"Asimov, Isaac - Mythical BeastiesUC - MWoF#6" - читать интересную книгу автора (Asimov Isaac)

At least one centaur, however, named Chiron, was wise,

Edward D. Hoch

noble, and learned. He was the tutor of Hercules and

Achilles, among others.

The centaur of the story that follows falls between these
two extremes.

CENTAUR FIELDER FOR THE
YANKEES

Edward D. Hoch

Let me tell you. there was a time not so long ago when a
centaur would have been kept in a zoo or a circus. He
certainly wouldn't have been allowed to play major league
baseball. But times have changed, and we're more tolerant of
people who are different. I suppose that's why Mark Eques
ended up playing baseball for the New York Yankees.
But I'd better tell it from the beginning.

The idea of centaursЧcreatures having the head, trunk and
arms of a man and the body and legs of a horseЧhad been
around since Ovid's Metamorphoses and Homer's lliad. It
was Lucretius who declared that the creature must be mythi-
cal because horses reach maturity before humans, and are
full-grown at three years of age. The horse would die fifty
years before the man. All mis is true enough, but when
Professor Hagger of Columbia University returned from me
Greek island of Antikythira with a young living centaur early
in the 22nd century, a great many preconceptions changed.

Like most everyone else in America, I'd equated centaurs
with unicorns and other mythical beasts. Seeing one live on
the evening news took some getting used to. Hagger chris-
tened the young creature Mark Eques, and set about educat-
ing him. It was quite a story for a month or two, during the
slow news days of summer, but by fall Professor Hagger and
his discovery had faded from view. Mark Eques was living
on a farm in upstate New York, staying pretty much out of
the public eye.

4 Edward D Hoch

A few years passed before we heard about him again, and
this time it was an announcement by Professor Hagger that