Centaur
Pholus was a civilised centaur who hosted Heracles on his way to capture the Erymanthian Boar — accidentally triggering a battle with the other centaurs.
The Myth of Centaur
Pholus was one of the few gentle centaurs, son of Silenus and a Meliad nymph, living alone in a cave on Mount Pholoe in Arcadia. When Heracles arrived during his hunt for the Erymanthian Boar — his fourth labour — Pholus welcomed him hospitably, serving roasted meat. But Heracles persuaded him to open a great jar of wine that belonged to all the centaurs communally. The scent drew the other centaurs, who attacked in a drunken rage. Heracles drove them off with his Hydra-poisoned arrows, accidentally killing Chiron in the process. Pholus, examining one of the fallen arrows, dropped it on his foot and died instantly from the venom. Zeus placed the gentle centaur among the stars.
Parents
Silenus and a Meliad nymph
Symbols
Fun Fact
Pholus died from curiosity — examining the Hydra-poisoned arrow that killed the other centaurs. The moralising is unsubtle.
Explore Further
Centaur
🐉 creatureCentaur whose dying gift killed Heracles
Nessus was the centaur whose poisoned blood, given as a false love charm, ultimately destroyed the invincible Heracles.
Nessus
🐉 creatureCentaur whose blood killed Heracles
Nessus was the centaur who tried to abduct Heracles' wife Deianira — and whose poisoned blood, given as a love charm, eventually killed the greatest hero.
Asbolus
🗡 heroProphecy, centaurs
Centaur seer who read omens in the flight of birds and warned his kin against fighting Heracles
Chiron
🐉 creatureWisest centaur
Chiron tutored Achilles, Asclepius, Jason — the great teacher.
Onocentaur
🐉 creaturehybrid creatures
A creature with a human upper body and the lower body of a donkey, wilder and more brutish than centaurs
Erymanthus
🏛 placegeography
An Arcadian mountain where the monstrous Erymanthian Boar lived, target of Heracles' fourth labour.
Hippodamia of the Lapiths
🗡 heroconflict
Lapith princess whose wedding to Pirithous was disrupted when centaurs attempted to abduct her, triggering the Centauromachy.
Ipotane
🐉 creaturehybrid creatures
Early horse-men who predated centaurs — human bodies with the hindquarters and legs of horses
Cenaeum
🏛 placegeography
A promontory on the northwestern tip of Euboea where Heracles built an altar and put on the fatal shirt of Nessus.
Centaurs
🐉 creatureHalf-human, half-horse beings
A race of beings with the upper body of a human and the lower body of a horse. Most were wild and unruly, but the wise Chiron was the exception — teacher of heroes.
Centauromachy
💭 conceptbattle
The battle between Lapiths and Centaurs at the wedding of Pirithous when drunken centaurs tried to carry off the Lapith women.
Iolaus Serpent
🐉 creatureserpents,regeneration
The multi-headed water serpent of Lerna whose heads regenerated when cut — the Hydra — whose blood Heracles used to poison his arrows, causing indirect deaths for generations afterward.