Centaurs appear often in popular culture. Some appearances are also listed under Centaurides.
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Centaurs have appeared in many places in modern fiction, and may be regarded as a fantasy trope. In modern literature differing views of centaurs vary with the author.
Novels
- In Piers Anthony's series Xanth, centaurs are frequently major/main characters of the various stories. As a race, they generally don't show magic talents as other species do, treating it as something for lesser species, although they have been shown to have talents as well.
- In John Varley's Gaea trilogy, the musically inclined Titanides are simultaneous hermaphrodites who possess three sets of genitalia: one set of human-sized genitalia in the front (male or female), and both sets of equine genitalia in the back (male and female). "Rear sex" is casual, but "front sex" carries an enormous amount of emotional baggage. Furthermore, both genders have breasts.
- Centaurs appear in the Well World books as one of the races found both on the Well World, and as such, throughout the universe. They are generally kind and hospitable people, living simple lives without advanced technology or magic, though this is mostly due to the rules of the Well World and likely may not apply to those in the rest of the universe.
- In C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia, centaurs are noble, loyal, and brave. Oreius (Aslan's general) and his tribe of centaurs help Aslan's army fight against the White Witch, in the 2005 film version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, but they gain a more prominent role in Prince Caspian where a centaur named Glenstorm (who also studies the stars and reads the future) is an important character.
- In R.A. Salvatore's The DemonWars Saga series, there is a Centaur featured named "Bradwarden" that plays the bagpipes and is one of the supporting characters throughout most of the series.
- Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series features Foaly, one of the heroes, and the most intelligent centaur on and under the Earth.
- In J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series centaurs are near-humans that live in the Forbidden Forest. The centaurs tend to be passive creatures, but become violent if people intrude on their territory too often. They study the stars and planets, and can also sometimes see the future - although they may speak in very indirect and ambiguous terms about it.
- In the novel The Neverending Story by Michael Ende appears a centaur, which name Cairon and profession as physician directs to Chiron, an ancient Greek mythological centaur and great doctor. He is shown to have black skin for his human half and his horse half is a zebra.
- In Monsterology: The Complete Book of Monstrous Creatures, centaurs are shown as being party animals, which raises the question of how they stayed concealed for so long, who live in Southern Greece, and have the Latin name Centaurus Indomitus. A picture shows one with two chests.
- In Edgar Rice Burroughs' novel The Moon Maid, the moon is inhabited by centaur like beings evil Communist-based "Kalkars".
- In Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson & The Olympians series, centaurs are friendly and help Camp Half Blood against the attacks of Kronos and Luke. However they are very wild, and seem to enjoy getting drunk.
- Rick Riordan's The Heroes of Olympus also features the Cyprian Centaurs who are among the creatures on Gaea's side.
- In Star Wars, there are two centauroid races, the very centaur-like species called Chironians, most likely a play on the name of the legendary centaur, Chiron, and the striped hermaphrodite Berrites, which are very clumsy, but sneaky.
- The American poet May Swenson wrote a poem called "The Centaur", which appeared in her book A Cage of Spines in 1958, and which portrays a girl riding a make-believe horse (actually a willow branch) who comes to feel that she is the horse.
- Another book series called Animorphs includes a centauroid race of aliens called Andalites.
- P. C. Cast's Partholon series includes numerous centaur characters, including the protagonist Brighid of Brighid's Quest.
- Robert Siegel's 1980 novel Alpha Centauri[1][2] tells the story of Becky, a modern-day teenage girl and her horse, Becca, who are transported to ancient England and meet Cavallos and his entire centaur clan who, along with fauns and other woodland creatures, are fleeing the hostility of the ever-expanding Rock Movers while seeking safe passage to the homes of the High Ones to return via a mystical bridge back to their home world orbiting the star, Alpha Centauri.
Graphic novels and comics
- The Belgian comic series Les Centaures (The Centaurs) by Pierre Seron features two young, blue-skinned centaurs expelled from Olympus named Aurore and Ulysses as protagonists.
- In the manga series Bleach (and the anime based on it), when the character Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck enters her released form, she becomes a powerful ibex-type centaur.
- The manga series A Centaur's Life's main character is a centaur in a fantastically-set but otherwise everyday world.
- The manga series Yu-Gi-Oh! (and the anime and card game based on it) features numerous centaurs summonable from cards like Mystic Horseman, Gladiator Beast Equeste, Chiron the Mage, Exarion Universe, the Minoan Centaur (whose Japanese name of Minocensatyrus has the creature also evoking the traits of the Minotaur and the Satyr), Centaur Mina (who is a fusion of 1 Warrior Monster of the Light element and 1 Beast monster), Sky Calvary Centaurea. There is also a spell card called Twin Bow Centaur.
- In the Micronauts comics, based on toys, both Baron Karza and Prince Argon can transform into centaurs.
- The manga series Monster Musume by Okayado features a female Centaur character named Centorea Shianus who is one of the seven "Extra Species" characters living with protagonist Kimihito Kuruso.
- In the manga series One Piece (and the anime based on it), Franky has a "backward" Centaur form. Most of the Brownbeard Pirates have centaur-like forms of different animals after their original damaged legs were replaced by Tralfagar D. Law. A minor character named Speed gained the appearance of a centauride after she consumed an artificial Devil Fruit called the Horse SMILE.