Centaurs

But fix thine eyes beneath: the river of blood
Approaches, in the which all those are steeped,
Who have by violence injured. ' O blind lust!
O foolish wrath! who so dost goad us on
In the brief life, and in the eternal then
Thus miserably o'erwhelm us. I beheld
An ample foss, that in a bow was bent,
As circling all the plain; for so my guide
Had told. Between it and the rampart's base,
On trail ran Centaurs, with keen arrows armed,
As to the chase they on the earth were wont.
- Inferno Canto 12, Dante


As Virgil and Dante descended into the 7th circle of hell, they see a circular river of blood Phlegethon. Murderers, tyrants and others who violently shed the blood of others in life are immersed in it.Centaurs, led by Chiron patrol the river's shores, armed with bows and arrows. they shoot any who attempt to raise his head out of the river.

Centaurs are creatures, half-man, half-horse. In traditional mythology they were skilled warriors,poets,astronomers and physicians. Centaurs nursed and taught heroes of old like Achilles and Hercules. Even though they are romantic symbols in modern storytelling and often portrayed in positive light by classic authors like Ovid and Statius,they are in fact symbols of insane wrath.