Tikbalang and Centaur (compared)
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Tikbalang (also written as Tigbalang, Tigbalan, orTikbalan) is a creature of Philippine folklore said to lurk in the mountains and forests of thePhilippines. It is generally described as a tall, bony humanoid creature with disproportionately long limbs, to the point that its knees reach above its head when it squats down. It has the head and feet of an animal, most commonly a horse. It is sometimes believed to be a transformation of anaborted fetuswhich has been sent to earth from limbo.
Tikbalangs are said to scare travelers and lead them astray. Tikbalangs play tricks on travelers such that they keep on returning to an arbitrary path no matter how far he goes or where he turns. Supposedly this is counteracted by wearing one's shirt inside out. Another countermeasure is to ask permission out loud to pass by or, not to produce too much noise while in the woods in order not to offend or disturb the tikbalang.
A common saying has it that rain from a clear sky meansmay kinakasal na tikbalang. or kinakasal si ORLAN(Filipino, "a tikbalang is getting married". "ORLAN is getting Married) This was most likely derived from a similar Spanish proverb that claimed awitch was getting married when there was rain on a sunny day.
According to traditional folklore, the tikbalang can alsotransform itself into human form or turn invisible to humans. They like to lead travelers astray.
Tikbalang are generally associated with dark, sparsely populated, foliage-overgrown areas, with legends variously identifying their abode as being beneath bridges, in Bamboo or Banana groves, and atop Kalumpang or Balete trees.
By one account a tikbalang has a mane of sharp spines, with the three thickest of these being of particular importance. A person who obtains one of these spines can use them as an anting-anting (talisman) in order to keep the tikbalang as his servant. The tikbalang must first be subdued, however, by leaping onto it and tying it with a specially-prepared cord. The would-be-tamer must then hang on while the creature flies through the air, fighting madly to dislodge its unwelcome rider, until it is exhausted and acknowledges its defeat.
Centaurs
In Greek mythology, the centaurs(from Ancient Greek: Κένταυροι - Kéntauroi) are a composite race of creatures, part human and parthorse. In early Atticand Boeotian vase-paintings, as on the kantharos(illustrated below left), they are depicted with the hindquarters of a horse attached to them; in later renderings centaurs are given the torso of a human joined at the waist to the horse'swithers, where the horse's neck would be.
This half-human and half-animal composition has led many writers to treat them asliminal beings, caught between the two natures, embodied in contrasted myths, both as the embodiment of untamed nature, as in their battle with the Lapiths, or conversely as teachers, like Chiron.
The centaurs were usually said to have been born of Ixion andNephele (the cloud made in the image of Hera). Another version, however, makes them children of a certain Centaurus, who mated with the Magnesian mares. This Centaurus was either himself the son of Ixion and Nephele (inserting an additional generation) or of Apollo and Stilbe, daughter of the river god Peneus. In the later version of the story his twin brother was Lapithus, ancestor of the Lapiths, thus making the two warring peoples cousins.
Centaurs were said to have inhabited the region of Magnesia and Mount Pelion inThessaly, the Foloi oak forest in Elis, and the Malean peninsula in southern Laconia.
The Centaurs are best known for their fight with the Lapiths, caused by their attempt to carry offHippodamia and the rest of the Lapith women, on the day of her marriage to Pirithous, king of the Lapithae, himself the son of Ixion. The strife among these cousins is a metaphor for the conflict between the lower appetites and civilized behavior in humankind.Theseus, a hero and founder of cities, who happened to be present, threw the balance in favour of the right order of things, and assisted Pirithous. The Centaurs were driven off or destroyed.[1][2][3]Another Lapith hero, Caeneus, who was invulnerable to weapons, was beaten into the earth by Centaurs wielding rocks and the branches of trees. Centaurs are thought of in many Greek myths as wild as untamed horses. Like the Titanomachy, the defeat of the Titansby theOlympian gods, the contests with the Centaurs typify the struggle between civilization and barbarism.
