From Good Goddess to Vestal Virgins: Sex and Category in Roman Religion Read Online Free PDF Page A

whereabouts of his cattle only when he hears them lowing. Infuriated by the theft, he rushes to recover them by force and a terrible battle ensues in which the fires of Cacus are pitted against the superhuman strength of Hercules, but in vain. Cacus is slain and Hercules not only recovers his cattle, but becomes the liberator of the surrounding land from the monster ’ s reign of terror. To commemorate the incident, he sets up an altar, the Ara Maxima, at which the Romans henceforth sacrifice to him. 18
    The parallelism between Hercules and Cacus is striking and forms an important element in the story. To begin with, they both possess enormous size and physical strength. True, this is not explic- itly stated of Hercules in either Virgil ’ s version or Ovid ’ s, but by the time of Augustus when both poems were written, it is reasonable to assume that the poets and their public perceived Hercules as he was perceived in the Greek context, where his outstanding attribute was his great physical size and strength. By stressing Cacus ’ physical power both writers seem to wish to point out a parallel between the monster and Hercules. Another parallel feature is the theft of the cattle. Cacus steals Hercules ’ cattle, but they were stolen cattle in the first place. The myth, however, seems to make a distinction between the two thefts, for Hercules ’ is ignored while Cacus ’ is seen as a crime in keeping with his habitually obnoxious behaviour. 19 A fur-
    ther point of similarity is that both are the sons of gods — Hercules of Jupiter, Cacus of Vulcan. This stress on the parallel features shared by Hercules and Cacus is neither accidental nor idiosyncratic. Its function is to throw into sharper focus the battle that takes place between them, which in both versions is the point and main sub- stance of the story.
    But if the similarity between the two is important, even more so is the difference. A conflict implies antagonism and the points of antagonism between Hercules and Cacus are seen by Virgil, at least, as points of opposition. Virgil tells the tale in a way that invests this opposition with the significance of a cultic feature.
    The physical focus of the conflict is Cacus ’ cave. This is where he hides the cattle and himself when Hercules seeks to destroy him. He shuts himself in by barricading the entrance with rock. The cave however is not merely a place of refuge for Cacus, nor is it simply the setting for the scene of the fight. It is an important element in the myth and is directly associated with the monster, sharing many of his attributes and thereby helping to define his function. The cave is Cacus and Cacus is the cave. Virgil ’ s description of the cave was meant to evoke in the readers ’ mind the classical notion of the underworld. The lack of sunlight was the most important and the most terrifying feature of the underworld in Graeco-Roman thought. 20 Virgil deliberately exploits this idea in his description of Cacus ’ cave.
    hinc spelunca fuit, vasto summota recessu, semihominis Caci facies quam dira tenebat, solis inacessam radiis;
    Here was once a cave, receding to unfathomed depth, never visited by the sun’s rays, where dwelt the awful shape of half human Cacus; 2 1
    Even more evocative is the simile used to describe the effect of Her- cules hurling a huge rock through the roof of the cave:

    at specus et Caci detecta apparuit ingens regia et umbrosae penitus patuere cavernae, non secus ac si qua penitus vi terra dehiscens infernas reseret sedes et regna recludat
    pallida, dis invisa, superque immane barathrum cernatur, trepidant immiso lumine Manes.
    But the den of Cacus and his huge palace stood revealed, and, deep below, the darkling cave lay open: even as though beneath some force, the earth, gaping open deep below, should unlock the infernal abodes and disclose the pallid realms abhorred of the gods, and from above the vast abyss be descried, and the ghosts tremble at the inrushing