Aeneid VIII.200-305
The Hercules and Cacus story comes to a gruesome, celebratory close.
“Now at last time brought what we wished, the presence
and assistance of a god. Hercules, the greatest of avengers,
appeared, proud of the killing and the spoils of three-fold
Geryon, driving his great bulls along as victor,
and his cattle occupied the valley and the river.
And Cacus, his mind mad with frenzy, lest any
wickedness or cunning be left un-dared or un-tried,
drove off four bulls of outstanding quality, and as many
heifers of exceptional beauty, from their stalls.
and, so there might be no forward-pointing spoor, the thief
dragged them into his cave by the tail and, reversing
the signs of their tracks, hid them in the stony dark;
no one seeking them would find a trail to the cave.
Meanwhile, as Hercules, Amphitryon’s son, was moving
the well-fed herd from their stalls and preparing to leave,
the cattle lowed as they went out, all the woods were filled
with their complaining, and the sound echoed from the hills.
One heifer returned their call, and lowed from the deep cave,
and foiled Cacus’s hopes from her prison.
At this Hercules’s indignation truly blazed with a venomous
dark rage: he seized weapons in his hand and his heavy
knotted club and quickly sought the slopes of the high mountain.
Then for the first time my people saw Cacus afraid, confusion
in his eyes; he fled at once, swifter than the East Wind,
heading for his cave: fear lent wings to his feet.
As he shut himself in and blocked the entrance securely,
throwing against it a giant rock hung there in chains
by his father’s craft by shattering the links, behold
Hercules arrived in a tearing passion, turning his head
this way and that, scanning every approach and gnashing
his teeth. Hot with rage, three times he circled the whole
Aventine Hill, three times he tried the stony doorway in vain,
three times he sank down, exhausted, in the valley.
A sharp pinnacle of flint, the rock shorn away
on every side, stood, tall to see, rising behind
the cave, a suitable place for vile birds to nest.
He shook it where it lay, its ridge sloping towards the river
on the left, straining at it from the right, loosening its deepest
roots, and tearing it out, then suddenly hurling it away;
the highest heavens thundered with the blow,
the banks broke apart and the terrified river recoiled.
But Cacus’s den and his vast realm stood revealed,
and the shadowy caverns within lay open,
no differently than if earth, gaping deep within,
were to unlock the infernal regions by force and disclose
the pallid realms hated by the gods, and the vast abyss
be seen from above, and the spirits tremble at incoming light.
So Hercules, calling upon all his weapons, hurled missiles
at Cacus from above, caught suddenly in unexpected daylight,
penned in the hollow rock, with unaccustomed howling,
and rained boughs and giant blocks of stone on him.
He on the other hand, since there was no escape now
from the danger, belched thick smoke from his throat
(marvellous to tell) and enveloped the place in blind darkness,
blotting the view from sight and gathering
smoke-laden night in the cave, a darkness mixed with fire.
Hercules in his pride could not endure it, and he threw himself
with a headlong leap through the flames, where the smoke
gave out its densest billows and black mist heaved in the great cavern.
Here, as Cacus belched out useless flame in the darkness,
Hercules seized him in a knot-like clasp and, clinging, choked him;
the eyes squeezed and the throat drained of blood.
Immediately the doors were ripped out and the dark den exposed,
the stolen cattle and the theft Cacus denied were revealed
to the heavens, and the shapeless carcass dragged out
by the feet. The people could not get their fill of gazing
at the hideous eyes, the face, and shaggy bristling chest
of the half-man, and the ashes of the jaw’s flames.
Because of that this rite is celebrated and happy posterity
remembers the day:1 and Potitius, the first, the founder, with
the Pinarian House as guardians of the worship of Hercules,
set up this altar in the grove, which shall be spoken of for ever
by us as ‘The Mightiest’, and the mightiest it shall be for ever.
Come now, O you young men, wreathe your hair with leaves,
hold out wine-cups in your right hands in honour of such great glory,
and call on the god we know, and pour out the wine with a will.”
He spoke, while grey-green poplar veiled his hair
with Hercules’s own shade, hanging down in a knot of leaves,
and the sacred cup filled his hand. Quickly they all poured
a joyful libation on the table and prayed to the gods.
Meanwhile evening drew nearer in the heavens,
and now the priests went out, Potitius leading,
clothed in pelts as customary and carrying torches.
They restarted the feast, bringing welcome offerings
as a second course, and piled the altars with heaped plates.
Then the Salii, the dancing priests, came to sing round
the lighted altars, their foreheads wreathed with sprays
of poplar, one band of youths, another of old men, who praised
the glories and deeds of Hercules in song: how as an infant he strangled
the twin snakes in his grip, monsters sent by Juno his stepmother;
how too he destroyed cities incomparable in war,
Troy and Oechalia;2 how he endured a thousand hard labours
destined for him by cruel Juno, through King Eurystheus.3
“You, unconquerable one, you slew the cloud-born Centaurs,
bi-formed Hylaeus and Pholus, with your hand,4 the monstrous
Cretan Bull, and the huge lion below the cliffs of Nemea.5
The Stygian Lake trembled before you, Cerberus, Hell’s guardian,
lying on half-eaten bones in his blood-drenched cave;
no shape, not Typhoeus himself, armed and towering
upwards,6 daunted you; your brains were not lacking
when Lerna’s Hydra surrounded you with its swarm of heads.
Hail, true child of Jove, a glory added to the gods,
visit us and your rites with grace and favouring feet.”
Such things they celebrated in song, adding to all this
Cacus’s cave and the fire-breather himself.
