Editing Caeneus (section)

===Centauromachy===
[[File:Kleitias - ABV 77 1 - compendium of Greek mythology - Firenze MAN 4209 - 56.jpg|thumb|Caeneus (inscription: {{lang|grc|ΚΑΙΝΕΥΣ}}) already halfway into the ground, being hammered by three Centaurs, one using a tree trunk (on the left) and two using boulders (on the right); [[volute krater]], [[François Vase]], by [[Kleitias]], [[Florence]], [[National Archaeological Museum, Florence|National Archaeological Museum]] 4209 ({{circa|570–560 BC}}).<ref>{{harvnb|Gantz|1996|p=281}}; {{harvnb|Laufer|1990|loc=[https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20V-1%20Herakles-Kenchrias/page/n480/mode/1up p. 888 n. 67]}}; [[Digital LIMC]] [http://ark.dasch.swiss/ark:/72163/080e-73ba21e3def85-9 1602]; {{harvnb|''LIMC'' V-2|loc=[https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20V-2%20Herakles-Kenchrias/page/n288/mode/1up p. 574, Kaineus 67]}}</ref>]]

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 are likely later elaborations.{{sfn|Visser|2003}}

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.<ref>{{harvnb|Hard|2004|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA557 p. 557]}}; {{harvnb|Gantz|1996|p=280}}; ''[[#CITEREFMost2018b|Shield of Heracles]]'', [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/hesiod-shield/2018/pb_LCL503.15.xml 178–190]; [[Acusilaus]], [https://scholarlyeditions-brill-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/reader/urn:cts:greekLit:fgrh.0002.bnjo-3-tr1-eng:f22 fr. 22] {{harvnb|Toye}} [= [https://archive.org/details/early-greek-mythography-volume-1/page/n30/mode/1up fr. 22] {{harvnb|Fowler}} = [https://archive.org/details/ancillatopresocr0000diel/page/18/mode/2up fr. 40a] {{harvnb|Freeman}}]; [[Pindar]], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/pindar-fragments/1997/pb_LCL485.379.xml fr. 128f] {{harvnb|Race}} [= fr. 128f {{harvnb|SM}}]; [[#CITEREFApollonius1912|Apollonius of Rhodes, ''Argonautica'']], [https://archive.org/details/argonautica00apoluoft/page/6/mode/2up 1.57–64]; {{harvnb|Apollodorus|loc=[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg002.perseus-eng1:e.1.22 E.1.22]}}; ''[[Orphic Argonautica]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/549#168 170–174] {{harvnb|Colovito}} [= [https://archive.org/details/argonauticahymn00unkngoog/page/34/mode/2up 168–172] {{harvnb|Gesner}}].</ref>

Caeneus' earliest mention occurs in [[Homer]]'s ''[[Iliad]]'', where [[Nestor (mythology)|Nestor]] names Caeneus among those "mightiest" of warriors who fought and defeated the Centaurs:{{sfnm|Fowler|2013|1p=159|Hard|2004|2loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA555#v=onepage&q&f=false pp. 555–556]|Gantz|1996|3p=278}}
{{Blockquote|Such warriors have I never since seen, or shall see, as Peirithous was, and Dryas, shepherd of men, and Caeneus, and Exadius, and godlike Polyphemus, and Theseus, son of Aegeus, peer of the immortals. Mightiest were these of all men reared on the earth; mightiest were they, and with the mightiest did they fight, with the centaurs that had their lairs among the mountains, and terribly did they destroy them.{{sfn|Homer, ''Iliad''|loc=[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134%3Abook%3D1%3Acard%3D245 1.262–268]}}}}

The [[Hesiodic]] ''[[Shield of Heracles]]'' (c. first half of the sixth century BC){{sfn|Most|2018a|loc=[https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL057/2018/pb_LCL057.lvii.xml p. lvii]}} describes "the spear-bearing Lapiths around Caeneus their king" battling the Centaurs who fought with fir trees.<ref>''[[#CITEREFMost2018b|Shield of Heracles]]'', [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/hesiod-shield/2018/pb_LCL503.15.xml 178–190].</ref> 

