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This paper explores the figure of the centaur as a mode of figuration arising from the prolonged humanencounter with proximate others, both animals and other humans who are similar to but not identical tothe subject. Ancient centaurs can be deployed to frame the constantly shifting polarities of nature andcivilization. I explore the adaptability of the centaur by contrasting the early terracotta and bronze centaurs of the Archaic period with the centaurs in paradoxographic literature. I am deliberately moving beyond Foucault’s treatment of the threat of the anomalous and Kristeva’s emphasis on the Abject. Much more applicable is Freud’s understand of the
Unheimlich, with its emphasis on the recognition that lies below consciousness. We
recognize the centaur and gaze at it as at a companion. The centaur that looks back is the animal with whom we are locked in battle.