* Id:  Centaurs
* Revision:  2
* State:  approved
*
* Log:
* Revision 1  2000/01/12  Jeff Centaur <jeffcentaur@itookmyprozac.com>
* Initial submitted version.
*
* Checked-out  2000/01/15  Roel van der Meulen <vdmeulen@strw.leidenuniv.nl>
*
* Checked-in with
* Revision 2  2000/01/19  Roel van der Meulen <vdmeulen@strw.leidenuniv.nl>
* Edited and author-approved.
*
* Checked-out  2000/03/10  Mark Seaborn <mseaborn@bigfoot.com>

%t Centaurs In The World Today
%n 8S ready for review
%s Is That A Horse In Your Pocket?
%i Existence Of Centaurs, The
%a J.C. Hillary (jeffcentaur@itookmyprozac.com)
%d 20000112
%x Unicorns, Reality Of
%e
Many people are of the opinion that centaurs no longer exist.  All right,
I'll be honest, most people feel that they never existed in the first place.
I do however have some proof that could shake up your beliefs in that
department.  While over time I have lost track of the names of the tribes,
rest assured that if you dig through an entire library reading almost every
book on ancient cultures and their art, you will arrive at the same decision
that I have already reached.

There were five early civilizations that depicted centaurs in their art, and
these civilizations were shown to have no contact with one another. Now, I
know you are thinking, sure, yeah, a combination of man and horse, that's
not that hard for a bunch of primitive people to make up.  Now answer me
this:  how come all of those five tribes depicted the centaur's main weapon
to be a bow and arrow?  They could have drawn a spear or a club, but not a
single tribe depicted a centaur without a bow and arrow.  I'm sorry, but
that does stretch the realm of coincidence a little too much for me.

I digress; the point of this article was not merely to tell you that they
did exist, but that they still do today, but not in the same way as before.
Before I approach that, a little more background information is probably
necessary.

If any of you have actually read anything about centaurs, then you know that
for the most part they had a tradition of being evil, mean, drunk creatures.
That can, of course, also be said of humans.  In truth there is no blanket
of what a centaur is generally like; there are many different kinds of
people, and since centaurs are half human, they are just as different.
Anyway, there were centaurs like that, but the origins of them are truly
lost in time.  Even though there are many different views on it, I found it
impossible to find one that agreed with everyone.  But there was one
centaur, or so the ancient texts say, named Chiron, who was very kind.  He
was also immortal, although he later traded his immortality when Hercules
accidentally injured him in such a grave manner that he was in perpetual
pain.  Hercules pretty much killed all the violent centaurs, but Chiron's
children were a completely new form of centaurs.  They are the kind
centaurs, the scholars and teachers.  Another kind of centaur that is
mentioned from time to time is one called Pholon, but other than his
association with Chiron not much is known about him.  One of Chiron's main
teachings was a quote that texts on mythological creatures still carry [1]. The Wisdom of Chiron was said to be "Decide no suit until you have heard
both sides speak."

Now, no one has actually found any evidence that these centaurs died out,
but you have to figure that they might have started breeding with humans
[2].  Since there were always more humans than centaurs, eventually they
bred themselves out of existence.  A human woman could never give birth to a
centaur -- imagine how painful that would be!  But there would still be some
centaur blood in some people.  I have determined that I myself carry such
blood.  I am proud of my heritage and have adopted it into my name.  My name
used to be Jeff Hillary, but now it is J.C. Hillary, which means Jeff
Centaur, which I also use as my online name.

Now while this all seems like fuzzy logic, I've put a lot of work into this
and so would appreciate it if you would suspend you skepticism for me.

Since it is impossible to get a completely correct account of something
as old as the time when centaurs would have been alive, this is all reduced
to theory.  For example, scientists have not yet found remains of centaurs,
but that could be simply because they have been digging in the wrong places.
Maybe they could have found them but assumed that a man and his horse died
under some bizarre circumstances, or there could be a government cover-up.
The possibilities are as limitless as the stars in the sky.

Now to the main point of this article.  There are people around you everyday
with centaur blood coursing through their bodies.  You can identify them by
some of their characteristics.  An extended vocabulary is a first hint.
Their ability to memorize seemingly meaningless information about whatever
interests them, and retain the knowledge for long periods of time is
another.  For example, if they can sit and tell you absolutely everything
about a television show, guest stars, plot, and so on, right down to the
synapses of each episode, you can be fairly sure.  It's really hard to
explain how to identify them, but after some practice you should be able to
do it; it gets much easier with time.

This article hopefully tells you not to judge everyone the same, since the
rules you use to judge some, really can't apply to others.  Because if it
is possible for people to retain centaur blood, what about other
mythological creatures?  The mind is boggled.

Happy centaur-identifying!

[1] Which is another point, why would someone go through the trouble
    of preserving the 'teachings' of a non-existent life-form?  Seems like
    an awful lot of trouble.
[2] Trust me, it does work, although it looks a bit disgusting I'm sure.
    This is one aspect I didn't research thoroughly, although you can if you
    want look up bestiality involving horses...  But only if you must.  And
    then please don't talk to me about it.
%e
*EOA*