MARIA ELENA GORRINI  HEALING HEROES IN THESSALY: CHIRON THE CENTAUR* Maria Elena Gorrini e aim of this paper is to consider a speciic aspect of the essalian healing pantheon, on the grounds of the literary, epigraphical, numismatic and archaeological evidence. e paper concentrates on the cults surrounding the igure of Chiron the centaur. 1. THE MYTHOLOGICAL HISTORY OF CHIRON e half man half horse igure of Chiron emerged from the union between Kronos, who had himself taken on the form of a horse, and Philyra, daughter of Okeanos. e Okeanide’s child, Chiron will later marry the nymph Chariklo and father a number of the so-called ag- nai korai, and come to reside in a cave at the summit of Mount Pelion 1 . Although his healing activity is certiied by Homer 2 and Pindar 3 Chiron also came to be regarded in antiquity as a wise pedagogue, indeed his principal pupils (Iason, Peleos, Achilleus and Asklepios) belong to the essalian tradition 4 . Chiron’s life comes to an end when, aer having sustained an arrow wound that could not be healed during the struggle with Herakles, he ofers up his immortality to Prometheos, and aer death he was raised among the stars 5 . 2. THE SANCTUARY OF CHIRON AND ZEUS AKRAIOS ON MT. PELION At the beginning of the last century Arvanitopoulos 6 excavated the, later identiied, sanctuary of Zeus Akraios and of Chiron at the summit of Pliassidi, on Mount Pelion 7 (ig. 1). Zeus Akraios was already known as one of the main deities of the Magnesians, revered on Pelion. At this site, Arvanitopoulos found the remains of a (previously disturbed) te- * I would like to thank Dr. I. Leventi for her useful comments and S.A. Burgess who proofread my English text. 1. On Chiron’s mythological history see Escher 1899, 2302- 2308. 2. Hom. Il. IV, 217-9; XI, 830-2. 3. Pi. N. III, 55. 4. Escher 1899, 2303 f. 5. Eratosth. Cat. 40, Arat., Ph. 436, Ovid., Fast. 5, 414. 6. Αρβανιτόπουλος 1911, 305-315. 7. e identiication seems probable on the ground of some inscriptions: IG IX, 2, 1103, 1105, 1108-10, 1128.