InGreek mythology,Pholus (Ancient Greek:Φόλος) was a wisecentaur and friend ofHeracles who lived in a cave on or near MountPelion.[1]
It is well known thatChiron, the famously civilized centaur, had origins which differed from those of the other centaurs. Chiron was the son ofCronus and a minor goddessPhilyra, which accounted for his exceptional intelligence and honor, whereas the other centaurs were bestial and brutal, being the descendants ofCentaurus who is the result of the unholy rape of aminor cloud-goddess that resembledHera by the mortal kingIxion. Where Chiron was immortal and could die only voluntarily, the other centaurs were mortal like men and animals.
Pholus, like Chiron, was civilized, and indeed in art sometimes shared the "human-centaur" form in which Chiron was usually depicted (that is, he was a man from head to toe, but with the center and hindparts of a horse attached to his buttocks). This form was of course used to differentiate Chiron and Pholus from all other centaurs, who were mostly represented as men only from the head to the waist, and therefore more animal-like.
To further account for the unusually civil behavior of Pholus, the mythographerApollodorus wrote that his parents wereSilenus and one of theMeliae,[2] thus differentiating him genealogically from the other centaurs, as Chiron was known to be. This different parentage apparently did not carry with it immortality, however, and Pholus died just as the other centaurs.
The differing accounts vary in details, but each story contains the following elements: Heracles visited his cave sometime before or after the completion of his fourthLabor, the capture of theErymanthian Boar. When Heracles drank from a jar of wine in the possession of Pholus, the neighboring centaurs smelled its fragrant odor and, driven characteristically mad, charged into the cave. The majority were slain by Heracles, and the rest were chased to another location (according to the mythographerApollodorus,Cape Maleas) where the peaceful centaur Chiron was accidentally wounded by the arrows of Heracles which were soaked in the venomous blood of theLernaean Hydra. In most accounts, Chiron surrendered his immortality to be free from the agony of the poison when it came to helping Hercules freePrometheus.
While this pursuit and second combat was occurring, Pholus, back in his cave, accidentally wounded himself with one of the venomous arrows[3] while he was either marveling at how such a small thing could kill a centaur (Apollodorus)[4] or preparing the corpses for burial (Diodoros).[5] He died quickly as a result of the poison's extreme virulence, and was found by Heracles.
Hyginus (in hisDe Astronomia) reports versions of the story where it is not Pholus's foot on which the poison arrow accidentally falls, but Chiron's instead.[6]
In theDivine Comedy poemInferno, Pholus is found with the other centaurs patrolling the banks of the river Phlegethon in the seventh circle of Hell.
The city ofPholoe inancient Arcadia was named after him.[7]
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