the idea of +kentauros+, having been in its origin simply
+kentor+, as much more probable, [it meaning simply 'the
spurrer-on.'] Lapithae may, he thinks, have signified 'Stone
persuaders,' from +laas peithein+, a poetic appellation for the
builders of towns. He supposes Hippodamia to have been a Centauress,
married to the prince of the Lapithae, and thus accounts for the
Centaurs having been at the wedding. Mr. Keightley, in his
'Mythology of Ancient Greece and Italy,' remarks that 'it is
certainly not a little strange that a rude mountain race like the
Centaurs should be viewed as horsemen; and the legend which ascribes
the perfecting of the art of horsemanship to the Lapithae, is
unquestionably the more probable one. The name Centaur, which so
much resembles the Greek verb +kenteo+, 'to spur,' we fancy gave
origin to the fiction. This derivation of it is, however, rather
dubious.'

After the battle here described, the Centaurs retreated to the
mountains of Arcadia. The Lapithae pursuing them, drove them to the
Promontory of Malea in Laconia, where, according to Apollodorus,
Neptune took them into his protection. Servius and Antimachus, as
quoted by Comes Natalis, say that some of them fled to the Isle of
the Sirens (or rather to that side of Italy which those Nymphs had
made their abode); and that there they were destroyed by the
voluptuous and debauched lives they led.

The fable of Caeneus, which Ovid has introduced, is perhaps simply
founded on the prodigious strength and the goodness of the armour of
a person of that name. The story of Halyonome killing herself on the
body of Cyllarus, may possibly have been handed down by tradition.
It is not unlikely that, if the Centaurs were horsemen, their women
were not unacquainted with horsemanship; indeed, representations of
female Centaurs are given, on ancient monuments, as drawing the
chariot of Bacchus.

FABLES V. AND VI. [XII.536-628]

Periclymenus, the brother of Nestor, who has received from Neptune
the power of transforming himself, is changed into an eagle, in a
combat with Hercules; and in his flight is shot by him with an
arrow. Neptune prays Apollo to avenge the death of Cygnus: because
the Destinies will not permit him to do so himself. Apollo enters
the Trojan camp in disguise, and directs the arrow which Paris aims
at Achilles; who is mortally wounded in the heel, the only