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

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    By comparing the effect of Hercules breaching the roof of the cave to the effect of sunlight should it penetrate the underworld, Virgil makes a clear statement of association between the cave and the underworld.
    So far the equation is clear: cave=underworld. But Cacus too, as I have already suggested, is part of the equation, which must then be rendered cave=underworld=Cacus. Consider now the different treatment by the two poets of the axis along which the fight takes place. In Virgil the fight between Hercules and Cacus takes place on the vertical axis, in Ovid on the horizontal. In Ovid, we find Cacus blocking the entrance to his cave with crags, a barrier so strong that ‘ twice five yoke of oxen could scarcely move it ’ . 23 But Hercules, with his powerful shoulders that once bore the weight of the world, can and does shift the mass, thereby succeeding in reaching and destroying Cacus. 24 Thus the action takes place on the horizontal axis. Ovid gives no indication that Cacus or his cave, which Her- cules breaches from the front, is to be compared with the under- world, or indeed, is to be invested with any symbolic significance at all. It is simply a cave. Not so in Virgil, whose cave is meant to sig- nify much more than a monster ’ s lair. In Ovid, Cacus blocks up the entrance to the cave with rocks — enormous pieces of rock, perhaps, but still just rock. In Virgil, the barrier is a single rock suspended in iron, a contrivance of Cacus ’ father, Vulcan. 25 Against this barrier Hercules ’ mightiest efforts fail. Therefore the physical strength of Hercules which Virgil ’ s readers knew was ultimately going to pre- vail against Cacus, proves to be no match for Vulcan ’ s divine cun- ning, and so Hercules is defeated on the horizontal axis. In making Hercules thus try and fail on the horizontal axis, Virgil skilfully directs the reader ’ s attention to the manner in which Hercules does breach Cacus ’ fortress — from above, i.e. along the vertical axis, by hurling a rock through the roof of the cave, and breaching it from above. In the poetic discourse the opposition between Hercules and Cacus is seen in terms of the opposing concepts of the ‘ above ’ and the ‘ below ’ , Hercules representing the ‘ above ’ and Cacus the
    ‘ below ’ . This opposition, I suggest, reinforces the association of Cacus with the underworld and at the same time, confers on Her- cules associations of the world above — the world which contains sunlight. The defeat of Cacus is poetically expressed by the descrip- tion of sunlight pouring into the cave from above and destroying the darkness of the cave.
    This fundamental opposition between Hercules and Cacus is very important. The parallel features of the two protagonists in this drama are the more readily discernible, but are important only in so far as they throw into clearer focus the opposition. Take for exam- ple the feature of physical power. Hercules ’ weapon in this conflict is indeed his strength. But Cacus, while possessing physical strength, also possesses and uses against Hercules a quality which I shall call devious cunning. Both poets stress this factor in Cacus ’ character. For example, the dragging of the cattle backwards into the cave so that the evidence of the footprints might be obscured, is so consis- tently described in all the extant literary versions of the myth, that we may regard it as an accepted feature of the story rather than a poetic interpretation. 26 Indeed this device of Cacus succeeded in fooling Hercules, who was only alerted to the theft — Virgil — and to the whereabouts of the missing cattle — Ovid — when he heard them lowing. Virgil takes this generally accepted feature of Cacus ’ charac- ter — i.e. devious cunning — and uses it to project an opposition between Hercules and Cacus that will eventually define Hercules ’ cultic position after he is accepted as a god. It is Cacus ’ devious cun- ning