Based on the work «The Education of the Young Achilles by the Centaur Chiron in a fresco from Herculaneum, 1st century AD (Naples National Archaeological Museum).

Chiron was an intelligent and wise centaur, unlike most of his kind. He was the son of Cronus and Philyra, a daughter of Oceanus, and the father of Ocyroe by the nymph Chariclus. Chiron lived in a cave on Mount Pelion in Thessaly and was a great educator in music, art, hunting, morals, medicine, and surgery, and tutor to the heroes Achilles, Ajax, Asclepius, Theseus, Jason, Aristaeus, Actaeon, and Heracles.

His fame as a wise and prudent doctor spread throughout Greece. Chiron met Peleus (Achilles’ father) when Acastus, seeking revenge for a presumed betrayal of his lover, invited him on a hunt, during which he stole the marvelous sword Hephaestus had given him and abandoned him to his fate among the centaurs. However, he was saved by Chiron, who recovered the sword, and from then on, a great friendship developed.

Thetis was one of the 50 Nereids (Nymphs of the Sea) and a sea goddess in Greek mythology. Described as blonde and silver-footed, Thetis was the most prominent of the Nereids (along with Amphitrite), with the power to transform into different forms. Her wedding to King Peleus was the most splendid in Greek mythology and was one of the catalysts for the Trojan War.

When Peleus fell in love with Thetis, he asked Chiron for advice on how to seduce her, since, like all Nereids, she could change form at will. Chiron advised him not to let go once he captured her, and so, when she turned into a squid, he held her by the arm and didn’t let go until she returned to her female form, allowing Peleus to take her.

When Peleus and Thetis married, their wedding was arranged by Chiron and celebrated outside his cave on Mount Pelion with distinguished guests, including the Olympian gods, the Fates, and the centaurs. Chiron gave Peleus and Thetis a spear that had been forged by Hephaestus and polished by Athena.

When Thetis abandoned Peleus, he gave Achilles to Chiron to be raised by his mother, Philyra, and his wife, Chariclus, a nymph daughter of Apollo. Thetis left Peleus because he reproached her for the rituals she performed on Achilles to grant him immortality, which consisted of burning him and then treating his burns with ambrosia.

Peleus took Achilles away from him without giving Thetis time to cover the child’s heel with nectar, and for this reason he gave the child with the burned heel to Chiron. The first thing the centaur did was take the heel bone of Damusus, a recently deceased giant runner, and use it to replace Achilles’ anklebone.

Some time later, Hercules accidentally shot him with an arrow poisoned with the Hydra’s blood during a fight with the centaurs, who were fleeing toward Chiron’s home. Achilles suffered a painful, incurable wound, which led him to cede his immortality to Prometheus so he could die and escape the pain.

He was ascended to heaven with the constellation Sagittarius in Greek mythology, which represents the wise centaur Chiron, teacher of heroes like Achilles and Jason. It is located on the zodiacal ecliptic and can be seen from the northern hemisphere.

Some sources speculate that Chiron was originally a Thessalian god, later incorporated into the Greek pantheon as a centaur.