Absolus | Centaur
Asbolos (ancient Greek Ἄσβολος Ásbolos, German 'Ruß', Latinized Asbolus) is a centaur of Greek mythology.
In Hesiod and Ovid he is one of the centaurs who fight with the Lapiths at the wedding of Peirithoos. The epithet bird-shower (οἰωνιστής oiōnistḗs or augur) suggests seer-like abilities.
According to Flavius Philostratos, he was crucified by Heracles after the battle. On the cross the latter wrote the epigram:
I, Asbolos, neither fearing punishment from gods nor from men,
hanging on a resinous spruce with sharp needles,
consecrated as an abundant meal to almost eternal living ravens.
In ancient pictorial representations of centaur fights, he is attested inscriptionally on the Attic black-figure Clitiaskrater (ca. 570/60 B.C.) and an Attic black-figure Kantharos in the Antikensammlung Berlin (Inv.-Nr. F1737; ca. middle of the 6th century B.C.).
In Hesiod and Ovid he is one of the centaurs who fight with the Lapiths at the wedding of Peirithoos. The epithet bird-shower (οἰωνιστής oiōnistḗs or augur) suggests seer-like abilities.
According to Flavius Philostratos, he was crucified by Heracles after the battle. On the cross the latter wrote the epigram:
I, Asbolos, neither fearing punishment from gods nor from men,
hanging on a resinous spruce with sharp needles,
consecrated as an abundant meal to almost eternal living ravens.
In ancient pictorial representations of centaur fights, he is attested inscriptionally on the Attic black-figure Clitiaskrater (ca. 570/60 B.C.) and an Attic black-figure Kantharos in the Antikensammlung Berlin (Inv.-Nr. F1737; ca. middle of the 6th century B.C.).