Further it may be noted that in the first two examples of this
insertion of ζ or σ a certain change in the consonants of the next
syllable accompanies it. The γ in τέττιγες becomes κ, the ντ in τεντόνω
is reduced to τ. In the same way, it seems, when ζ was inserted after
the τ of κένταυρος, the sound of _vr_ was reduced to _r_ only, though
certainly the loss of the _v_-sound might have occurred, apart from any
such predisposing modification, as in the common word ξέρω (I know) for
ἠξεύρω.
Since then the etymological conditions of the problem are satisfied by
the identification of the word κάντζαρος with the ancient κένταυρος,
it remains only to show that the name of ‘Centaurs’ fitly belongs to
the monsters whom I have described; and my contention will be that the
simple word κάντζαρος, ‘Centaur,’ surviving now only in the dialectic
diminutive form σκατζάρι, adequately expresses every sort and condition
of Callicantzaros that has been depicted; that καλλικάντζαρος, the
general word, of which so many dialectic varieties occur, being
simply an euphemistic compound of κάντζαρος with καλός such as we
have previously seen in the title καλλικυρᾶδες given to the Nereids,
expresses precisely the same meaning as the simple word κάντζαρος,
‘Centaur’; and that λυκοκάντζαρος originally denoted one species only
of the genus Centaur, namely a Callicantzaros whose animal traits were
those of a wolf.
What then did the ancients mean by the word ‘centaur’?
The mention of the name is apt to carry away our minds to famous frieze
or pediment, where in one splendidly impossible creation of art the
excellences of man, his head and his hands, are wed with the horse’s
strength and speed. This was the species of Centaur which the great
sculptors and painters in the best period of Greek Art chose to depict,
and these among educated men became the Centaurs _par excellence_. Yet
even so it was not forgotten that they formed only one species, and
were strictly to be called ἱπποκένταυροι, ‘horse-centaurs.’ Moreover
two other species of Centaur are named in the ancient language,
ἰχθυοκένταυροι or fish-centaurs, and ὀνοκένταυροι or ass-centaurs. Of
the former nothing seems to be known beyond the mere name, but this
matters little inasmuch as they can assuredly have contributed nothing
to the popular conception of the wholly terrestrial Callicantzari. The
ass-centaurs will prove of more interest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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