Word: chiron
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...Centaur, which takes place at once in Olinger, Pennsylvania,--and on Mount Olympus, tells the story of George W. Caldwell, teacher of science at Olinger High. Peter, his son, narrates. Metaphorically, Caldwell appears as the centaur Chiron, a tutor of heroes, who in mythology was distinguished from other rapacious, lecherous Centaurs by his kindness and wisdom. Chiron was erroneously wounded by a poisoned arrow, and, unable to bear the pain, he longed for death. He prayed that he might pass on his immortality to Prometheus, and that his death would be accepted in atonement for Prometheus's sin, the presentation...
...eyes, Caldwell-Chiron seems, not surprisingly, a dichotomized being, for whom life takes on a quality of doubleness: the obvious and the metaphorical, the literal and the mythical. "Take your time," he said with a sudden sweeping motion of his hand, as if remembering that unseen audience before which he was an actor. You got lots of time to kill. At your age I had so much time to kill my hands are still bloody...
...terribly serious attempt to explain the nature of man or to elucidate the father-son relationship by means of a classic myth, it would be a silly book. Fortunately, the book is not so serious. Updike treats the myth lightheartedly, operating on three levels: First, the corresponding characters of Chiron and Caldwell; next, parallel nomenclature (for those who like to play such games, it has been suggested that Olinger is Olympus; Zimmerman, principal of Olinger High, is Zeus; and third, the subtle penetration of mythical allusions into what appears the most straightforward Pennsylvania prose...
...Centaur, by John Updike. An imaginative retelling of the Greek myth in modern dress turns the tragic centaur Chiron into a long-suffering high school science teacher...
...Centaur, by John Updike. An imaginative retelling of the Greek myth in modern dress turns the tragic centaur Chiron into a long-suffering high school science teacher...