The year is 1519. Cortes enters into Tenochtitlan and promptly
arrests Montezuma, Emperor of the Aztec. He has arms. He has horses.
He has men riding the horses.
The Aztecs had never seen a horse prior to Cortes. It is said that
one day when a Spanish rider fell off his horse the Indians… seeing
animal and rider fall… fled in terror for till now they had thought
man and beast were one. They cried to all that would listen that the
animal had made itself into two.
To continue… although it was the Greeks that knew all about
Centaurs (head and torso human… the rest equine)… the Aztecs…
during the time of Cortes’ invasion… had invented their own version
of the fabulous beast of Greek myth.
And now… by way of powerful segue… an ability of mine which knows
no bounds… I bring you from the near past of the Aztecs to the
distant past of the Greeks of 438 BC where elegant final versions of
early images of hairy giant man-horses can be found on the Parthenon
carvings in Athens. These beasts–parenthetically–should not be
confused with Satyrs … half men half goats… who took great
pleasure seducing all maidens that came their way… from which the
word Satyriasis came… describing the male version of nymphomania.
I suddenly wonder if there ever was a half man half camel… and if
so… were there many of them… and if so again … did they live in
a land called Cam-a-lot? I know. Groan groan. I should be
embarrassed. Strangely enough… I’m not. Go figure.
Once upon a time in a not too distant past there was a most wondrous
jeweler by the name of David Webb… a sculptor of the first order…
who made a yellow gold brooch of Sagittarius … a major centaur in
his own right who was placed by Zeus among the stars in a
constellation called Centaurus.
I have an image of this fellow… holding a bow and arrow …
prancing about in man-horse frenzy as only man-horses are wont to
do… readying himself I imagine for a great hunt of some sort or
another. I took it from a black and white image. So… if the gold is
less gold looking than you are all used to… forgive me. The
creature is quite dashing if the truth be told. Go take a look.
For those of you who are new to this thing called Tidbits…may I
direct you to my home page at www.tyler-adam.com where you will
scroll down the left side menu till you get to the area that says
Current Tidbits… and you will get to view a Sagittarius
-the-Centaur.
And there ya have it.
That’s it for this week folks.
Catch you all next week.
Benjamin Mark