CHIRoN

 Greek A CENTAUR of great wisdom and kindness, friend of both humans and gods. Possibly the son of CRONUS and Phylira, Chiron lived on Mount PELION in THESSALY. He received his education from the divine twins, APOLLO and ARTEMIS. In turn, the gods entrusted him with the education of ASCLEPIUS, god of healing, and the heroes JASON and ACHILLES.

HERACLES inadvertently wounded Chiron during a brawl with the centaurs, who were mostly wild and unruly. Heracles rushed to the side of Chiron but there was nothing either he or Chiron could do, for the arrow of Heracles had been dipped in the poisoned blood of HYDRA, the many-headed water serpent. Since Chiron was immortal, he was doomed to suffer eternal pain. ZEUS solved the dilemma by allowing Chiron to confer his immortality on PROMETHEUS in return for the peace of dying. Zeus then placed Chiron in the heavens as part of the SAGITTARIUS or Centaurus constellations.

Chiron, half human and half horse, represented ancient wisdom. He was the symbol of the wild horse, full of strength, tamed to be of enormous help to humans.