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In Greek mythology, Caeneus or Kaineus (Καινεύς) was a Lapith hero, ruler of Thessaly, and the father of the Argonaut Coronus. He was born a female, Caenis (Καινίς), but was transformed by Poseidon into an invulnerable man after having sex with him. 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.

Family
Caeneus's father was the Lapith king Elatus from Gyrton in Thessaly,   and his son was the Argonaut Coronus, who was killed by Heracles while leading a war against the Dorians and their king Aegimius. 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. According to Antoninus Liberalis, his father was Atrax.

Transformation
Caeneus was originally a woman who was transformed into a man by the sea-god Poseidon. Although possibly as old as the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women (c. first half of the sixth century BC), the oldest secure mention of this transformation comes from the mythographer Acusilaus (sixth to fifth century BC). 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. However, according to the usual version of events, after having sex with Caenis, Poeisdon promised he would do whatever she wanted, so Caenis asked to be transformed into an invulnerable man, which Poseidon did.

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. 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. 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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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. 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).

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.

The third-century BC Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes, gives a fuller account, saying that Caeneus: "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."

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. 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."

Hyginus (following a different tradition?) listed Caeneus among those who killed themselves. 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. 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".

Iconography
Caeneus is one of the earliest mythological figures in ancient Greek art that can be securely identified. 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. However, the Centaurmachy was a popular theme in the visual arts, and many examples show depictions of Caeneus battling Centaurs.

The earliest depiction is the bronze relief from Olympia (Fig. 1) mentioned above where two Centaurs hammer Caeneus into the ground with tree trunks. The heraldic three-figured grouping on this relief, with Caeneus flanked by two Centaurs, becomes canonical. That Caeneus is here depicted without a shield (having instead a sword in each hand) implies invulnerability.

The François Vase (Fig. 2), also mentioned above, from the mid-sixth century BC, shows Caeneus already halfway into the ground, being pounded by three Centaurs, using boulders and a tree trunk. This depiction of Caeneus is the first to identify Caeneus by inscription and the first to introduce a third Centaur opponent. 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.

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. No earlier version of the story explains why Caeneus chose to be transformed into a man, however the Metamorphoses does. 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:

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.

Nestor next describes the wedding feast of Pirithous and Hippodamia, to which the Centaurs and the "Thessalian chiefs" (including Caeneus) were invited. After a drunken Centaur tries to abduct Hippodamia, a brawl breaks out, during which Caeneus killed five Centaurs (Styphelus, Bromus, Antimachus, Elymus, and Pyracmos). 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. 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.>