Cacus

“ He compelled all strangers who came to his country to wrestle with him, on condition that if conquered (as they all were) they should be put to death. Hercules encountered him, and finding that it was of no avail to throw him, for he always rose with renewed strength from every fall, he lifted him up from the earth and strangled him in the air.
Cacus was a huge giant, who inhabited a cave on Mount Aventine, and plundered the surrounding country. When Hercules was driving home the oxen of Geryon, Cacus stole part of the cattle, while the hero slept. ”

“ Nothing can be more probable; for it is certain that even before the eighth century B.C. the whole western coast of Italy was open first to Phoenician trade and then to Greek. And we are interested to find that the only other traces of the myth to be found in Italy are located in places which would be open to the same influence. From Capua we have a bronze vase on which is depicted what seems to be the punishment of Cacus by Hercules [828] ; and a fragment of the annalist Gellius gives a story connecting Cacus with Campania, Etruria, and the East [829] . ”

“ This monster was the son of Vulcan, and spouted his black fires from his mouth as he moved in giant bulk. To us also in our desire time bore a god's aid and arrival. For princely Alcides the avenger came glorious in the spoils of triple Geryon slain; this way the Conqueror drove the huge bulls, and his oxen filled the river valley. But savage Cacus, infatuate to leave nothing undared or unhandled in craft or crime, drives four bulls of choice shape away from their pasturage, and as many heifers of excellent beauty. ”

“ Tumbling, it chok'd the flood: on either side
The banks leap backward, and the streams divide;
The sky shrunk upward with unusual dread,
And trembling Tiber div'd beneath his bed.
The court of Cacus stands reveal'd to sight;
The cavern glares with new-admitted light.
So the pent vapors, with a rumbling sound,
Heave from below, and rend the hollow ground;
A sounding flaw succeeds; and, from on high,
The gods with hate beheld the nether sky:
The ghosts repine at violated night,
And curse th' invading sun, and sicken at the sight. ”

“ Baccio, having obtained the marble, made a great model in wax, which was a Hercules who, having fixed the head of Cacus between two stones with one knee, was constraining him with great force with the left arm, holding him crouching under his legs in a distorted attitude, wherein Cacus revealed his suffering and the strain of the weight of Hercules upon him, which was rending asunder every least muscle in his whole body. ”

“ We have seen above that the Hercules of the ara maxima may possibly have concealed Mars himself, in his original form of a deity of cattle, pasture, and clearings. But there is yet another possible explanation of this tangled problem.
The Roman form of the Cacus-myth, in which Cacus steals 197the cattle from Hercules, and tries to conceal his theft by dragging them backwards into his cave by their tails, has recently been found in Sicily depicted on a painted vase, whither, as Professor Gardner has suggested, it may have been brought by way of Cyprus by Phoenician traders [827] ”

“ That’s a good idea, and a deed which befits thee. But rub thy limbs with olive oil to-day, my Hercules, and gird thyself, for know this, you mayst meet a real Cacus. The man who is guarding that girl in whom the worthy Vinicius takes interest, has exceptional strength very likely. ”

“ The den of Cacus was properly Ca-Chus, the cavern or temple of Chus, out of which the poets, and later historians have formed a strange personage, whom they represent as a shepherd, and the son of Vulcan. Many antient Divinities, whose rites and history had any relation to Ur in Chaldea, are said to have been the children of Vulcan; and oftentimes to have been born in fire. There certainly stood a temple of old upon the Aventine mountain in Latium, which was the terror of the neighbourhood. ”

“ LXXI THE FELLOW could not stand quiet to hear the damning errors of his Cacus in their turn enumerated. For one thing, I was telling the truth; for another, I was unmasking him to the Duke and all the people present, who showed by face and gesture first their surprise, and next their conviction that what I said was true. All at once he burst out: “Ah, you slanderous tongue! why don’t you speak about my design?” I retorted: “A good draughtsman can never produce bad works; therefore I am inclined to believe that your drawing is no better than your statues.” ”

