Caeneus Explained

In Greek mythology, Caeneus or Kaineus (; Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Καινεύς|Kaineús) was born a girl, Caenis (; Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Καινίς|Kainís) the daughter of Elatus, who was raped by Poseidon and transformed by him into an invulnerable man. He was a Lapith ruler of Thessaly, and the father of the Argonaut Coronus. He participated in the Centauromachy where he met his demise at the hands of the Centaurs by being pounded into the ground while still alive.^[1]

Family

Caeneus's father was the Lapith king Elatus from Gyrton in Thessaly,^[2] and his son was the Argonaut Coronus, who was killed by Heracles while leading a war against the Dorians and their king Aegimius.^[3] According to the mythographer Hyginus, Caeneus' mother was Hippea, the daughter of Antippus who was a Thessalian from Larissa, his brothers were Ischys, and the Argonaut Polyphemus, and, in addition to Coronus, he had two other sons Phocus, and Priasus, who were also Argonauts.^[4] According to Antoninus Liberalis, his father was Atrax.^[5]

Mythology

Transformation

Caeneus was originally a woman who was transformed into a man by the sea-god Poseidon.^[6] Although possibly as old as the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women (c. first half of the sixth century BC),^[7] the oldest secure mention of this transformation comes from the mythographer Acusilaus (sixth to fifth century BC).^[8] According to Acusilaus, after having sex with Poseidon, Elatus' daughter (here called Caene), because of some (sacred?) prohibition, did not want to have a child by Poseidon, or anyone else, so, to prevent this, Poseidon transformed her into an invulnerable man, stronger than any other.^[9] However, according to the usual version of events, after having sex with Caenis, Poseidon promised he would do whatever she wanted, so Caenis asked to be transformed into an invulnerable man, which Poseidon did.^[10]

Kingship

Besides the Centaurmachy, little is said about Caeneus's activities after his transformation. According to Acusilaus, Caeneus was the strongest warrior of his day, and became king of the Lapiths.^[11] However because of an act of impiety, Caeneus angered the gods. Acusilaus says that Caeneus set up his spear (somewhere? and did something?) - the transmitted text here is corrupt. However, according to an Iliad scholiast, Caeneus setup his spear in the agora and ordered his subjects to worship it, while according to a scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes' Argonautica, Caeneus himself worshipped his spear rather than the gods. In either case, Caenus' actions so offended the gods that, as Acusilaus goes on to say, Zeus sent the Centaurs against him.^[12] The Oxyrhynchus Papyrus that supplies Acusilaus' account, says that Caeneus was used, by Theophrastos, as an example of ruling by the "spear" rather than the "scepter", that is by force rather than authority.^[13]

Caeneus was also listed as among those who took part in the Calydonian boar hunt by the sixth-century BC Greek lyric poet Stesichorus,^[14] as well as by the Roman poet Ovid and the Roman mythographer Hyginus, although no details of his participation are given.^[15]

Centauromachy

Caeneus' participation in the Centauromachy - the battle between the Lapiths and the Centaurs at the wedding feast of Pirithous - seems to be the earliest story told about Caeneus. His transformation and other stories being later elaborations.^[16]

Caeneus fought in the Centauromachy where he met his demise (usually, see below). Because of his invulnerability, none of the Centaurs weapons could hurt him, and in order to defeat Caeneus, they had to hammer him into the ground with tree trunks and boulders while he was still alive and unharmed.^[17]

Caeneus' earliest mention occurs in Homer's Iliad, where Nestor names Caeneus among those "mightiest" of warriors who fought and defeated the Centaurs:^[18]

The Hesiodic Shield of Heracles (c. first half of the sixth century BC)^[19] describes "the spear-bearing Lapiths around Caeneus their king" battling the Centaurs who fought with fir trees.^[20]

There is no mention in Homer, or the Shield, of the story of Caeneus' invulnerability and the unique manner of his death at the hands of the Centaurs which invulnerability entailed.^[21] However, the Centaurmachy 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. Two Centaurs are shown pounding Caeneus into the ground with tree trunks on a mid-seventh-century BC bronze relief from Olympia (Fig. 1), and on the François Vase (c. 570–560 BC), Caeneus, already halfway into the ground, is being pounded by three Centaurs, two using boulders and one a tree trunk (Fig. 2).^[22]

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.^[23]

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.^[24] While 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."^[25]

Hyginus (following a different tradition?) listed Caeneus among those who killed themselves.^[26] While in Virgil's Aeneid, Aeneas visits 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.^[27] 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".^[28]

