| “ | Centaur blood is like acid. Everyone knows that. | ” |
Centaur Blood is the blood of a centaur. It is highly corrosive like acid.
History[]
The most prominent uses of centaur blood in mythology was when it was used to kill Hercules. A Centaur named Nessus offered to bring Hercules and his wife Deïanira across a river. When the centaur tried to steal Hercules' wife away from him, he shot the centaur with an arrow poised with the blood of the hydra. Before he died, Nessus told Deïanira that his blood was a powerful love potion, and she should keep it in case her husband was ever unfaithful towards her.
Several years later, Hercules had been out on another adventure and his wife had heard rumors he had fallen for another woman named Lole, daughter of King Oechalia. She covered his favorite robe in the centaur's blood and sent Lichas, a messenger, to deliver it to him in an attempt to win him back. When Hercules put on his robe, the poison burned his skin, when he tried to take off the robe, he took off his flesh too. Knowing that he would die soon, he ripped up a few olive trees and created his funeral pyre. The blood eventually killed him, much to his wife's horror. With the help of a friend, it was set on fire with Hercules on the pile, this way burning his mortal part and ascending to Olympus. Horrified at what she had done, Deïanira subsequently kills herself with a sword.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians[]
The Titan's Curse[]
Travis and Connor Stoll give Phoebe a t-shirt laced with centaur blood (much like Hercules' robe) as revenge for her actions against them during Capture the Flag. This causes her to break out into hives, and she is unable to go on the quest to save Artemis. Later, it is revealed that Aphrodite had given the Stoll brothers the t-shirt in order to let Percy Jackson go on the quest.
The Battle of the Labyrinth[]
Centaur blood is used in the traps used against the Titan army.