“ This great feast, my friend, we hold not without good reason, which thou shalt now hear from me. Seest thou this great ruin of rocks? Here in old time was a cave, running very deep into the cliff, wherein Cacus dwelt, a monster but half man, whose father was Vulcan. The ground thereof reeked with blood, and at the mouth were fixed the heads of dead men. Very great of stature was he, and breathed out fire from [Pg 178] his mouth. To this land came Hercules, driving before him the oxen of Geryon, whom he had slain. ”

“ When the hero reached the island of Erythea, he found the oxen guarded by the giant Eurytion and his three-headed dog; but even this did not daunt the slayer of the Hydra. He boldly attacked the giant; and after a fierce battle, in which his oak club stood him in good stead, killed both Eurytion and the monstrous dog. Then he went in search of the oxen, and, after herding them closely, drove them toward his own country. On the journey homeward he passed Mount Aventine, where the giant Cacus lived in a rocky cave. ”

“ Donald and I, with our guide, now reached the land of the giant cacti. We all at home here in Britain know something of the beauty of the common prickly cactus that grows in window-gardens or in hot-houses, and surprises us with the crimson glory of its flowers, which grow from 162 such odd parts of the plant; but here we were in the land of the cacti. Dugald knew it well, and used to tell us all about them; so tall, so stately, so strange and weird, that we felt as if in another planet. ”

“ As we stop a moment here in Lower California to view him, we see that he is somewhat interesting, but though a member of the noble tribe of Cereus not attractive to us as a weird cactus, having little to suggest the dignity and grandeur of the giant Sahuaro, the uniqueness of the Pipe Organ with its finest of fruit, or the exquisite blossoms of la Reina de Noche, queen among desert flowers.
Old Man Cactus (Cereus senilis) Mexico
Next in line of our fashion parade comes the Cereus senilis, sometimes called by the botanists Cephalocereus senilis (a polite way of saying “old man”) . ”

“ The cacique seeing that his deception was known to the Spaniards, earnestly begged them not to speak of it to his subjects or to the other Indians, because he made them obedient by this artifice.... Three large stones are also in the possession of almost all the caciques, which are highly [156] venerated by them and their people. The one they say makes the corn and the grain to grow, the second helps women in travail, and the third procures rain or fair weather, whenever they desire to be benefited in any one of these ways. ”

“ Clœlia nodded her head, and then Hyacintha, feeling that the time of parting was near, said—
“I pray you to be kind to my brother Casca; he is far tenderer than I am, and loves quiet and study. As soon as Caius lets it be known to my father that he is under your roof he will reward you, for he is a noble, and can command money and treasures.” ”

“ Among the great groups of the cactus clan the Pincushion, the Hedgehog, the Giant Sahuaro, and the Bisnaga, or Barrel Cacti, have retreated before civilization. The first named cannot endure close grazing of the ranges, nor trampling by stock, nor being continually dug up and carried away from their native habitats. They are rapidly disappearing from their original haunts. This, notwithstanding the fact that they are the most highly evolved of all cacti. The Giant Cactus is too proud, too dignified to fight or to offer resistance; only his size saves him from destruction. ”

“ If, when first Aebutius told Caecina, when in the castle, that he had collected men and armed them, and that, if he came thither, he would never go away again, Caecina had at once departed, you ought not to have doubted whether violence had been offered to Caecina. But if, as soon as he had beheld the armed men, he had then departed, you would have doubted still less. For everything is violence, which, by means of danger, either compels us to depart from any place, or prevents our approaching any place. ”

“ Never had a winter passed so rapidly for Casca; and when, with lengthening days, the outdoor life of [131] the city began again, neither Clœlia nor Casca was altogether pleased to think that their long evenings in the little atrium of the Villa Caius were over.
“Who can foresee what another winter may bring,” Clœlia said. “The noble Severus will surely send orders for your future, and if he decrees it, you must leave my humble roof. I know not when I shall see Caius again; he is never at rest on shore, and must ever be fighting pirate or storm. ”

