Chiron (shown here tutoring a young Achilles)

noun

1. the wise centaur who tutored Achilles, Hercules and Asclepius

[origin: Greek Mythology]

HOWARD’S USAGE:

For man still wears, from birth to dust,
The seal of Chiron’s neighing foal
And fires of Molloch’s darksome lust
Still light the windows of the soul.

[from “Astarte’s Idol Stands Alone”; to read the complete poem see The Collected Poetry of Robert E. Howard, p. 154 and A Rhyme of Salem Town, p. 65]

and

I stood at a shrine and Chiron died,
A woman laughed from the bawdy roofs,
And he burned and lived and rose in his pride
And shattered the tiles with clanging hoofs.

[from “Futility 1. golden goats on a hillside"; to read the complete poem see The Collected Poetry of Robert E. Howard, p. 165 and Always Comes Evening, p. 42 Also published under the name “Moonlight on a Skull” in Echoes from an Iron Harp, p. 55. The two poems are nearly identical; for explanation see The Collected Poetry of Robert E Howard Note, p. 688]