Friday, September 21, 2018

The centaur problem

What I call the "centaur problem," by analogy with the mermaid problem, refers to the anatomical difficulties brought up by centaur anatomy. There is a vast disparity between human hips and equine shoulders, and typical depictions of the centaur ignore the plethora of problems brought up by the junction between the centaur's human and equine halves. In this post, I will briefly explore the anatomy of centaurs in art and myth, the anatomical difficulties of the junction, and an attempt to explain the junction.

Mythology and Ancient Art

In art, the junction between a centaur's halves have been portrayed in different ways. Centaurs in Ancient Art: The Archaic Period divides depictions into three classes:
  • Class A: Centaurs with equine forelegs (i.e. as typically imagined)
  • Class B: Centaurs with human forelegs (Chiron is a famous example)
  • Class C: Centaurs with human forelegs ending in hooves (an Aeolic invention of the 6th century BC which never achieved popularity)

In myth, centaurs were all-male and assumed to be interfertile with women, nymphs and mares alike. Centauresses were only added in later myths and art. To facilitate reproduction, centaurs were assumed to possess both human and equine penises (Deformed Discourse: The Function of the Monster in Mediaeval Thought and Literature by David A. Williams page 180).

Philostratus the Elder claimed that the Greeks thought centaurs sprang from trees, rocks, or mares impregnated by Centaurus the son of Ixion. His admonished his students for believing this and claimed that centaurs have wives ("centauresses") and colts. He further claimed that centaur colts were born without definite shape and grow their pelts and hooves as they mature. In my opinion, this would explain how centaurs could have children with women and nymphs.

Anatomical difficulties in reality

Regardless of whether the centaurs as Class A, B, or C, they still have six limbs and two torso: the difficulty of the junction is manifold. Humans and horses have a different arrangement of organs, so a centaur would either have duplicated organs or a layout unique to itself. Helpfully, there are numerous tutorials for artists to experiment with.


Traditional art depicts centaurs' hindquarters as closer in size to ponies than to horses, possibly because Greek horses at the time were much smaller. Modern art often depicts centaurs with the same relatives proportions as humans and horses. As always, there is a wide variety of possibility. Personally, I see no reason why centaurs cannot come in multiple varieties with different proportions in the same work.

"This is the standard set of centaur proportions
using 15 hands as the height of the equine portion of the body."

However, the single most difficult part of the join is the junction itself. Traditional art has generally depicted the junction as a right angle, even though this is biologically awkward. Human hips and equine shoulders are structured completely differently, since a human walks bipedal and parallel to the ground whereas a horses' neck is generally parallel or at an acute angle to the ground. Trying to connect the human and horse spines and then bend them at a right angle ends up looking extremely awkward. To make things worse, centaurs are often depicted as contortionists with a full one-eighty degree range of motion. Many artists do not bother to work out the mechanics of the junction and conceal it with clothing.

Artists have devised various ways to join the pelvis and clavicle. This proves difficult since horses lack clavicles. Sometimes the pelvis is absent or fused to the clavicle, though I suspect having a separate pelvis and clavicle set in a ball-and-socket joint would allow for the widest range of motion. Not that this would explain how the two spines are connected.

Centaur skeleton with pelvis

Centaur skeleton with "pelvicle"

Centaur skeleton without pelvis

My explanation for my setting

If I had to explain the mechanics of the right angle junction, I would have to delve into some seriously deep speculative biology. The centaur would end up have two separate spinal columns that connect to some kind of ganglion or secondary brain similar to the multiple brains of a octopus. Such anatomy would be completely unique to the centaur. This "pelvicle" would serve as the anchor for the spinal columns, the forelegs, and the humanoid genitals, as well as connect the organs between the two torsos.

But really, I could devise numerous explanations. For the sake of my sanity, I will adopt the skeleton which depicts the centaur with a pelvis. In my world building, I imagine that the centaur has humanoid hips which gradually blend into the horse's shoulders similar to the Class C centaur; this is where his humanoid genitals are located so that he may couple with humanoid women.

Furthermore, centaurs in my world building are not limited to a particular set of proportions. Although their humanoid half is generally medium-sized, their equine half may range in size from pony to horse.

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