“ We must make the best of it,” Caius added, “but I fear the accommodation on board my vessel is not what the fair Hyacintha has a right to expect.”
“Tell me,” Hyacintha said, “what will be the fate of Burrhus and all the people with him.”
“Nay, I cannot tell a maiden of thy tender age of all I fear may befall them, especially the women of the band. Let us thank the gods that thou art safe, and thy brother also, who looks little fitted to bear the brunt of war.”
“You know Rome well?” Casca asked. “I pray you tell me if I shall find it easy to frequent a school of learning there. ”

“ A common creature in the portions of the desert in which cacti abound is the cactus rat, a small rodent about midway in size between the mouse and the ordinary rat. He is provided with a bushy tail which he carries over his back, squirrel fashion. He lives upon the barrel cactus, a plant so protected by spines as to seem unapproachable by man or animal. The cunning rat, however, has found a way of attacking this formidable vegetable. He burrows in the earth at the foot of the plant and comes at it from beneath. One specimen of the matured plant will keep a colony of the rats several months. ”

“ Ingenious as he is, he will plead against me as if he were aware that his own ability is to same extent put on its trial. 45But as for you, O Caecilius, I think that I see already how he will play with you, how he will bandy you about; how often he will give you power and option of choosing which alternative you please,—whether a thing were done or not, whether a thing be true or false; and whichever side you take will be contrary to your interest. What a heat you will be in, what bewilderment! what darkness, O ye immortal gods! will overwhelm the man, free from malice as he is. ”

“ The Colic Caeca.—These organs lie at the junction of the hind-gut with Meckel’s tract and are homologous in birds and mammals although it happens that their apparent position differs in the majority of cases in the two groups. In most birds, the hind-gut is relatively very short, and the caecal position, accordingly, is at a very short distance from the posterior end of the body, whereas in most mammals the hind-gut is very long and the position of the caecum or caeca is relatively very much farther from the anus. ”

“ Their veins felt as if packed with lead, not so much from need of food as need of drink. But they stumbled to their feet and entered the cactus forest. They were obliged to pursue their way in single file; the spikes were long, and many of the larger leaves abutted so obstructively that they were obliged to go down on their hands and knees and crawl. Nor could they maintain a straight course, but zig-zagged among the great plants as nature permitted. More than once they heard the rip of silk, more than once blood sprang through their skin. ”

“ Besides, such is the fatal complaisance of Cicero for that man, that he cannot help speaking of myself and the patriots of my country, with severe and bitter language; which, however, returns double upon himself: If we have put one man to death, he has put many. We killed Caesar, and he the associates of Catiline. If therefore Casca,who gave Caesar the first blow, be a murderer, as Cicero, to please Octavius, calls him; Cicero himself is one, and must confess himself one, and his great enemy Bestia is justified in calling him so. ”

“ There is a difference in our bodies—thine and mine, to wit”—and Claudius stretched out his young, muscular arm, bronzed and bare, from under the loose sleeve of his toga virilis, which was indeed a contrast to the white, slender arm of his companion. “There is a difference, my good Casca, in the make and build of men, aye, and of women too, and it is the same with their natures. Some are brave as lions, others as timid as sheep. Christian or Roman, Greek or Briton, it is the same.” ”

“ Upon the warriors of the tribe the ravage had a different effect, rendering them surly and restive, so that the cacique was hardly able to restrain them from making reprisals, and avenging the indignities offered their ancestors by shedding the blood of the Spaniards.
The attachment of these people to the memory of their dead caciques and former rulers is shown by the fidelity of their wives and servants, who immolated themselves upon their graves, in order that they might continue to serve them in the next life as they had done in this on earth. ”

“ The prickly-pear cactus is of obvious importance to certain mammals of the coastal sage belt. This cactus is most common in disturbed areas such as sandy flats bordering washes, eroded adobe banks, and land once cleared by man. In these areas it is often the dominant plant with respect to area covered, usually growing in dense patches each covering approximately 150 square feet. It provides substitute nesting sites for Neotoma lepida in areas devoid of rock piles, and is probably the major factor governing the distribution of this wood rat in the sageland. ”