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Fantasy Aspects, issue 1, May 1947
Page 11
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FROM VAMPIRE: THE CENTAUR: BIOLOGICAL IMPOSSIBILITY By Ken Krueger Picture in your mind's eye a peaceful pasture, where green grasses wave gently in the morning breeze; soft billowy clouds float lazily overhead, and the bushes that are scattered over the entire scene murmur softly whenever the breeze rustles their tender branches. In the center of all this stands a creature -- a monstrosity -- a biological impossibility -- for he is part man, part house. At first you are striken with his beauty, as the sun gleams on his golden brown flanks and lovely human head. Then you start to wonder; you wonder how he can live, with his two hearts, and dual stomachs. And with this wonder the picture will always fade from your mind, for the centaur and all his kind are but part of a daydream that started with some ancient Greek who, in his battles with the tribes of barbarians from the north, saw a man mounted on a horse for the first time, and thought that the two were fused together. So, it was probably the warped and frightened imagination of an ignorant soldier that started one of the most persistent legends of all times. That is the logical explanation, but not the one that the boys like Bulllfinch would have you believe. The mythology experts can't seem to agree just how the first centaur came into being. One has it that a chap named Ixion and a lady named Nephele were very much surprised to find a centaur where a baby should be. Another has the junction of Ixion and a cloud forming the foal. However, the most riotous of them all, when you get a born comic who can make the most of a smutty story, is the one that follows, in a censored version. Once upon a time, in very ancient Greece, there lived a famous teacher and surgeon named Kronon. Now, Kronon dabbled in magic on the side and had quite a few handy little tricks up his sleeve. He was learned, handsome, and everything else that could be wanted in a man, except for one thing: he was exceedingly jealous where his wife was concerned. His wife's name was Philyra, and she was the village belle or whatever they had back then. Anyway, Kronon decided that he had a fool-proof way to see if she was true to him. So he changed himself into a handsome, dashing stallion. When Philyra saw this beaut she started to get ideas that even Kathleen Winsor couldn't have gotten away with. And in his present form, Kronon wasn't a very good man to fool with. Anyway to make a long story short (and acceptable to the pages of a family magazine) come three-quarters of a year later, and Philyra gave birth to Chiron (Also spelled Cheiron, pronounced Ki' ron) who has been pictured as a man in the front, all the way up to his feet, with a horse's rear legs and flanks attached to his back -- and the more popular (and more modern) version as a man from the waist up, and a horse the rest of the way. Either way, he must have been quite a shock to his mother. This is the same Chiron, by the way, who became a famous surgeon himself, was teacher to many of the fabulous Greeks (including Apollo) and who was killed in the retreat from Mount ---( Page 11 )---
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FROM VAMPIRE: THE CENTAUR: BIOLOGICAL IMPOSSIBILITY By Ken Krueger Picture in your mind's eye a peaceful pasture, where green grasses wave gently in the morning breeze; soft billowy clouds float lazily overhead, and the bushes that are scattered over the entire scene murmur softly whenever the breeze rustles their tender branches. In the center of all this stands a creature -- a monstrosity -- a biological impossibility -- for he is part man, part house. At first you are striken with his beauty, as the sun gleams on his golden brown flanks and lovely human head. Then you start to wonder; you wonder how he can live, with his two hearts, and dual stomachs. And with this wonder the picture will always fade from your mind, for the centaur and all his kind are but part of a daydream that started with some ancient Greek who, in his battles with the tribes of barbarians from the north, saw a man mounted on a horse for the first time, and thought that the two were fused together. So, it was probably the warped and frightened imagination of an ignorant soldier that started one of the most persistent legends of all times. That is the logical explanation, but not the one that the boys like Bulllfinch would have you believe. The mythology experts can't seem to agree just how the first centaur came into being. One has it that a chap named Ixion and a lady named Nephele were very much surprised to find a centaur where a baby should be. Another has the junction of Ixion and a cloud forming the foal. However, the most riotous of them all, when you get a born comic who can make the most of a smutty story, is the one that follows, in a censored version. Once upon a time, in very ancient Greece, there lived a famous teacher and surgeon named Kronon. Now, Kronon dabbled in magic on the side and had quite a few handy little tricks up his sleeve. He was learned, handsome, and everything else that could be wanted in a man, except for one thing: he was exceedingly jealous where his wife was concerned. His wife's name was Philyra, and she was the village belle or whatever they had back then. Anyway, Kronon decided that he had a fool-proof way to see if she was true to him. So he changed himself into a handsome, dashing stallion. When Philyra saw this beaut she started to get ideas that even Kathleen Winsor couldn't have gotten away with. And in his present form, Kronon wasn't a very good man to fool with. Anyway to make a long story short (and acceptable to the pages of a family magazine) come three-quarters of a year later, and Philyra gave birth to Chiron (Also spelled Cheiron, pronounced Ki' ron) who has been pictured as a man in the front, all the way up to his feet, with a horse's rear legs and flanks attached to his back -- and the more popular (and more modern) version as a man from the waist up, and a horse the rest of the way. Either way, he must have been quite a shock to his mother. This is the same Chiron, by the way, who became a famous surgeon himself, was teacher to many of the fabulous Greeks (including Apollo) and who was killed in the retreat from Mount ---( Page 11 )---
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