Hippocentaur
animal · 2 works · 2 mentions · 3 anchored passages
the Hippocentaur
in the texts
Tusculan Disputations
Mythical horse-man creature used as an example of something that never existed, for comparison with the dead.
For he who has sufficiently seen — what is clearer than the light — that, soul and body consumed and the whole living being destroyed and a universal perishing wrought, that living thing which once was has become nothing, will plainly perceive that there is no difference between the Hippocentaur, who never existed, and King Agamemnon, and that Marcus Camillus now cares no more about this civil war …
Institutes of Roman Law
A mythical creature used as the standard example of a thing incapable of existing, rendering a stipulation for it void.
Or again if a man stipulates for a thing incapable of existing, such as a hippocentaur, the stipulation is void.
Item si quis rem quae in rerum natura esse non potest, uelut hippocentaurum,〉 stipuletur, aeque inutilis est stipulatio.