Metamorphoses XII.452-541
Nestor finishes his story with Caeneus absolutely dominating insult-slinging centaurs, only to be buried alive.
vecte Pelethronium Macareus in pectus adacto
stravit Erigdupum; memini et venabula condi
inguine Nesseis manibus coniecta Cymeli.
nec tu credideris tantum cecinisse futura 455
Ampyciden Mopsum: Mopso iaculante biformis
occubuit frustraque loqui temptavit Hodites
ad mentum lingua mentoque ad guttura fixo.
‘Quinque neci Caeneus dederat Styphelumque Bromumque
Antimachumque Elymumque securiferumque Pyracmon: 460
vulnera non memini, numerum nomenque notavi.
provolat Emathii spoliis armatus Halesi,
quem dederat leto, membris et corpore Latreus
maximus: huic aetas inter iuvenemque senemque,
vis iuvenalis erat, variabant tempora cani. 465
qui clipeo galeaque Macedoniaque sarisa
conspicuus faciemque obversus in agmen utrumque
armaque concussit certumque equitavit in orbem
verbaque tot fudit vacuas animosus in auras:
“et te, Caeni, feram? nam tu mihi femina semper, 470
tu mihi Caenis eris. nec te natalis origo
commonuit, mentemque subit, quo praemia facto
quaque viri falsam speciem mercede pararis?
quid sis nata, vide, vel quid sis passa, columque,
i, cape cum calathis et stamina pollice torque; 475
bella relinque viris.” iactanti talia Caeneus
extentum cursu missa latus eruit hasta,
qua vir equo commissus erat. furit ille dolore
nudaque Phyllei iuvenis ferit ora sarisa:
non secus haec resilit, quam tecti a culmine grando, 480
aut siquis parvo feriat cava tympana saxo.
comminus adgreditur laterique recondere duro
luctatur gladium: gladio loca pervia non sunt.
“haut tamen effugies! medio iugulaberis ense,
quandoquidem mucro est hebes” inquit et in latus ensem 485
obliquat longaque amplectitur ilia dextra.
plaga facit gemitus ut corpore marmoris icto,
fractaque dissiluit percusso lammina callo.
ut satis inlaesos miranti praebuit artus,
“nunc age” ait Caeneus “nostro tua corpora ferro 490
temptemus!” capuloque tenus demisit in armos
ensem fatiferum caecamque in viscera movit
versavitque manum vulnusque in vulnere fecit.
ecce ruunt vasto rabidi clamore bimembres
telaque in hunc omnes unum mittuntque feruntque. 495
tela retusa cadunt: manet inperfossus ab omni
inque cruentatus Caeneus Elateius ictu.
fecerat attonitos nova res. “heu dedecus ingens!”
Monychus exclamat. “populus superamur ab uno
vixque viro; quamquam ille vir est, nos segnibus actis, 500
quod fuit ille, sumus. quid membra inmania prosunt?
quid geminae vires et quod fortissima rerum
in nobis natura duplex animalia iunxit?
nec nos matre dea, nec nos Ixione natos
esse reor, qui tantus erat, Iunonis ut altae 505
spem caperet: nos semimari superamur ab hoste!
saxa trabesque super totosque involvite montes
vivacemque animam missis elidite silvis!
massa premat fauces, et erit pro vulnere pondus.”
dixit et insanis deiectam viribus austri 510
forte trabem nactus validum coniecit in hostem
exemplumque fuit, parvoque in tempore nudus
arboris Othrys erat, nec habebat Pelion umbras.
obrutus inmani cumulo sub pondere Caeneus
aestuat arboreo congestaque robora duris 515
fert umeris, sed enim postquam super ora caputque
crevit onus neque habet, quas ducat, spiritus auras,
deficit interdum, modo se super aera frustra
tollere conatur iactasque evolvere silvas
interdumque movet, veluti, quam cernimus, ecce, 520
ardua si terrae quatiatur motibus Ide.
exitus in dubio est: alii sub inania corpus
Tartara detrusum silvarum mole ferebant;
abnuit Ampycides medioque ex aggere fulvis
vidit avem pennis liquidas exire sub auras, 525
quae mihi tum primum, tunc est conspecta supremum.
hanc ubi lustrantem leni sua castra volatu
Mopsus et ingenti circum clangore sonantem
adspexit pariterque animis oculisque secutus
“o salve,” dixit “Lapithaeae gloria gentis, 530
maxime vir quondam, sed nunc avis unica, Caencu!”
credita res auctore suo est: dolor addidit iram,
oppressumque aegre tulimus tot ab hostibus unum;
nec prius abstitimus ferro exercere dolorem,
quam data pars leto, partem fuga noxque removit.’ 535
Haec inter Lapithas et semihomines Centauros
proelia Tlepolemus Pylio referente dolorem
praeteriti Alcidae tacito non pertulit ore
atque ait: ‘Herculeae mirum est oblivia laudis
acta tibi, senior; certe mihi saepe referre 540
nubigenas domitos a se pater esse solebat.’
