Greeks and Romans knew the celestial bowman as Chiron, wisest of the centaurs. "The most famous of the centaurs, son of Cronus, renowned for wisdom and skill in medicine," runs the entry for "Chiron" in Webster's unabridged (1916), ". . . instructor of Achilles, Asclepius, and other heroes. . . After his death he was placed among the stars." A more detailed entry appears in the Dictionary of Syr Thomas Eliot (1538): "Chiron, nis, the name of a man, whom poetes doo fayne to be the one halfe of a man, the other halfe lyke a hors: who fyrst dyd fynde the vertues of herbes, and taughte Aesculapius phisike, and Apollo to harpe, and Astronomy to Hercules, and was master to Achylles, and excelled all other men of his tyme in vertue and iustyce."