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centaur |
Also found in: Medical, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia, Hutchinson | 0.01 sec. |
centaur [ˈsɛntɔː] n (Myth & Legend / Classical Myth & Legend) Greek myth one of a race of creatures with the head, arms, and torso of a man, and the lower body and legs of a horse [from Latin, from Greek kentauros, of unknown origin]
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| On the same principle, even if a writer in his poetic imitation were to combine all metres, as Chaeremon did in his Centaur, which is a medley composed of metres of all kinds, we should bring him too under the general term poet. This has been figuratively taught to princes by ancient writers, who describe how Achilles and many other princes of old were given to the Centaur Chiron to nurse, who brought them up in his discipline; which means solely that, as they had for a teacher one who was half beast and half man, so it is necessary for a prince to know how to make use of both natures, and that one without the other is not durable. Hence those strange monsters in lace and embroidery, in silks and brocades, with vast wigs and hoops; which, under the name of lords and ladies, strut the stage, to the great delight of attorneys and their clerks in the pit, and of the citizens and their apprentices in the galleries; and which are no more to be found in real life than the centaur, the chimera, or any other creature of mere fiction. |
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