the rays of the sun. It is suggested as the origin of the legend, that the Greeks in early times, to whom riding was unfamiliar, regarded the horsemen of the northern hordes as one and the same with their horses; hence the idea of the Centaur as half-man, half-animal. Like the defeat of the Titans by Zeus, the contests with the Centaurs typified the struggle between civilization and barbarism.
In early art they were represented as human beings in front, with the body and hind legs of a horse attached to the back: later, they were men only as far as the waist. The battle with the Lapithae, and the adventure of Heracles with Pholus (Apollodorus, ii. 5; Diod. Sic. iv. II) are favourite subjects of Greek art (see Sidney Colvin, Journal of Hellenic Studies, i. 1881, and the exhaustive article in Roscher’s Lexikon der Mythologie). Fig. 34 in article [Greek Art] (the west pediment of the temple of Zeus at Olympia) represents the attempt of the Centaurs to carry off the bride of Peirithous.
CENTAURUS (“The Centaur”), in astronomy, a constellation of the southern hemisphere, mentioned by Eudoxus (4th century b.c.) and Aratus (3rd century b.c.), Ptolemy catalogued thirty-seven stars in it. α-Centauri is a splendid binary star. Its components are of the 1st magnitude, and revolve in a period of eighty-one years; and since its parallax is 0.75″, it is the nearest star to the earth; ω-Centauri, the finest globular star-cluster in the heavens, consists of about 6000 stars in a space of about 20′ diameter, of which about 125 variables have been examined. Nova Centauri, a “new” star, was discovered in 1895 by Mrs Fleming in photographs taken at Harvard.
CENTAURY (Erythraea Centaurium, natural order Gentianaceae), an annual herb with erect, smooth stem, usually branched above, and a terminal inflorescence with numerous small red or pink regular flowers with a funnel-shaped corolla. The plant occurs in dry pastures and on sandy coasts in Britain, and presents many varieties, differing in length of stem, degree of branching, width and shape of leaves, and laxity or closeness of the inflorescence. Several other species of the genus are grown as rock-plants.
CENTENARY (from Lat. centenarius, of or belonging to a hundred, from centeni, distributive of centum, hundred), a space of a hundred years, and particularly the celebration of an event on the lapse of a hundred years, a centennial anniversary. The word “centennial” (from Lat. centennis, from centum, and annus, a year), though usually an adjective as in “the Centennial State,” the name given to Colorado on its admission to statehood in 1876, is also used as a synonym of centenary.
CENTERVILLE, a city and the county-seat of Appanoose county, Iowa, U.S.A., in the south part of the state, about 90 m. N.W. of Keokuk. Pop. (1890) 3668; (1900) 5256; (1905, state census) 5967 (487 being foreign-born); (1910) 6936. Centerville is served by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific and the Iowa Central railways. Among the principal buildings are the county court-house and the Federal building, and the city has a public library and a hospital. It is in one of the most productive coal regions of the state; it ships coal, limestone and livestock, has large bottling works, and manufactures iron, brick and tile, machine-shop products, woollen goods, shirts, cigars and flour. The place was platted in 1846, was called Chaldea until 1849, when the present name was adopted, was incorporated as a town in 1855, and in 1870 was chartered as a city of the second class. The city limits were extended in 1906-1907.