The Divinatory Wisdom of Centaurs

This 14th century illumination shows the episode of Saint Anthony and the Centaur: wandering in the desert of Egypt and hoping to find Saint Paul, another hermit, Anthony was shown the way by a half-man half-horse creature with no mastery of human language. Yet in pre-Christian ancient mythology, though centaurs may succumb to their bestial instincts, they could also in some cases be endowed with great wisdom. This is the image of Chiron the Teacher that lingers in fantasy. In Harry Potter, Firenze is indeed a teacher, who brings to Hogwarts the centaurs’ divinatory knowledge based on reading the night sky.