In Greek mythology, the centaurs (from Ancient Greek: ????????? - Kéntauroi) are a race of creatures composed of part human and part horse. In early Attic vase-paintings, they are depicted as the torso of a human joined at the (human's) waist to the horse's withers, where the horse's neck would be.

This half-human and half-animal composition has led many writers to treat them as liminal beings, caught between the two natures, embodied in contrasted myths, and 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 and Nephele (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 the son of Ixion and Nephele (instead of the Centaurs) or of Apollo and Stilbe, daughter of the river god Peneus. In the latter 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 in Thessaly, Mount Pholoe in Arcadia and the Malean peninsula in southern Laconia.

:This article is about the word, for other meanings see Quest (disambiguation)

A quest is a journey towards a goal used in mythology and literature as a plot. Quests can be found in the folklore of every nation.Josepha Sherman, Once upon a Galaxy p 142 ISBN 0-87483-387-6 In literature, the objects of quests require great exertion on the part of the hero, and the overcoming of many obstacles, typically including much travel.

This travel also allows the storyteller to showcase exotic locations and cultures, which may, indeed, be the writer's objective if not the character's.Michael O. Riley, Oz and Beyond: The Fantasy World of L. Frank Baum, p 178-9, ISBN 0-7006-0832-X