An Oceanid daughter of Ocean, whom Cronus lay with on Mount Pelion while he still reigned among the Titans; by that union she bore Chiron, the centaur of double form.1
Apollodorus names her simply among the great genealogies: to Cronus and Philyra was born Chiron, a centaur of double form. Apollonius tells the scene on the island that bears her name — while Cronus still held Olympus and Zeus was nursed in Crete, he lay with Philyra, daughter of Ocean, having deceived Rhea; surprised in their dalliance, Cronus sprang up in the shape of a flowing-maned steed, and Philyra fled to the long Pelasgian ridges where she bore huge Chiron, half horse and half divine.2
Hyginus adds the mother's transformation: when Saturn hunted Jove in the guise of a steed he lay with Philyra, daughter of Ocean, and she bore Chiron the centaur, who is said to have been the first to invent the art of healing. Philyra, ashamed of the monster she had produced, prayed the gods to change her form and became the linden tree.3
Her son's fame outlived her metamorphosis. Hesiod remembers Medeus, Jason's son, reared in the mountains by Cheiron the son of Philyra; and when the Argonauts put to sea, Apollonius shows Chiron coming down from Pelion with his wife to wave farewell — the centaur who carried his mother's name into every tale of fosterage on the Thessalian mountain.4
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the spine ignites as you read · hover a bond on the card — every mention of them lights in the story