The Centaur: chapter 21

The Centaur: Copper, Horse Hair

according to Borges, "The Centaur is the most Harmonious creature of fantastic zoology. 'Bioform' it is called in Ovid's Metamophoses, but its heterogeneous character is eaily overlooked, and we tend to think that in the platonic world of ideas there is an archetype of the centaur as there is of the horse or the man." 

So it is. The Centaur it one of the neccesary monsters in Borges bestiary. This half man, half horse appears in multiple mythologies, and he is almost always much the same- a symbol of how beastly man can be. The Centaur of greek myth, the most famous of them all, is linked with the Spartans by the Athenians. This helm is of Spartan origin, but as the Centaurs had no use for armour, I have not made it useful, only beautiful.