Iconography

Caeneus is one of the earliest mythological figures in ancient Greek art that can be securely identified.^[29] The only event concerning Caeneus found in ancient Greek iconography is his participation in the Centauromachy - no surviving example of Caeneus' original femininity and transformation is found.^[30] However, the Centaurmachy was a popular theme in the visual arts,^[31] and many examples show depictions of Caeneus battling Centaurs.^[32]

The earliest depiction, from the mid - late seventh century BC, is the bronze relief from Olympia (Fig. 1), 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.^[33] That Caeneus is here depicted without a shield (having instead a sword in each hand) implies invulnerability.^[34] The heraldic three-figured grouping on this relief, with Caeneus flanked by two Centaurs, becomes canonical.^[35]

Caeneus battling Centaurs is the centerpiece of the Centauromacy depicted on the neck of the mid-sixth-century BC François Vase (Fig. 2). Here Caeneus, already buried up to his waist, is being pounded by three Centaurs using boulders and a tree trunk.^[36] This depiction of Caeneus is the first to identify Caeneus by inscription and the first to introduce a third Centaur opponent.^[37] Other depictions appeared on temple friezes 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.^[38]

In the Metamorphoses

The most detailed account of Caeneus' story is found in the Roman poet Ovid's Metamorphoses, which takes up most of book 12, and has Nestor tell Achilles the story of Caeneus' transformation, the brawl between the Centaurs and the Thessalians at Pirithous's wedding feast, and Caeneus' demise.^[39] No earlier version of the story explains why Caeneus chose to be transformed into a man, however the Metamorphoses does.^[40] According to Ovid, Caenis was the most beautiful of maidens, but refused all of her many suitors. One day, as "report declares", while walking on the beach, she was raped by the sea-god Neptune (the Roman equivalent of Poseidon). Afterwards, when the god promised to grant her any request, Caenis chose to be made a man, so that she would never suffer being raped again:^[41]

This Neptune did, transforming the girl into a man, and in addition making Caeneus "proof against all wounds of spear or sword". After which Caeneus went away happy, spending "years in every manful exercise", while roaming the plains of northern Thessaly.^[42]

Nestor next describes the wedding feast of Pirithous and Hippodamia, to which the Centaurs and the "Thessalian chiefs" (including Caeneus) were invited.^[43] After a drunken Centaur tries to abduct Hippodamia, a brawl breaks out, during which Caeneus killed five Centaurs (Styphelus, Bromus, Antimachus, Elymus, and Pyracmos).^[44] Caeneus is then mocked by the Centaur Latreus who says:

When none of the their weapons could harm him, the Centaurs buried Caeneus under mountains of trees and rocks, crushing the life out of him.^[45] Nestor tells Achilles, that no one knew for certain what had happened to Caeneus, 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.^[46]

