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Ipotanes are mythical creatures; a race of half-horse, half-humans. They are the dual of centaurs having their upper bodies horselike and their lower bodies humanlike whereas the centaurs are the other way round. The ipotanes are supposedly from Greek mythology but likely originated at a much later date. They appear in many modern works of fiction of the fantasy genre.

John de Mandeville

In 1356, John Mandeville published The Travels of Sir John Mandeville.

Description

The typical ipotane looked overall human, but had the legs, hindquarters, tail, and ears of a horse. However, some had human-like rather than horse-like legs (compare with early satyrs, whose front legs were often human-like). The Greek suggested by "ipotane" is ιππότης (hippotes). It means knight, which is reasonable since knights are typically thought of as being on horseback. It is also used as an adjective as in ιππότης λεώς (hippotes leos) – horse knights that rode people. The definition given above would fit ιππότης λεώς – "horse-people".

See also

• Glaistig - Scottish
• Hippopodes - Greek myth

References

1. • For example
   • Nancy A. Collins, Right Hand Magic: A Novel of Golgotham, Penguin, 2010 ISBN 1101445777
   • Amanda Bouchet, A Promise of Fire, Hachette UK, 2016 ISBN 0349412537.
2. Charles Knight, Charles Knight's Popular History of England, vol. 2, p. 13, London: Bradbury, Evans, & Company, 1862–67 OCLC 942643783.

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