Nessus is a planetoid, that is known since 1993, numbered as asteroid #7066, and belongs to the asteroid group of the centaurs. They should be named after centaurs from Greek mythology, at latest since Nessus proved to be one of those asteroids, that snatched their names. Nessus orbits the Sun in approximately 122 years. Thus Nessus belongs to the slower centaurs, that really deserve the name, but is much faster than the wannabe centaurs Typhon(-Echidna) or Ceto(-Phorcys), where Ceto is again much slower than Typhon. Nessus was the third ever discovered centaur. Nessus’ orbit is inclined towards the ecliptic by 15.6°.

The fake centaurs Typhon and Ceto are something between Kuiper Belt Objects and proper centaurs, hence I also treated them between these two categories. But is there a reason for beginning with the third? What do centaurs indicate in general? The last question is simple to answer. Centaurs are there to indicate human interaction. Centaurs fly through the space between personal planets (although Jupiter and Saturn are seen as collective planets because they were once the slowest known moving objects) and the societal Kuiper Belt Objects. Hence centaurs establish the connection. The society is shaped by the humans, who live in the society. The society is created through interactions of humans with other humans. These interactions are temporary. Centaurs describe the kinds of human-to-human interactions. Centaurs in mythology are mortal beings and mythology tells us hardly anything more about them than how they all died. This emphasizes the temporary nature of what these astrological forces show us. There seem to be some gaps in the tale of Nessus. This has made many astrologers do huge injustice to Nessus. I can’t stand injustice, hence I put Nessus at the beginning of writing about the centaurs in order to fight the injustice since this beginning.

The Centaurs of mythology are offspring of the king of the Lapiths, hence the Centaurs can be seen as the royal family of the Lapiths. When the Centaurs fought a war against the Lapiths, then this can be seen as a civil war or as a revolution. About half of the Centaurs died because of this civil war or revolution, about half of the Centaurs were killed later by Heracles at Mount Pelion. Only few Centaurs died in a different way. Nessus’ best friend, a Centaur named Eurytion, was already before murdered by Heracles. This fight was over a woman. She was named Dejaneira, promised to Eurytion, but then, at least in a version of the tale, raped by Heracles on her wedding day. Heracles killed Eurytion and Dejaneira had to stay with her rapist. Zeus as the father of Heracles had once chosen the Centaur Chiron as the mentor of Heracles. Zeus usually didn’t raise his children himself, at least partly because of the jealousy of Hera, who tried to kill Heracles as soon as he was born. So Heracles grew up among Centaurs and everything, that Heracles knew, had he learned from the Centaurs. This did neither hinder Heracles to murder a Centaur in order to get his bride, nor did this hinder Heracles to kill almost all of the Centaurs, who had survived the war against the Lapiths. Heracles committed a genocide! Nessus was the last to survive. Nessus was the last of the Centaurs, the last of his people, the last of his species. This history, that Nessus had with Heracles and Heracles had with the Centaurs, must be known before any attempt to judge Nessus!

Nessus knew that Heracles was the mightiest of all half-gods. Heracles had often proven his invincibility. Heracles possessed absolute power and Nessus watched how that had absolutely corrupted Heracles. Nessus knew that he had to stop Heracles. Because nobody else was able to stop Heracles. Perhaps Nessus would also not be able to stop Heracles and it would at least cost Nessus’ life, regardless of the outcome. Nevertheless he wasn’t able to watch how the mass murderer of all of his species living happily together with the wife, that was promised to Eurytion. Nessus waited at a river for Dejaneira and Heracles and there the tale’s part, that most people know, took place. In spite of Heracles, after he had killed all other Centaurs, not trusting Nessus, did Nessus persuade the couple that he should carry Dejaneira on his back over the river. So Dejaneira climbed on Nessus, he and Heracles swam through the river. On the opposite shore raped Nessus Dejaneira and Heracles shot Nessus with a poisoned and deadly arrow. But after receiving the deadly shot, began Nessus a lengthy dialogue with Dejaneira and persuaded her to take from his blood and secretly soak Heracles’ clothes in this blood. Thus would Heracles never (again) cheat on her. Dejaneira did what Nessus had told her and Heracles had indeed never again any opportunity to cheat on her because he died a painful death due to the Centaur’s blood. There are obviously some issues with this tale:

