Chiron

“There is no law that gods must be fair, Achilles,” Chiron said. “And perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone.”

Appearance
He has a deep, steady voice -- clear and grave and dispassionate.

His face is serious as his voice.

He appears older, with a neatly trimmed black beard and a great black tail.

His horse legs are chestnut-colored.

He has the muscular torso of a man. Chiron has a broad back. His arms are muscled and large, thickly covered with black hair that was nothing like the color of his horse half.

He was half as high again has a normal horse. His gait is less symmetrical than a horse's. He has sure, unslowing steps.

He does not like to be squeezed by legs or tugged at like horses are by men.

He is older than Thetis.

In the winter, he wears a shaggy overshirt made of bearskin.

Personality
He likes to teach in opportunities, not lessons.

He does not like the peace of his mountain disturbed.

Skills
Patroclus says that he can do small tricks of divinity, like warming water or calming animals.

Before Achilles and Patroclus
Teacher of Heracles and Jason

Achilles and Patroclus
Chiron lets Achilles and Patroclus ride on his back up Mount Pelion to his rose-quartz cave near the summit.

He asks Patroclus if he is interested in learning the art of surgery, and Achilles asks him to teach him to play his many instruments.

Thetis had told him not to allow Patroclus to accompany Achilles, but he chooses to ignore this, because he has no objection to to Patroclus as Achilles' companion. He warns Patroclus, “Do not let what you gained this day be so easily lost.”

Chiron teaches them how to hunt, how to heal sick animals, set splints, clean wounds, and tells them what herbs to give to fight against infection. He tells them which plants to get water from, carpentry, how to forge blades, and the art of surgery. He shows them the constellations and tells them the stories that go along with them.

Chiron becomes the fourth person to have ever seen him fight. "“Well, what do you think?” Achilles was eager, and I remembered that Chiron was only the fourth person to have ever seen him fight.""I did not know what I expected the centaur to say. But it was not what followed.""“There is nothing I can teach you. You know all that Heracles knew, and more. You are the greatest warrior of your generation, and all the generations before.”"Patroclus says that he does not want to learn to be a soldier, remembering the boy's death.