Chiron

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Chi·ron

(kī′rŏn′)

n. Greek Mythology

The wise centaur who tutored Achilles, Hercules, and Asclepius.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Chiron

(ˈkaɪrɒn; -rən) or

Cheiron

1. (Classical Myth & Legend) Greek myth a wise and kind centaur who taught many great heroes in their youth, including Achilles, Actaeon, and Jason

2. (Celestial Objects) a minor planet, discovered by Charles Kowal in 1977, revolving round the sun between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Chi•ron

(ˈkaɪ rɒn)

n.

1. a wise and beneficent centaur, teacher of Achilles, Asclepius, and others.

2. a large comet discovered in 1977.

[< Latin < Greek cheirṓn]

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Noun	1.	Chiron - (Greek mythology) the learned centaur who tutored Achilles, Asclepius, Hercules, Jason, and other heroes Greek mythology - the mythology of the ancient Greeks centaur - (classical mythology) a mythical being that is half man and half horse
	2.	Chiron - an asteroid discovered in 1977; it is unique in having an orbit lying mainly between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus asteroid - any of numerous small celestial bodies composed of rock and metal that move around the sun (mainly between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter)

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His name was Chiron; and, in spite of his odd appearance, he was a very excellent teacher, and had several scholars, who afterwards did him credit by making a great figure in the world.

I have sometimes suspected that Master Chiron was not really very different from other people, but that, being a kind-hearted and merry old fellow, he was in the habit of making believe that he was a horse, and scrambling about the schoolroom on all fours, and letting the little boys ride upon his back.

Be that as it may, it has always been told for a fact (and always will be told, as long as the world lasts), that Chiron, with the head of a schoolmaster, had the body and legs of a horse.

So Jason dwelt in the cave, with this four-footed Chiron, from the time that he was an infant, only a few months old, until he had grown to the full height of a man.

The good Chiron, whether half horse or no, had taught him that the noblest use of his strength was to assist the weak; and also that he must treat every young woman as if she were his sister, and every old one like a mother.

"Ever since my infancy, I have dwelt in the cave of Chiron the Centaur.

"I have heard of Chiron the schoolmaster," replied King Pelias, "and how that there is an immense deal of learning and wisdom in his head, although it happens to be set on a horse's body.

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Croiset remark, if the poet needed a lay-figure the ordinary practice was to introduce some mythological person -- as, in fact, is done in the "Precepts of Chiron".

The "Precepts of Chiron" was a didactic poem made up of moral and practical precepts, resembling the gnomic sections of the "Works and Days", addressed by the Centaur Chiron to his pupil Achilles.

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This has been figuratively taught to princes by ancient writers, who describe how Achilles and many other princes of old were given to the Centaur Chiron to nurse, who brought them up in his discipline; which means solely that, as they had for a teacher one who was half beast and half man, so it is necessary for a prince to know how to make use of both natures, and that one without the other is not durable.

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He undid the burnished belt, and beneath this the cuirass and the belt of mail which the bronze-smiths had made; then, when he had seen the wound, he wiped away the blood and applied some soothing drugs which Chiron had given to Aesculapius out of the good will he bore him.

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One of a race of persons who lived before the division of labor had been carried to such a pitch of differentiation, and who followed the primitive economic maxim, "Every man his own horse." The best of the lot was Chiron, who to the wisdom and virtues of the horse added the fleetness of man.

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