A Historical Reference To A Captured Live Centaur

In a second century A.D. book called "the book of marvels" by Phlegon of Tralles, the capture, death and embalming of a Centaur is recorded. The Centaur was sent to the Roman Emperor Hadrian and was kept in his storehouse and many were able to see it on display.

Centaurs are often thought of as only in Greek mythology, however the greeks and Romans also believed such creatures may have actually lived even if they were not what was represented in the "Illiad" and other books full of mythology. It was a popular pursuit for scolars to search for strange or mythical beasts.

www.liminalityland.com...

A hippocentaur was found in Saune, a city in Arabia, on a very high mountain that teems with a deadly drug. The drug bears the same name as the city and among fatal substances it is extremely quick and effective.

The hippocentaur was captured alive by the king, who sent it to Egypt together with other gifts for the emperor. Its sustenance was meat. But it did not tolerate the change of air, and died, so that the prefect of Egypt embalmed it and sent it to Rome. (Recorded by Pliny during the reign of Claudius.)

At first it was exhibited in the palace. Its face was fiercer than a human face, its arms and fingers were hairy and its ribs were connected with its front legs and its stomach. It had the firm hooves of a horse and its mane was tawny, although as a result of the embalming its mane along with its skin was becoming dark. In size it did not match the usual representations, though it was not small either.

There were also said to have been other hippocentaurs in the city of Saune mentioned above.

So far as concerns the one sent to Rome, anyone who is skeptical can examine it for himself, since as I said above it has been embalmed and is kept in the emperor's storehouse.

"The Book Of Marvels" and another work by Phlegon are the best known examples of what is called "Paradoxography", a popular form of ancient greek and Roman entertainment writing. Authors would study Roman census records and report on strange births and people who lived to extremely old ages. Paradoxology also dealt with strange and paranormal phenomenon including vampires, strange creatures, and ghosts. Phlegon was well respected and was in the employ of the Emperor Hadrian, he also was very popular for being able to back up seemingly wild claims by providing names, places, and other information where skeptics could examine the information for themselves. His books at the time would have been something akin to "Ripley's Believe It Or Not", "Guiness World Records", and other types of strange, unusual, or fascinating facts.

The key part of Phlegons account in my opinion is this statement:

So far as concerns the one sent to Rome, anyone who is skeptical can examine it for himself, since as I said above it has been embalmed and is kept in the emperor's storehouse.

Some links on Phlegon and Centaurs
www.liminalityland.com...
www.findarticles.com...
en.wikipedia.org...
www.mythicalrealm.com...
en.wikipedia.org...
webhome.idirect.com...

hi mate....

i have read your post with great intrest....i cant honestley say that having looked at the relative links and information i dont believe it to be true that such beasts exsisted, i just believe that even long ago man was playing fantastic practical jokes on others and that this creature could have been created with some clever surgery?

it seems that there is no other evidence of these creatures ever being captured and documented in detail, which considering unless they were created by some god like force they would have bred as a species...this should have left some what bigger evidence than it has?

intresting read though all the same....i wish they were real.

regards mate.

The ancients, apparently, we just as curious about these kinds of things as modern man. Often, apparently, they would find prehistoric bones of thing slike mammoths and other 'mammalian megafauna' and think that they were indeed the bones of giant humans.

If course this is a little different. Too bad there are no remains of it.

My inner skeptic caught this:

... so that the prefect of Egypt embalmed it ...

Reminded me of the Fiji Mermaid, this one was made in Japan and is kept at Harvard University:



Then again, it does seem to say that the creature made it to Egypt alive, I wonder if there might be any surviving records of it being seen there.

I know it's probably completely fictional, but it really amazes me how much culture has stayed constant to some degree. The Romans might not have had ATS but I think they were probably just as curious. The paradoxographry is a neat subject all on it's own.

Despite the description given...."hippocentaur" make me think "RHINOCEROS"!!