All the grove rang with sound, and the hills echoed.
attulit et nobis aliquando optantibus aetas 200
auxilium adventumque dei. nam maximus ultor
tergemini nece Geryonae spoliisque superbus
Alcides aderat taurosque hac victor agebat
ingentis, vallemque boves amnemque tenebant.
at furis Caci mens effera, ne quid inausum 205
aut intractatum scelerisve dolive fuisset,
quattuor a stabulis praestanti corpore tauros
avertit, totidem forma superante iuvencas.
atque hos, ne qua forent pedibus vestigia rectis,
cauda in speluncam tractos versisque viarum 210
indiciis raptor saxo occultabat opaco;
quaerenti nulla ad speluncam signa ferebant.
interea, cum iam stabulis saturata moveret
Amphitryoniades armenta abitumque pararet,
discessu mugire boves atque omne querelis 215
impleri nemus et colles clamore relinqui.
reddidit una boum vocem vastoque sub antro
mugiit et Caci spem custodita fefellit.
hic vero Alcidae furiis exarserat atro
felle dolor: rapit arma manu nodisque gravatum 220
robur, et aerii cursu petit ardua montis.
tum primum nostri Cacum videre timentem
turbatumque oculis; fugit ilicet ocior Euro
speluncamque petit, pedibus timor addidit alas.
ut sese inclusit ruptisque immane catenis 225
deiecit saxum, ferro quod et arte paterna
pendebat, fultosque emuniit obice postis,
ecce furens animis aderat Tirynthius omnemque
accessum lustrans huc ora ferebat et illuc,
dentibus infrendens. ter totum fervidus ira 230
lustrat Aventini montem, ter saxea temptat
limina nequiquam, ter fessus valle resedit.
stabat acuta silex praecisis undique saxis
speluncae dorso insurgens, altissima visu,
dirarum nidis domus opportuna volucrum. 235
hanc, ut prona iugo laevum incumbebat ad amnem,
dexter in adversum nitens concussit et imis
avulsam solvit radicibus, inde repente
impulit; impulsu quo maximus intonat aether,
dissultant ripae refluitque exterritus amnis. 240
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 245
cernatur, trepident immisso lumine Manes.
ergo insperata deprensum luce repente
inclusumque cavo saxo atque insueta rudentem
desuper Alcides telis premit, omniaque arma
advocat et ramis vastisque molaribus instat. 250
ille autem, neque enim fuga iam super ulla pericli,
faucibus ingentem fumum (mirabile dictu)
evomit involvitque domum caligine caeca
prospectum eripiens oculis, glomeratque sub antro
fumiferam noctem commixtis igne tenebris. 255
non tulit Alcides animis, seque ipse per ignem
praecipiti iecit saltu, qua plurimus undam
fumus agit nebulaque ingens specus aestuat atra.
hic Cacum in tenebris incendia vana vomentem
corripit in nodum complexus, et angit inhaerens 260
elisos oculos et siccum sanguine guttur.
panditur extemplo foribus domus atra revulsis
abstractaeque boves abiurataeque rapinae
caelo ostenduntur, pedibusque informe cadaver
protrahitur. nequeunt expleri corda tuendo 265
terribilis oculos, vultum villosaque saetis
pectora semiferi atque exstinctos faucibus ignis.
ex illo celebratus honos laetique minores
servavere diem, primusque Potitius auctor
et domus Herculei custos Pinaria sacri 270
hanc aram luco statuit, quae maxima semper
dicetur nobis et erit quae maxima semper.
quare agite, o iuvenes, tantarum in munere laudum
cingite fronde comas et pocula porgite dextris,
communemque vocate deum et date vina volentes.' 275
dixerat, Herculea bicolor cum populus umbra
velavitque comas foliisque innexa pependit,
et sacer implevit dextram scyphus. ocius omnes
in mensam laeti libant divosque precantur.
Devexo interea propior fit Vesper Olympo. 280
iamque sacerdotes primusque Potitius ibant
pellibus in morem cincti, flammasque ferebant.
instaurant epulas et mensae grata secundae
dona ferunt cumulantque oneratis lancibus aras.
tum Salii ad cantus incensa altaria circum 285
populeis adsunt evincti tempora ramis,
hic iuvenum chorus, ille senum, qui carmine laudes
Herculeas et facta ferunt: ut prima novercae
monstra manu geminosque premens eliserit anguis,
ut bello egregias idem disiecerit urbes, 290
Troiamque Oechaliamque, ut duros mille labores
rege sub Eurystheo fatis Iunonis iniquae
pertulerit. 'tu nubigenas, invicte, bimembris
Hylaeumque Pholumque manu, tu Cresia mactas
prodigia et vastum Nemeae sub rupe leonem. 295
te Stygii tremuere lacus, te ianitor Orci
ossa super recubans antro semesa cruento;
nec te ullae facies, non terruit ipse Typhoeus
arduus arma tenens; non te rationis egentem
Lernaeus turba capitum circumstetit anguis. 300
salve, vera Iovis proles, decus addite divis,
et nos et tua dexter adi pede sacra secundo.'
talia carminibus celebrant; super omnia Caci
speluncam adiciunt spirantemque ignibus ipsum.
consonat omne nemus strepitu collesque resultant. 305
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My professor noted that this story is the first time the mad fury of anger is painted in a positive light, as something meant to be celebrated. Which probably doesn’t mean anything.
Hercules was involved in the first sacking of Troy (related to Laomedon’s tricky little refusal to pay his workers); his sack of Oechalia was in some versions of the story related to his eventual death, a story told in Sophocles’ Women of Trachis.
A reference to Hercules’ Twelve Labors, which he was set to after Juno drove him to kill his first wife and children in a fit of madness.
Hercules fought these guys for wine.
More labors! As was the kidnapping of Cerberus, guard of the Underworld, and the slaying of the Lernean Hydra.
A famous mythological monster; the reference may not be to Hercules fighting him specifically, but to an example of the horrors the Underworld offers.