• Heracles didn’t trust Nessus and Heracles was very mighty, but he had no spine?
• Heracles large tale describes the club as Heracles’ favorite weapon, but he uses a quickly killing poisoned arrow to kill a rapist of his wife?
• Even Heracles can’t use bow and arrow while swimming through a river, so he must have, after he arrived at the shore, brought some distance between himself and Nessus, while he could have immediately used his club or anything, that he found. He could even have killed Nessus immediately and slowly with his fists. Yet he wanted to give Nessus more time for completing his actions?
• Heracles’ poisoned arrows killed any victim within a second. This was also true for all the other Centaurs. Why could Nessus hold a lengthy dialogue after being hit by such an arrow? It was only possible before!
• Dejaneira wasn’t voluntarily Heracles’ wife. But she feared that he could find somebody else?
• Dejaneira follows instructions of somebody, who raped her less time ago than blood needs to dry? Would that have made Nessus more trustworthy for Dejaneira?
• Heracles grew up among Centaurs, so if the blood of Centaurs would have been venomous, then he would have known this and his wife would certainly also have known this!
• The blood of Centaurs is nowhere else in mythology described as having the effect, that Nessus’ blood had!
• The ancient Greek described Nessus also with the epithet the righteous.

So you see that there are indeed some issues, which can only be explained by some omissions in that tale. Due to Dejaneira’s relation first with Eurytion and then with somebody, who grew up in midst of the Centaurs, had Dejaneira known Nessus well and Nessus had known Dejaneira well. It is certainly not unlikely that they had been friends. Although a wife should always support her husband, the truth is that most criminals are caught when their wives inform the police. Most wives don’t support mass murder. Hence it is very likely that Dejaneira had simply agreed that Heracles had to be stopped. Pretending to rape Dejaneira served to make Heracles angry and kill Nessus. Thus Nessus gave Heracles, and maybe also Dejaneira if she knew only a small part of the plan, a false sense of security. The blood of Centaurs didn’t have the described effect, only Nessus’ blood seemed to have this effect. But how would he or anybody have known that before his death? It is nonsense that he would simply have speculated that. There wasn’t any hint, that could have made him presume such rubbish. If he wanted his blood to be poisonous, then he had to add the poison. Nessus wanted his blood to be poisonous because he knew what would happen. So Nessus made his blood poisonous by poisoning himself because he knew that he would die anyway. In order to be successful with this plan had he to be very quick to make Heracles angry enough to kill Nessus and he achieved this. A tad of common sense is enough to complete the tale of Nessus the righteous in this way. So the ancient Greeks didn’t feel obligated to add more tiny details because the ancient Greeks would never have expected that there could ever be such a lack of every tad of common sense as it is found today.

Greek mythology added nevertheless the detail that Nessus was black in color. Most of those astrologers, who treat Nessus as a murderer and rapist, are white North Americans. So I deem it very likely that their hatred for Nessus is nothing else than the last accepted outlet for their otherwise suppressed racism.

But what is the real relevance of Nessus? Like already with Astraea, do we have to look at what was and is done with Nessus. In his tale he first is the last survivor of a genocide, then he decides to take responsibility because he is the last one, who is able to do something. Nessus is righteous and acts for the sake of righteousness. When even Hera wasn’t able to kill Heracles at the beginning of his life, so neither human nor god could have put him on trial nor sentenced the adult Heracles. So Nessus killing him was the most righteous that could be done under the given circumstances. There was no other way. Nessus sacrificed his life for this. Nessus was willing to give his life as well as taking the blame of having committed criminal acts. The people of today are really very quick with their judgements. Hence being accused falsely is also something, that Nessus can indicate. This is the real relevance of Nessus. The black-furred righteous centaur is currently found around the border between Pisces’ first and second third.