# What if centaurs existed? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 19, 2014, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733 "2014-02-19T21:03:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2014, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733/61 "2014-02-26T15:19:25Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Malacandra** : > > However, in Xanth centaurs did arise out of matings between humans and horses (men and mares, in the first instance; it’s not documented whether this ever happened the other way around) God help me that I know this, but in Xanth a woman and a stallion results in a were-horse rather than a centaur. One of them was the main villain in one of the books. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2014, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733/62 "2014-02-26T15:36:46Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > God help me that I know this, but in Xanth a woman and a stallion results in a were-horse rather than a centaur. One of them was the main villain in one of the books. Good catch, I’d forgotten that. Indeed, _Night Mare_. But under the circumstances it had _better_ result in a were-horse. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2014, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733/63 "2014-02-26T15:47:08Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > While I agree about the Americas, I see no reason why Africa couldn’t have been inhabited by a centaur-like creature with the hindquarters of a zebra. Well, if you start allowing for non-horse “taurs” then there’s a wide variety to choose from in games and fiction. There’s centauroids that have the lower bodies of antelopes, velociraptors, giant spiders (“driders”), cats, wolves, even a second human torso & legs _(aka_ “humantaurs”). It can even be argued that naga/lamia type creatures (human upper body, snake lower body) are just a variation on that. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2014, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733/64 "2014-02-26T15:48:22Z")
Would they have to wear clothes on their horse parts? Would they use gigantic toilets, or would they just shit wherever like real horses, and if so, do they have to scoop after themselves? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2014, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733/65 "2014-02-26T16:00:56Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > Would they have to wear clothes on their horse parts? Presumably that would vary from culture to culture. I recall a sci-fi short story I read where that was actually an issue. The “centaur” was an alien diplomat who wanted a set of human style formal wear for official occasions, and the protagonist was a tailor who had to invent centaur clothing for him that wouldn’t look stupid and cause an interstellar incident. The artist for the story actually came up with a pretty good looking outfit as I recall. > [@DCnDC](#): > > Would they use gigantic toilets, or would they just shit wherever like real horses, and if so, do they have to scoop after themselves? They will probably need some kind of bidet type device since they can’t reach their own hind ends. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2014, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733/66 "2014-03-03T22:49:05Z")
> [@pancakes3](#): > > That link led me to google Aubesian, which led me to: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crfGXmxJ1vM](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crfGXmxJ1vM) OMG, at :40 in, is that Chris Christie? ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2014, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733/67 "2014-03-04T04:40:08Z")
Why should centaurs be attracted to humans? I think the ones attracted to humans would be the weirdos. I mean, yeah, they’re kinda hot from the front, but they’ve got _no ass_ - “that’s flat as a pancake, who likes that? Can’t mount on that very well, probably break her trying.” And think about it from the female centaur’s perspective. “Just who do you think you’re going to please with that thing? Throw your arm in there with it, maybe.” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2014, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733/68 "2014-03-04T11:48:09Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > So it’s surprising that we haven’t all evolved into centaurs. This proves there must be something sub-optimal about God in whose image we were all created. You’re just saying that because of how difficult it was to crucify centaur-Jesus. ---
**Author:** ![DChord568](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@DChord568](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DChord568)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2014, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733/69 "2014-03-04T14:53:46Z")
Been looking all over for this online but can’t find it, so I had to scan the page from the calendar I’ve had on my cork board at work for years now. A frequent Gary Larson theme: [Centaur](http://www.sendspace.com/file/dwti4s) ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2014, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733/70 "2014-03-04T15:10:01Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > You’re just saying that because of how difficult it was to crucify centaur-Jesus. Well, it woud have taken 5 nails & the cross would be an upside-down star, but besides that? **“…No…not that one first! No!!! NOOOOOOO…!”** ---
**Author:** ![Geo1000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Geo1000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geo1000)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2018, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733/71 "2018-11-19T08:25:03Z")
I think that Centaur existed, they eating continue like horse. I think they a posibly omnivore and they eating: Breakfast: Cereals with milk with contain most oat. Lunch and Dinner they eat anything like us. And they continue eating on street ( salad and other vegetarian aliments) Probability existed more shop with fast food for centaurs with vegetarian and vegan products. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2018, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733/72 "2018-11-19T09:06:35Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > What would life, technology, and society be like if the mythical half-human, half-horse beings actually existed and formed a significant part of the population? I’m particularly interested in questions such as: > > [ul] > [li]Would the Olympics and other sports organizations have separate divisions for humans and centaurs?[/li][li]Would all restaurants, public bathrooms, and so forth have to be centaur-accessible?[/li][li]Would highways have separate lanes for centaurs to gallop on?[/li][li]etc…[/li][/ul] There is [a manga](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Manga/ACentaursLife?from=Manga.CentaurNoNayami) that actually touches on a lot of issues that could come up in a world with centaurs. (For instance [this chapter](https://mangakakalot.com/chapter/centaur_no_nayami/chapter_2).) ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2018, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733/73 "2018-11-19T10:21:30Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > What would life, technology, and society be like if the mythical half-human, half-horse beings actually existed and formed a significant part of the population? I’m particularly interested in questions such as: > > Would the Olympics and other sports organizations have separate divisions for humans and centaurs? It would depend on the event. Archery might be co-species, judo would… definitely not. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-centaurs-existed/681733.md?page=3)