♠ Homer, Odyssey 21.295-302
It was wine that made foolish even the centaur, glorious Eurytion, in the hall of greathearted Peirithous, when he went to the Lapithae: and when his heart had been made foolish with wine, in his madness he wrought evil in the house of Peirithous. Then grief seized the heroes, [300] and they leapt up and dragged him forth through the gateway, when they had shorn off his ears and his nostrils with the pitiless bronze, and he, made foolish in heart, went his way, bearing with him the curse of his sin in the folly of his heart. Greek Text
♠ Bakchylides fr 44 SM – Bacchylidis Carmina cum fragmentis, p. 110, ed. B. Snell and H. Maehler. Leipzig 1970.
♠ Diodoros Siculus, Library of History 4.33.1
After this Heracles returned to Peloponnesus and set out against Augeas, since the latter had defrauded him of his reward. It came to a battle between him and the Eleans, but on this occasion he had no success and so returned to Olenus to Dexamenus. The latter’s daughter Hippolytê was being joined in marriage to Azan, and when Heracles, as he sat at the wedding feast, observed the Centaur Eurytion acting in an insulting manner towards Hippolytê and endeavouring to do violence to her, he slew him. Greek Text
♠ ApB 2.5.5– Apollodoros, Bibliotheke (Library)
So Phyleus went to Dulichium and dwelt there, and Hercules repaired to Dexamenus at Olenus. He found Dexamenus on the point of betrothing perforce his daughter Mnesimache to the centaur Eurytion, and being called upon by him for help, he slew Eurytion when that centaur came to fetch his bride. But Eurystheus would not admit this labour either among the ten, alleging that it had been performed for hire. Greek Text
♠ Ovid, Ibis 403-4
Like the two centaurs, Nessos and Dexamenos’ son-in-law, killed, with two separate wounds, by the same avenger. (Transl. E. Bianchelli). Latin Text
♠ Hyginus, Fabulae 33
CENTAURS: When Hercules had come to the court of King Dexamenus and had violated his daughter Dejanira, promising he would marry her, Eurytion a centaur, son of Ixion and Nubes, after his departure sought Dejanira as a wife. Her father, fearing violence, promised her to him. On the appointed day he came with his brothers to the wedding. Hercules intervened, and killed the Centaur, and led home his betrothed. Latin Text
London, British Museum 1898.7-16.5. Attic stamnos. Herakles, centaur, two figures.
Naples, Museo Nazionale Archeologico H3089. Attic stamnos. Herakles, centaur, Oineus, Deianeira.
Artistic sources edited by R. Ross Holloway, Elisha Benjamin Andrews Professor Emeritus, Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, Brown Univ., and Frances Van Keuren, Prof. Emerita, Lamar Dodd School of Art, Univ. of Georgia, September, 2017
Literary sources edited by Elena Bianchelli, Retired Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, April 2022
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