and obtained with them, if not sympathy, at least companionship.
Chiron was the wisest of the Centaurs. Music, divination, astronomy, and medicine, were equally familiar to him, and his name is blended with those of the principal sages of Greece, whom he instructed in the use of plants and medicinal herbs.
The battle of the Centaurs with the Lapithæ at the bridal of Perithous is famous in history, and was the cause of their destruction.
The Centaurs inflamed with wine, behaved with rudeness and even offered violence to the bride, and to the women that were present.
"Now brave Perithous, bold Ixion's son,
The love of fair Hippodamé had won.
The cloud begotten race, half men, half beast,
Invited came to grace the nuptial feast:
In a cool cave's recess the treat was made,
Whose entrance, trees, with spreading boughs o'ershade,