References

• Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. . Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Apollonius of Rhodes, Apollonius Rhodius: the Argonautica, translated by Robert Cooper Seaton, W. Heinemann, 1912. Internet Archive.
• Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica, edited and translated by William H. Race, Loeb Classical Library No. 1, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2009. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Campbell, David A., Greek Lyric, Volume III: Stesichorus, Ibycus, Simonides, and Others, Loeb Classical Library No. 476, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1991. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Celoria, Francis, The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis: A Translation with a Commentary, Routledge 1992. . Online version at ToposText.
• Colovito, Jason, The Orphic Argonautica: An English Translation, LuLu.com, 2011. Online version.
• Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Volume III: Books 4.59-8, translated by C. H. Oldfather, Loeb Classical Library No. 340. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1939. . Online version at Harvard University Press. Online version by Bill Thayer.
• Fowler, R. L. (2000), Early Greek Mythography: Volume 1: Text and Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2000. . Google Books.
• Fowler, R. L. (2013), Early Greek Mythography: Volume 2: Commentary, Oxford University Press, 2013. .
• Freeman, Kathleen, Ancilla to the Pre-Socratic Philosophers: A Complete Translation of the Fragments in Diels, Fragmente Der Vorsokratiker, Harvard University Press, 1983. .
• Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: (Vol. 1), (Vol. 2).
• Griffin, Jasper, "The Epic Cycle and the Uniqueness of Homer", The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1977, Vol. 97 (1977), pp. 39-53. .
• Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell, 1996. . Internet Archive.
• Hard, Robin (2004), The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004, . Google Books.
• Homer, The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Hyginus, Gaius Julius, Fabulae, in The Myths of Hyginus, edited and translated by Mary A. Grant, Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1960. Online version at ToposText.
• Laufer, Erich, s.v. Kaineus in Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC) V.1 HERAKLES-KENCHRIAS, Artemis Verlag, Zürich and Munich, 1990. . Internet Archive.
• Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC) V.2 HERAKLES-KENCHRIAS, Artemis Verlag, Zürich and Munich, 1990. . Internet Archive.
• Lucian, Lucian, with an English Translation by A. M. Harmon, Volume 2, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1960. Internet Archive.
• Lucian, Lucian, with an English Translation by A. M. Harmon, Volume 5, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1962. Internet Archive.
• Most, G.W. (2018a), Hesiod, Theogony, Works and Days, Testimonia, Edited and translated by Glenn W. Most, Loeb Classical Library No. 57, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2018. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Most, G.W. (2018b), Hesiod: The Shield, Catalogue of Women, Other Fragments, Loeb Classical Library, No. 503, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2007, 2018. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Orphic Argonautica in Argonautica, Hymni Libellus de lapidibus et fragmenta cum notis, H. Stephani and A.C. Eschenbachii, Leipzig: Sumtibus Caspari Fritsch, 1764. Internet Archive.
• Ovid, Metamorphoses, Brookes More, Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Padgett, Michael, J., The Centaur's Smile: The Human Animal in Early Greek Art, Princeton University Art Museum, 2003. .
• Parada, Carlos, Genealogical Guide to Greek Mythology, Jonsered, Paul Åströms Förlag, 1993. .
• Pindar, Nemean Odes. Isthmian Odes. Fragments, Edited and translated by William H. Race. Loeb Classical Library No. 485. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1997. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Plutarch, Moralia, Volume I: The Education of Children. How the Young Man Should Study Poetry. On Listening to Lectures. How to Tell a Flatterer from a Friend. How a Man May Become Aware of His Progress in Virtue, translated by Frank Cole Babbitt, Loeb Classical Library No. 197, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1927. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Plutarch, Moralia, Volume XIII: Part 2: Stoic Essays, translated by Harold Cherniss, W. C. Helmbold. Loeb Classical Library No. 470, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1976. Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Rose, Herbert Jennings, s.v. Caeneus, published online 22 December 2015], in the Oxford Classical Dictionary, edited by Tim Whitmarsh, digital ed, New York, Oxford University Press. .
• Slater, William J., Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin, De Gruyter, 1969. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Toye, D. L., "Akousilaos of Argos (2)" in Jacoby Online. Brill's New Jacoby - Second Edition, Part I, edited by Ian Worthington, Leiden, Brill, 2020. Brill Scholarly Editions.
• Tripp, Edward, Crowell's Handbook of Classical Mythology, Thomas Y. Crowell Co; First edition (June 1970). .
• Virgil, Aeneid [books 1–6], in Eclogues, Georgics, Aeneid: Books 1-6, translated by H. Rushton Fairclough, revised by G. P. Goold, Loeb Classical Library No. 63, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1999. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Visser, Edzard (Basle), s.v. Caeneus, in Brill’s New Pauly Online, Antiquity volumes edited by: Hubert Cancik and, Helmuth Schneider, English Edition by: Christine F. Salazar, Classical Tradition volumes edited by: Manfred Landfester, English Edition by: Francis G. Gentry, published online: 2006.

External links

• Encyclopædia Britannica, s.v. "Caeneus"

