Welcome to the third instalment in this series about little-known monsters (and other assorted creatures) from Classical mythology! This series is intended to shine a bit of light on some fantastical beings you may never have heard of before—or may only know a little about—and which bear parallels to some of the popular beasts of fantasy literature and film today…regardless of whether you’re a writer looking for a twist on a tired trope, or a reader searching for an extra spark to the imagination!
This month we’re not, strictly speaking, looking at a monster. Well, half of them are monsters…and I mean that literally. They’re half-monster, half-human. And I should mention…they’re also gods.
The Ichthyocentaurs’ Appearance
Should one happen to be swimming in the Mediterranean ocean, and should one happen upon a creature who looks like a man from the waist up but who also happens to have the back end of a horse, a giant fish-tail, and lobster-claw horns on his forehead?
One’s first reaction might be to swim away as fast as possible. But, considering that these creatures are indeed mythological, never fear—you’re probably just dreaming. That said, late Greek poetic tradition speaks of two specific icthyocentaurs (in the Greek, ikhthyokentauroi)—centaurine, aquatic sea-gods named Bythos (Greek for “sea depths”) and Aphros (Greek for “sea foam”).
The main difference between these aquatic centaurs and the more traditional centaurs found on land is in the end bits: Regular centaurs have all four horse limbs, while an ichthyocentaur’s body has two hooves at the front, with the hindquarters ending in a fishtail.
The Ichthyocentaurs’ Family Ties
It’s tough being the unknown in a family while your siblings or parents hog the spotlight. Such was the case for Bythos and Aphros, who were sons of the sea god Poseidon and sea goddess Amphitrite. They were also half-brothers to the famous Chiron, a wise centaur (land-dwelling) of Greek myth.
However, as we’ve come to expect in Classical mythology, there are differing opinions on who is related to whom, depending on the writer and the time period. Other reports place the Titan Kronos and a nymph named Philyra as parents on the family tree.
The Ichthyocentaurs’ Names
Although we’ve already discussed above what the specific names Bythos and Aphros mean, what about the actual term, “ichthyocentaur?” The name comes from two Latin words, ichthyo– (directly taken from the ancient Greek ikhthys, which means “fish”) and centaur/centaurus (ancient Greek kentauroi, which means “a creature with the head, trunk, and arms of a man, and body and legs of a horse”). (Yes, the ancient Greeks sure could convey a lot of meaning in one simple word.)
Naturally, that places an ichthyocentaur with the attributes of both meanings, creating a fish-man-horse if you break the Greek words down into their literal parts. Using these terms, it’s clear that these sea-gods were related to all other centaurs from Greek myth, as well as numerous other sea creatures (due to their family relationship to Poseidon) and merfolk.
The Ichthyocentaurs’ Temperament
Unlike the other creatures we’ve looked at in this series, these sea-god brothers were believed to be rather peaceful. They weren’t considered direct threats to anyone in the ocean, and in comparison to their wild-natured centaur cousins on land? They were virtual homebodies.
Very little is known about these sea-god brothers, though their depictions in art seem to imply that they helped Poseidon somehow, and had a fondness for Nereides. One reference in a Byzantine lexicon mentions the ichthyocentaur Aphros as the first King of the “sea-going Aphroi” (the Carthaginians), and a mosaic discovered in Tunisia (in the region of ancient Carthage) affirms the statement.
A Roman mythographer from the 2nd-century A.D., known as Pseudo-Hyginus, recorded a story about two fish-like creatures who benevolently assisted in the goddess Aphrodite’s birth and raising, and who received a blessing by Zeus because of how “just and upright” she turned out to be. Their reward for good parenting? They became the Pisces constellation.
The Ichthyocentaurs in Art
It’s not unusual to see the aquatic sea-gods Bythos and Aphros together in works of art—in fact, a good deal of our information concerning these mythological figures comes directly out of preserved artwork. An imperial Roman mosaic from the 1st or 2nd-century A.D. depicts the newly-born goddess Aphrodite being pulled along in a clam-shell chariot by these two gods (whose names are labeled directly on the mosaic), connecting the art directly with the Pseudo-Hyginus writings.
In addition to the mosaic from Tunisia mentioned above, yet another mosaic from the Late Roman period in Cyprus (4th-century A.D.) depicts Bythos alone, carrying a reclining Nereis named Thetis across the sea. Accompanying them are two other Nereides, her mother Doris and her sister Galatia.
Present-Day Ichthyocentaurs?
While it’s tempting to wish that more information had survived from ancient Greece and Rome about these intriguing half-man, part-horse, part-fish, sea-god brothers, the benefit of knowing so little is the ability to fill in the blanks ourselves.
Because of their remarkable similarities to the more popular merfolk of modern mythology (and before anyone gets their hackles up, yes, the mythology of merfolk has been around since ancient times too…but merfolk are popular today where the ichthyocentaur is not), these mythological creatures present a bit of a carte blanche for fantasy writers and imaginative readers.
The peaceful nature of the ichthyocentaurs and their leadership role in the ocean (ie. assisting in Aphrodite’s birth; ruling Carthage) is a stark contrast to the frightening unknown of the ocean and the darkness implied therein, and may give writers an intriguing anchor point for the history of their water-dwelling sea folk.
Richard Marpole
Jennie Ivins
Merfolk or centaur, pick a side!
Sometimes I wondered how people could have believed in something so nonsensical. But, hey, plenty of people in the USA believe professional wrestling is real.