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.<ref>{{harvnb|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 {{harvnb|Griffin|1977|p=40}}, "the fantastic" is used sparingly by Homer, and in particular "invulnerability ... is un-Homeric".</ref> 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.{{sfnm|Fowler|2013|1pp=159–160|Gantz|1996|2pp=280–281}}

The first preserved literary mention of Caeneus' death is found in Acusilaus, which says that Caeneus died after the Centaurs beat him "upright" ({{lang|grc|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 ({{lang|grc|ὀρθῷ ποδὶ}}) into the ground.<ref>{{harvnb|Fowler|2013|pp=159–160}}; {{harvnb|Gantz|1996|pp=280–281}}; [[Acusilaus]], [https://scholarlyeditions-brill-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/reader/urn:cts:greekLit:fgrh.0002.bnjo-3-tr1-eng:f22 fr. 22] {{harvnb|Toye}} [= [https://archive.org/details/early-greek-mythography-volume-1/page/n30/mode/1up fr. 22] {{harvnb|Fowler}} = [https://archive.org/details/ancillatopresocr0000diel/page/18/mode/2up fr. 40a] {{harvnb|Freeman}}]; [[Pindar]], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/pindar-fragments/1997/pb_LCL485.379.xml fr. 128f] {{harvnb|Race}} [= fr. 128f {{harvnb|SM}}]; cf. {{harvnb|Plutarch, ''The Stoics Talk More Paradoxically Than The Poets''|loc=[https://www.loebclassics.com/view/plutarch-moralia_stoics_talk_more_paradoxically_than_poets/1976/pb_LCL470.611.xml 1057 D]}}. For the meaning of Pindar's {{lang|grc|ὀρθῷ ποδὶ}} see {{harvnb|Fowler|2013|p=160}}; {{harvnb|Slater|1969}}.</ref>

The third-century BC ''[[Argonautica]]'' of [[Apollonius of Rhodes]], gives a fuller account, saying that Caeneus:
{{blockquote|although still living, perished at the hands of the Centaurs, when, all alone and separated from the other heroes, he routed them. They rallied against him, but were not strong enough to push him back nor to kill him, so instead, unbroken and unbending, he sank beneath the earth, hammered by the downward force of mighty pine trees.<ref>[[Apollonius of Rhodes]], ''[[Argonautica]]'', [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/apollonius_rhodes-argonautica/2009/pb_LCL001.7.xml 1.57–64] [[#CITEREFApollonius2009|Race]]. Compare with {{harvnb|Apollodorus|loc=[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg002.perseus-eng1:e.1.22 E.1.22]}}.</ref>}}

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.{{sfnm|Hard|2004|1loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA557 p. 557]|Gantz|1996|2p=281|Ovid, ''Metamorphoses''|3loc=[http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0959.phi006.perseus-eng1:12.429-12.535 12.522–531]}} 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."<ref>''[[Orphic Argonautica]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/549#168 170–174] {{harvnb|Colovito}} [= [https://archive.org/details/argonauticahymn00unkngoog/page/34/mode/2up 168–172] {{harvnb|Gesner}}].</ref>

Hyginus listed Caeneus among those who killed themselves.{{sfn|Hyginus, ''Fabulae''|loc=[https://topostext.org/work/206#242 242]}} According to [[Virgil]]'s ''[[Aeneid]]'', [[Aeneas]] sees the [[Shade (mythology)|shade]] of Caeneus while visiting a place in the Underworld called the {{lang|la|Lugentes campi}} ([[Fields of sorrow|Mourning Fields]]), where those who died for love reside. Virgil locates these fields as part of, or near to, the region containing suicides.{{sfnm|Knox|2023|1loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=_1y7EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA74#v=onepage&q&f=false pp. 74–75]|Virgil, ''Aeneid''|2loc=[https://www.loebclassics.com/view/virgil-aeneid/1916/pb_LCL063.563.xml 6.434–447]}} 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".{{sfn|Virgil, ''Aeneid''|loc=[https://www.loebclassics.com/view/virgil-aeneid/1916/pb_LCL063.563.xml 6.448–449]}}