Product Code Database
In Greek mythology, Caeneus or Kaineus () was a Lapith Greek hero, ruler of Thessaly, and the father of the Argonaut Coronus. Caeneus was born a girl, Caenis (), the daughter of Elatus, but after Poseidon had sex with Caenis, she was transformed by him into an invulnerable man. Caeneus participated in the Centauromachy, where he met his demise at the hands of the Centaurs by being pounded into the ground while still alive.
Caeneus was also listed as among those who took part in the Calydonian boar hunt by the sixth-century BC Greek Greek lyric Stesichorus, as well as by the Roman poet Ovid and the Roman mythographer Hyginus, although no details of his participation are given.
Caeneus fought in the Centauromachy, where most accounts say he met his demise. Because of his invulnerability, none of the Centaurs' weapons could hurt him, so in order to defeat the Lapith king, they hammered him into the ground with tree trunks and boulders, which succeeded in restraining him alive.; ; Shield of Heracles, 178–190; Acusilaus, fr. 22 = = fr. 40a ]; Pindar, fr. 128f =; Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica, 1.57–64; ; Orphic Argonautica 170–174 = ].
Caeneus' earliest mention occurs in Homer's Iliad, where Nestor names Caeneus among those "mightiest" of warriors who fought and defeated the Centaurs:
The Hesiodic Shield of Heracles (c. first half of the sixth century BC) describes "the spear-bearing Lapiths around Caeneus their king" battling the Centaurs who fought with fir trees. Shield of Heracles, 178–190.
There is no mention in Homer, or the Shield, of the story of Caeneus' invulnerability, nor the unique manner of his death at the hands of the Centaurs which invulnerability entailed.. However, in the case of the Iliad, as Fowler notes (citing Griffin), this is the kind of detail Homer would suppress. According to , "the fantastic" is used sparingly by Homer, and in particular "invulnerability ... is un-Homeric". However, the Centauromachy was a popular theme in Greek art, and depictions of Caeneus show that this story was well known by at least as early as the seventh century BC. Depictions of Centaurs pounding Caeneus into the ground are shown on a mid-seventh-century BC bronze relief from Olympia, and on the François Vase (c. 570–560 BC); the former shows Caeneus being pounded by two Centaurs, both using tree trunks, and the latter shows Caeneus, halfway in the ground, being pounded by three Centaurs, two using boulders and one a tree trunk.
The first preserved literary mention of Caeneus' death is found in Acusilaus, which says that Caeneus died after the Centaurs beat him "upright" (ὄρθιον) into the ground and sealed him in with a rock. The fifth-century BC Greek poet Pindar apparently also referred to Caeneus being driven vertically (ὀρθῷ ποδὶ) into the ground.; ; Acusilaus, fr. 22 = = fr. 40a ]; Pindar, fr. 128f =; cf. . For the meaning of Pindar's ὀρθῷ ποδὶ see ; .
The third-century BC Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes, gives a fuller account, saying that Caeneus:
Concerning Caeneus' fate, Ovid has Nestor say that some thought Caeneus was pushed down directly into Tartarus, but that the seer Mopsus said that Caeneus had been transformed into a bird. According to the Orphic Argonautica, Caeneus endured his beating by the Centaurs without bending a knee, and "went down among the dead under the earth while still alive." Orphic Argonautica 170–174 = ].
Hyginus listed Caeneus among those who killed themselves. According to Virgil's Aeneid, Aeneas sees the shade of Caeneus while visiting a place in the Underworld called the Lugentes campi (Mourning Fields), where those who died for love reside. Virgil locates these fields as part of, or near to, the region containing suicides. There Aeneas sees Caeneus, of whom Virgil says, although once a man, is now a woman again, "turned back by Fate into her form of old".
The earliest depiction, from the mid–late seventh century BC, is the bronze relief from Olympia, where two Centaurs hammer Caeneus into the ground with tree trunks. He is represented as an armored hoplite, already beaten into the ground to mid-calf. In any depiction of the Centauromachy, this partially-sunken motif makes Caeneus immediately identifiable.; ; , describes the relief as an "unmistakable" depiction of Caeneus. That Caeneus is here depicted without a shield (having instead a sword in each hand) implies invulnerability.; , calls this double armament with swords (also seen in ) "auffällig" ('striking'). The heraldic three-figured grouping on this relief, with Caeneus flanked by two Centaurs, becomes canonical.. Of the 76 catalogued entries in the LIMC, categorized by the number of Centaurs attacking Caeneus, 57 depict this configuration.
Caeneus battling Centaurs is the centerpiece of the Centauromacy depicted on the neck of the mid-sixth-century BC François Vase. Here Caeneus, already buried up to his waist, is shown being pounded by three Centaurs using boulders and a tree trunk. This depiction of Caeneus is the first to identify Caeneus by inscription, and the first to introduce a third Centaur opponent. Other depictions appeared on temple from the second half of the fifth century BC, including those on the Temple of Hephaestus at Athens, the Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae, and the Temple of Poseidon at Sounion.
This Neptune did, transforming the girl into a man, and in addition making Caeneus "proof against all wounds of spear or sword". After this, Caeneus went away happy, spending "years in every manful exercise", while roaming the plains of northern Thessaly.
Nestor next describes the wedding feast of Pirithous and Hippodamia, to which the Centaurs and the "Thessalian chiefs" (including Caeneus) were invited. After a drunken Centaur tries to abduct Hippodamia, a brawl breaks out, during which Caeneus killed five Centaurs (Styphelus, Bromus, Antimachus, Elymus, and Pyracmos). Caeneus is then mocked by the Centaur Latreus who says:
When none of their weapons could harm him, the Centaurs buried Caeneus under mountains of trees and rocks, crushing the life out of him. Nestor tells Achilles that no one knew for certain what had happened to Caeneus, and that some thought he was pushed down into Tartarus. However, when a yellow bird emerged from his burial pile, the seer Mopsus said that Caeneus had been transformed (as must happen in any Metamorphoses episode) into a bird. The story of Caeneus' metamorphosis into a bird only occurs here, and, if not an Ovidian invention, is probably a Hellenistic one.
|
|
