Editing Caca (mythology)

{{Ancient Roman religion}}

In [[Religion in ancient Rome|ancient Roman religion]] and [[Roman mythology|myth]], '''Caca''' or '''Cacia''' is the [[giantess]] sister of [[Cacus]], the son of [[Vulcan (mythology)|Vulcan]] who stole cattle from [[Hercules]] during the course of his [[Labours of Hercules|western labors]]. Caca betrays her brother by revealing the location of the cattle to Hercules, who had in turn stolen the cattle from [[Geryon]].

According to [[Lactantius]]<ref>[[Lactantius]], ''Divine Institutes'' 1.20.36: "There is also the cult of Caca, who told Hercules his cattle had been stolen: she achieved divinity by betraying her brother" ''(colitur et Caca, quae Herculi fecit indicium de furto boum, diuinitatem consecuta, quia prodidit fratrem)'', English translation by Anthony Bowen and Peter Garnsey, ''Lactantius: Divine Institutes'' (Liverpool University Press, 2003), p. 106.</ref> and [[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]],<ref>[[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]], note to ''[[Aeneid]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0053%3Abook%3D8%3Acommline%3D190 8.190]: "His own sister, who had the same name, betrayed him: hence she earned a shrine in which sacrifices were made to her through the agency of the Vestal Virgins" ''(hunc soror sua eiusdem nominis prodidit: unde etiam sacellum meruit, in quo ei per virgines Vestae sacrificabatur)''.</ref> she was cultivated as a deity in recognition of her service to the [[deity|god]].

In his conceptual approach to [[List of Roman deities|Roman deity]], Michael Lipka gives Cacus/Caca as one of the examples of divine pairs differentiated by gender but bound by kinship, as [[Libera (mythology)|Libera]] was the sister of [[Liber]] and [[Fauna (goddess)|Fauna]] the daughter, sister, or wife of [[Faunus]]. Lipka suggests that these deities did not come into existence as pairs, but developed to provide complementary gender balance within their sphere of influence, in this case cattle-raising.

Despite the lateness of the only ancient sources that mention her, Caca is probably an older Roman goddess. Servius says she had a ''[[sacellum]]'' (shrine), probably located in Rome,<ref>Michael Lipka, ''Roman Gods: A Conceptual Approach'' (Brill, 2009), pp. 141–142, citing also Jocelyn Penny Small, ''Cacus and Marsyas in Etrusco-Roman Legend'' (Princeton University Press, 1982), pp. 32–34.</ref> where sacrifices were made to her through the agency of the [[Vestals]]. She has thus been seen as a sort of "proto-[[Vesta (mythology)|Vesta]]", a fire goddess sharing in her brother's Vulcan-inherited capacity for fire-breathing.<ref>Mark Marinčič, "Roman Archaeology in Vergil's Arcadia (Vergil ''Eclogue'' 4; ''Aeneid'' 8; Livy 1.7)," in ''Clio and the Poets: Augustan Poetry and the Traditions of Ancient Historiography'' (Brill, 2002), p. 158.</ref>

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[[Category:Roman goddesses]]
[[Category:Legendary creatures in Roman mythology]]
[[Category:Giants]]
[[Category:Fire goddesses]]
[[Category:Mythology of Heracles]]
[[Category:Children of Vulcan (mythology)]]

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