1. Chiron
Centaur and Teacher

2. Chiron versus Charon
Don’t confuse Charon the ferryman and shade with Chiron the centaur and teacher.

3. Chiron – the centaur?
Typical centaurs were wild, drunkards, uncivilized, brutish, savage.
Chiron was of a different lineage and temperament.

4. Chiron’s father
Chiron’s father was Cronos, who begot him in a horse’s shape (of course).

5. Chiron’s mother
Chiron’s mother Philyra, in one account, was appalled at her child and was turned into a tree, but others say they lived peacefully in a cave on Mount Pelion.

6. Chiron, a noble centaur
Chiron was a centaur; nevertheless, he was wise, noble, and gentle.
Chiron, according to the poet Pindar, was a “rugged monster whose mind was friendly to men.”

7. Chiron the Wise
Chiron was admired for his wisdom and sought after for his skill as a teacher (especially in the arts of astronomy & medicine).

8. Chiron the Teacher
His pupils included Achilles, Jason, Hercules, and even Asclepius (whose father Apollo was the god of healing).

9. The death of Chiron How did Chiron die if he was immortal?
Hercules fatally wounded Chiron with an arrow (which according to some was poisoned having been dipped in the blood of the Hydra).

10. The death of Chiron
Hercules was partying; nearby centaurs smelled the wine, approached, drank (?); a battle ensued; Hercules repelled the hoard; they fled to Chiron for protection, who suffered the wound of an errant arrow.

11. The death of Chiron
Chiron, in pain from his incurable wound, wished only to die.
Hercules, upon freeing the bound prisoner-hero Prometheus, presented Chiron to Zeus as a substitute who could die in his place, paying his debt.

12. Chiron’s Legacy
Zeus consented, freeing and absolving all three. Chiron, who renounced his immortality, reared famous disciples, surpassed men and gods in wisdom and justice, was put among the stars as the constellation Sagittarius.