The Centaur was known to various cultures in the Middle and Near East, but we are acquainted with this creature primarily through Greek lore. Centaurs were almost always portrayed as male, although there must have been females as well. The Bayeux Tapestry shows the figure of a female Centaur, along with a winged male Centaur.

The Centaurs pictured in Greek art had the upperbody, head, and arms of a man and the lower body and legs of a stallion. They were a wild, shaggy, ancient people, renowned for their wizardry, who primarily inhabited the mountainous regions of Arcadia and Thessaly in Grece. Although handsome in appearance, their character, more often than not, left much to be desired. There were two seperate branches of the centaur family; these were opposite in temperment.There are several legends about the origin of Centaurs. Robert Graves tells about the two very different types of Centaurs and their temperment.

The man Ixion was the son of Phlegyas, the Lapith king. Eioneus, his future father-in-law, invited Ixion to a banquet, but Ixion repaid Eioneus by laying a fire-trap. Eioneus fell into the pit and was burned alive. Zeus, a scoundrel himself, took Ixion to Olympus and purified him of his sins. Ixion, however, had not changed; he immediately made plans to seduce Hera. Hera escaped by making an image of herself from a cloud. Ixion, too drunk to know the difference, took his pleasure with the cloud. The resulting child was Centaurus, who later sired the horse-men on the Magnesian mares. Sometimes these Centaurs were called the Magnetes, or "great ones," which comes from the name Magnesian. This branch of the Centaurs was wise and just.

The second and more numerous branch of Centaurs were the children of Cronus and his wife, the beautiful sea nymph Philyra. A drunken, lecherous bunch, these Centaurs reveled in the free-flowing wine, orgies, and all-night celebrations of this deity. Any woman unfortunate enough to meet one of these Centaurs had to run for her honor.

To read a myth on one of this type of Centaur, read the myth of Hercules.