Notes and References

1. [H. J. Rose|Rose]
2. [H. J. Rose|Rose]
3. Hard, p. 557; Grimal, s.v. Caeneus; Parada, s.v. Coronus 1; Homer, Iliad 2.746; Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica, 1.57-64; Hyginus, Fabulae 14. For Coronus' war against the Dorians, see Diodorus Siculus, 4.37.3; Apollodorus, 2.7.7.
4. Parada, s.vv. Caeneus 1, Hippea; Hyginus, Fabulae 14. For Ischys as brother, see also Apollodorus, 3.10.3. Apollodorus, 1.9.16 lists "Caeneus, son of Coronus", as one of the Argonauts, which - under the assumption that this is the same Coronus, that this is not a mixup of the two names, and does not represents a separate tradition in which Caeneus was an Argonaut - would make this Argonaut Caeneus a grandson of Caeneus, so Parada, s.v. Coronus 1.
5. Parada, s.v. Caeneus 1; Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses 17.
6. [Acusilaus]
7. Most 2018b, p. liii
8. Fowler 2013, p. 160. As for the possibly older Hesiod fr. 165 Most [= fr. 87 MW = [[Phlegon of Tralles|Phlegon]], On Marvelous Things 5], according to Fowler, "some doubt must attach to the list of authorities at the outset of Phlegon's account."
9. Fowler 2013, pp. 160 - 161; Gantz, p. 181; Acusilaus fr. 22 Toye [= [https://books.google.com/books?id=j0nRE4C2WBgC&pg=PA15 fr. 22 Fowler] = fr. 40a Freeman]. According to Fowler, the implication here is that because intercourse with a god would always produce a child, her transformation would prevent this. He also suggests that the prohibition was perhaps one involving intercourse in a sanctuary or with a virgin priestess.
10. Fowler 2013, p. 160; Gantz, p. 281; Hesiod fr. 165 Most; Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.168 - 209; Apollodorus, E.1.22; Scholia on Homer's Iliad 1.264.
11. [Acusilaus]
12. Hard, p. 557; Fowler 2013, p. 160; Gantz, p. 281; Frazer's note to Apollodorus E.1.22; Acusilaus fr. 22 Toye [= [https://books.google.com/books?id=j0nRE4C2WBgC&pg=PA15 fr. 22 Fowler] = fr. 40a Freeman]; Scholia D. on Iliad 1.264; Scholia on Apollonius of Rhodes Argonautica 1.57.
13. Fowler 2013, p. 160.
14. Fowler, p. 159 n. 27; Stesichorus, Boar-hunters fr. 222 Campbell.
15. [Ovid]
16. So Visser, s.v. Caeneus.
17. Hard, p. 557; Gantz, p. 280; Shield of Heracles 178 - 190; Acusilaus fr. 22 Toye [= [https://books.google.com/books?id=j0nRE4C2WBgC&pg=PA15 fr. 22 Fowler] = fr. 40a Freeman]; Pindar fr. 128f Race [= fr. 128f SM]; Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 1.57-64; Apollodorus, E.1.22; Orphic Argonautica 168.
18. Fowler 2013, p. 159; Hard, pp. 555 - 556; Gantz, p. 278.
19. Most 2018b, p. lvii.
20. Shield of Heracles 178 - 190.
21. Fowler 2013, p. 159. However, in the case of the Iliad, as Fowler notes (citing Griffin), this is the kind of detail Homer would suppress. According to Griffin, p. 40, "the fantastic" is used sparingly by Homer, and in particular "invulnerability ... is un-Homeric".
22. Fowler 2013, pp. 159 - 160; Gantz, pp. 280 - 281.
23. Fowler 2013, pp. 159 - 160; Gantz, pp. 280 - 281; Acusilaus fr. 22 Toye [= [https://books.google.com/books?id=j0nRE4C2WBgC&pg=PA15 fr. 22 Fowler] = fr. 40a Freeman]; Pindar fr. 128f Race [= fr. 128f SM]; cf. Plutarch, The Stoics Talk More Paradoxically Than The Poets (Compendium Argumenti Stoicos absurdiora poetis dicere) 1057 D. For the meaning of Pindar's "ὀρθῷ ποδὶ" see Fowler, p. 160; Slater s.v. ὀρθός.
24. Hard, p. 557; Gantz, p. 281; Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.522 - 531.
25. https://topostext.org/work/549#168 Colovito's translation
26. [Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]
27. Knox, pp. 74 - 75; Virgil, Aeneid 6.434 - 447.
28. [Virgil]
29. Fowler, p. 159. For an overview of Caeneus iconography, see Padgett, pp. 15 - 16; for a comprehensive discussion, see Laufer, pp. 884 - 891 (images: LIMC V-2, pp. 563 - 576).
30. Laufer, p. 885.
31. Fowler, p. 159.
32. [H. J. Rose|Rose]
33. Padgett, p. 15; Laufer, p. 890. Gantz, p. 281, describes the relief as an "unmistakable" depiction of Caeneus.
34. Fowler, p. 159. Laufer, p. 890, calls this double armament with swords (also seen in LIMC Kaineus 63, 70) "auffällig" ("striking").
35. Laufer, p. 890. Of the 76 catalogued entries in the LIMC, categorized by the number of Centaurs attacking Caeneus, 57 depict this configuration.
36. Fowler 2013, pp. 159 - 160; Padgett, p. 15 - 16; Gantz, pp. 280 - 281.
37. Laufer, p. 890.
38. Gantz, p. 281; Laufer, p. 888, nos. 54 - 56, fig. Kaineus 57; LIMC V-2, p. 572, Kaineus 56.
39. Gantz, p. 281; Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.168 - 535.
40. Gantz, p. 281.
41. Tripp, s.v. Caeneus; Ovid, Metamorphoses 189 - 203.
42. [Ovid]
43. [Ovid]
44. [Ovid]
45. [Ovid]
46. Hard, p. 557; Gantz, p. 281; Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.522 - 531.