sehepunkte 26 (2026), Nr. 5

Jeremy McInerney: Centaurs and Snake-Kings

Hybrid beings, such as centaurs and griffins, were ubiquitous in ancient Greek culture. Crucially, hybrids were not wholly synonymous with monsters, particularly with our modern Christianized conceptions of monstrosity, which connote "bad" or "evil" beings. Yet they do often overlap with scholarly discussions of ancient monstrosity. Jeremy McInerney's book examines many such figures from the perspective of their hybridity, rather than their monstrosity.

Chapter 1, the Introduction, begins by discussing hybridity as humanity's unease with simple categories, the limits of epistemology, and that "hybridity is a direct outgrowth of human-animal entanglement" (9). This Introduction also lays out the structure of the remaining nine chapters, divided into four Parts (16-23). Confusingly, there is no such organization of the book's ten chapters into these four parts in the Table of Contents (nor anywhere else in the book), and so this macro-level structure is not actually integrated into the rest of this study. Nevertheless, I adopt this structure for organizing the remainder of this review.

Another shortcoming at the outset is that it is difficult to locate an overarching and original argument. The main thesis seems to be: "I suggest that hybrids, as anomalies, undermine the very categories from which order is constructed" (17). This is hardly a novel idea. Framing hybrids, and monsters more generally, as boundary-crossers that defy categories is already a well-worn staple of scholarship. Curiously buried within the second chapter are the more detailed main objectives: "This study will therefore have two goals: to clarify the significance of many hybrids, such as centaurs and gorgons, and also to elucidate the tensions and anxieties that found expression in these curious and unsettling figures" (42). This intention to "clarify" hybrids, most of which have been widely examined already, is not an argument as such either, nor sufficient to provide a coherent organization.

Part I comprises only Chapter 2, devoted to theories of hybridity. This is an especially lucid discussion and does excellent work in interpretating hybrids as more than uncanny terrors, as with the opening acknowledgement that the incongruity of such forms does not automatically produce fear (24), as sometimes assumed.

Part II (Chapters 3-4) turns to hybrids themselves, specifically in intercultural contexts within the ancient Mediterranean world. Chapter 3 explores the larger contexts of cultural exchange in the Mediterranean during the archaic period, and the Near Eastern antecedents of Greek hybrids. This chapter is particularly insightful for understanding the role of cross-cultural transmission and rightly considers such intercultural transferences of hybrids as acts of active (re)interpretation. Chapter 4 focalizes the Mediterranean Sea as a geographic space that facilitates cultural transmission for many hybrids. Within this, the discussion of Tritons as an example of hybrids that were not conceptualized as "monstrous" (106-107) is particularly insightful. Yet this could have been better placed in the Introduction to support the book's overall focus on hybridity.

Part III (Chapters 5-8), then, concerns what McInerney frames as case studies. Chapter 5 is nominally a case study on griffins and gorgons, an odd pairing. This chapter in particular struggles to maintain a focus on a defined subject, which would ordinarily be expected of a case study. The final section (158-170), though, does provide interesting analysis of the overlaps and similarities between hybridity and metamorphosis. Chapter 6 is a case study on equine elements, a topic that fosters a more cohesive chapter than the previous one, targeting mainly centaurs, of course. Much of this is well contextualized against the backdrop of ancient ideas on horsemanship. Chapter 7 is devoted to serpentine hybrids. This opens with the interesting observation that, unlike with the horse, the human relationship with the snake was one often characterized by hatred (202-203). Yet curiously this does not lead to purely negative depictions, as with the more "positive" example of the Athenian snake-kings. Chapter 8 is, then, a case study on hybridity in terms of gender. As other hybrids challenge simplistic binaries of human and animal, Hermaphrodites challenge simplistic binaries of male and female. McInerney insightfully construes this material as ideas also moving beyond the conventional anthropocentric outlook, and as effectively post-human (235-237).

Part IV (Chapters 9-10) discusses later influences of Greek hybridity. Chapter 9 focuses on hybridity in ethnography and paradoxography. The hybrids at the edges of the world, most famously found in works like those of Herodotus, Ktesias, and Megasthenes, had a profound influence upon later Roman culture. Much of this chapter, however, is introductory-level information on these authors, and long-standing observations about hybrids in ancient ethnographic texts. The final chapter is a short conclusion of five pages, summarizing prior ideas, such as framing hybrids as "dislocators of certitude" (292), and only briefly pointing to later medieval and early modern ideas.

My main critique is with the overall execution. The structure, absence of signposting, and lack of overarching organization make the book difficult to follow at times. There is, moreover, a tendency to insert tangential material. In Chapter 5, for instance, there is a abrupt short section on Mormo and ancient bogies (148-152). Although not entirely unrelated thematically to that chapter, this is rather haphazardly tossed in, disrupting the flow. The chapters of Part III, though framed as case studies on specific hybrids, tend to digress into discussions of hybrids in general. At the end of Chapter 8, for instance, is an excellent articulation of their overall value: "[...] hybrids have no respect for the rules of the philosopher's game. If dialectical philosophy depends on categories and logical consistency, the hybrid represents the lurking presence of chaos, a cosmic phenomenon akin to overturning the chess board" (252-253). This and other material could have been allocated to the tenth chapter, thereby offering a more developed conclusion chapter, and better retaining focus in these earlier chapters.

For academics already well-versed with scholarship on ancient hybrids and monsters, much of the book will be a mere rehashing of commonplace ideas, and much more specific studies can be found already. Yet this book is not without merit, as there are some novel insights sprinkled throughout, as mentioned above. It does seem to be tacitly influenced by the rise of animal studies in Classics, as situating hybridity within human-animal relationships is a recurrent element. In this regard, McInerney further observes that the ancient Greek world was not actually convinced of an absolute divide between humans and animals; centaurs certainly complicate this simplistic binary, often hastily attributed to ancient thought (201). This is itself a welcome angle, and perhaps could have been developed and honed into a specific line of argumentation. McInerney's book is one I would still recommend to graduate students and those new to the topic. Chapters 2 and 3 are especially useful in this regard for their lucid examinations of such ideas, particularly for approaching these figures beyond casting them as uncanny monstrosities alone.