Cowpokes and Centaurs.

Alexander Stolbov writes:

To clinch the argument we should look at the other Celtic languages, but it seems very probable that cethr is indeed the same as kentrom.

This really is getting interesting. The English words 'drive', 'prod', 'goad' all share a common semantic space when speaking of cattle: to cause to move in a desired direction.

I've been reviewing the literature on centaurs. There is not that much. What seems pertinent is the Centauromachy, the battle between the Centaurs and the Lapiths. The Lapiths seem to have been an old Greek people, of whom almost nothing is known. After the battle, the centaurs disappear from history. All of this takes place in Thessaly. Rather than seeing centaurs as mythical beasts, or as totems, the thesis here is that they were real people, 'bull-goaders', and from their descriptions, rather culturally backwards.

It is extremely tempting to see the centaurs as steppe-nomads, or at least, as the descendants such a group which settled itself in Thessaly. The myths make no mention of them speaking a different language. The chronology of the Greek mythic cycle presents all sorts of problems, but the Centauromachy seems to be towards the very beginning. As I remember, it seems to be set about the time of the Dorian invasion.

Whatever the case, Alexander and Piotr seem to be recapturing a genuine IE *word*, one used in the management of cattle. I'd be interested to see what Sanskrit or Avestan might turn up in way of a cognate.

Mark