Centaurs.
Descendants of Ixion and Nephele (the eidolon of Hera as a cloud), centaurs were half human (head, torso, arms) and half horse (body, legs). Living in wild nature in woods and mountains, this race was bestial in behavior but capable of thought.
Two centaurs were famous for their wisdom and humanity. Chiron was the teacher of many heroes, including Heracles (Hercules), Achilles, and Jason. Pholus, son of Silenus and a hamadryad, was the unwitting author of an unfortunate incident with Heracles. When the hero visited Pholus’s cave he was welcomed with food and wine. The other centaurs became drunk and involved Heracles in a fight, during which Chiron was accidentally wounded. In another episode from the legend of Heracles, the centaur Nessus tried to rape Heracles’ wife, Dei-aneira, and was killed by the hero. At the wedding of the Lapith king Pirithous, centaurs instigated another drunken brawl when one of their number, Eurytion, molested the bride, Hippodamia.
In postclassical art, centaurs are often seen abducting or playing with nymphs and participating in Bacchanalia, as well as in peaceful family scenes. They are also sometimes depicted as sea creatures.

Classical Sources. Homer, Iliad 1.262—68; Odyssey 21.295ft. Hesiod, Shield of Achilles 178ft Pindar, Pythian Odes 2.42-48. Theocritus, Idylls 7.149ft. Ovid, Metamorphoses 9.123, 12.210-536. Apollodorus, Biblioteca 1.2.3, 2.5.4ft, 3.13.3,3.4.4, 3.10.3, Ei.20-22. Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.5,10,5.19.9. Hyginus, Fabulae 33, 34, 62. Philostratus, Imagines 2.3.

See also Bacchanalia; ChiroN; Heracles, General List, and Deianeira; Pirithous, Wedding.