The image of the centaurs, supposedly, arose as a figment of the imagination of representatives of civilized but not yet riding people who first encountered equestrian riders of certain northern nomadic tribes: the Scythians, the Kassites or the Taurus. This explains both the fierce temper of the centaurs and their connection with the bulls - cattle breeding was the basis of the nomadic economy.
According to the euhemeric interpretation of the ancient time, these were young men from the village of Tucha who invented horse riding and killed wild bulls or people from the city of Pephronium, where a way was found to tame horses.
According to another approach, the image of the centaurs goes back to the time of the collapse of the Greek-Aryan linguistic unity, and the word itself, like the other ind.. Gandharva, was borrowed into proto-Greek from some substrate language. If we accept this version, the riders' speculations become groundless, and the adopted etymology of this word should be recognized as a later popular rethinking. In general, even semantically, the images of centaurs and gandharvas are very similar.
According to the euhemeric interpretation of the ancient time, these were young men from the village of Tucha who invented horse riding and killed wild bulls or people from the city of Pephronium, where a way was found to tame horses.
According to another approach, the image of the centaurs goes back to the time of the collapse of the Greek-Aryan linguistic unity, and the word itself, like the other ind.. Gandharva, was borrowed into proto-Greek from some substrate language. If we accept this version, the riders' speculations become groundless, and the adopted etymology of this word should be recognized as a later popular rethinking. In general, even semantically, the images of centaurs and gandharvas are very similar.