Macareus hurled a crow-bar at the breast of Pelethronian Erigdupus and laid him low. And I remember also how a hunting spear, thrown by the hand of Nessus, was buried in the groin of Cymelus. Nor would you have believed that Mopsus, the son of Ampycus, was only a seer1 telling what was to come; for by Mopsus’ weapon the two-formed Hodites fell, striving in vain to speak, for his tongue had been pinned to his chin and his chin to his throat.
“Caeneus had already put five to death: Styphelus and Bromus, Antimachus and Elymus and Pyracmos, armed with a battle-axe. I do not remember their wounds, but their number and names I marked well. Then forth rushed one, armed with the spoils of Emathian Halesus whom he had slain, Latreus, of enormous bulk of limb and body. His years were midway between youth and age, but his strength was youthful. Upon his temples his hair was turning grey. Conspicuous for his shield and helmet and Macedonian lance, and facing either host in turn, he clashed his arms and rode round in a circle, insolently pouring out many boasts on the empty air: ‘You too, Caenis, shall I brook? For woman shall you always be to me, Caenis shall you be. Does not your birth remind you, do you not remember for what act you were rewarded, at what price you gained this false appearance of a man? Heed well what you were born or what you have endured. Go then, take distaff and wool-basket and twist the spun thread with practised thumb; but leave wars to men.’ As he thus boasted, Caeneus, hurling his spear, plowed up the centaur’s side stretched in the act of running, just where man and horse were joined. Mad with the pain, the other smote the Phylleian youth full in the naked face with his long lance; but this leaped back again like a hailstone from a roof, or a pebble from a hollow drum. Then he closed up and strove to thrust his sword in his unyielding side. The sword found no place of entrance. ‘But you shall not escape! with the sword’s edge I’ll slay you, though its point be blunt,’ the centaur cried; then turned his sword edgewise and reached with his long right arm for his foeman’s loins; the blow resounded on the flesh as if on stricken marble, and the blade, striking the hardened skin, broke into pieces. When long enough he had stood unharmed before his amazed enemy, Caeneus exclaimed: ‘Come now, let me try your body with my steel!’ and clear to the hilt he drove his deadly sword in the other’s side, and there in his vitals twisted and plied his invisible hand, inflicting wound within wound. Now, quite beside themselves, the double monsters rushed on with huge uproar, and all together against that single foe they aimed and drove their weapons. The spears fell blunted, and Caeneus, the son of Elatus, still stood, for all their strokes, unwounded and unstained. The strange sight struck them speechless. Then Monychus exclaimed: ‘Oh, what a shame is this! We, a whole people, are defied by one, and he scarcely a man. And yet he is the man, while we, with our weak attempts, are what he was before. Of what advantage are our monster-forms? What our twofold strength? What avails it that a double nature has united in our bodies the strongest living things? We are not sons of any goddess nor Ixion’s sons, I think. For he was high-souled enough to aspire to be great Juno’s mate, while we are conquered by an enemy but half-man! Come then, let us heap stones and tree-trunks on him, mountains at a time! let’s crush his stubborn life out with forests for our missiles! Let sheer bulk smother his throat, and for wounds let weight suffice.’ He spoke and, chancing on a tree-trunk overthrown by mad Auster’s might, he hurled it at his sturdy foe. The others followed him; and in short time Othrys was stripped of trees and Pelion had lost his shade. Buried beneath that huge mound, Caeneus heaved against the weight of trees and bore up the oaken mass upon his sturdy shoulders. But indeed, as the burden mounted over lips and head, he could get no air to breathe. Gasping for breath, at times he strove in vain to lift his head into the air and to throw off the heaped-up forest; at times he moved, just as if lofty Ida, which we see yonder, should tremble with an earthquake. His end is doubtful. Some said that his body was thrust down by the weight of woods to the Tartarean pit; but the son of Ampycus denied this. For from the middle of the pile he saw a bird with golden wings fly up into the limpid air. I saw it too, then for the first time and the last. As Mopsus watched him circling round his camp in easy flight and heard the loud clangour of his wings, he followed him both with soul and eyes and cried: ‘All hail, Caeneus, thou glory of the Lapithaean race, once most mighty hero, now sole bird of thy kind!’ This story was believed because of him who told it. Then grief increased our wrath and we were indignant that one man should be overwhelmed by so many foes. Nor did we cease to give vent to our anger by wielding the sword till half our foes were slain and flight and darkness saved all the rest.”
As Pylian Nestor told this tale of strife betwixt the Lapithae and half-human Centaurs, Tlepolemus could not restrain his resentment that Alcides had been passed by without a word, and said: “Old sir, ’tis strange that you have forgotten to speak in praise of Hercules; for surely my father used often to tell me of the cloud-born2 creatures he had overcome.”
He did indeed have prophetic powers, but here he is pictured as a mighty warrior.
See Index s.v. “Centaurs.”