Volume 19, 2007 - Brown University

92 Grainne O’Hara Belluomo
the name Cacus. Originally derived from the Greek adjective kakos, meaning
“bad,” “evil,” or “ugly,” it also shares its root with the verb “kakko” which
means “to defecate.” Thus, Schork concludes, “Virgil’s giant is literally an evil
shit” (Schork, 1997: 132). It is hard to imagine that this wordplay went completely
unnoticed by Virgil’s contemporary audience. Similarly, Virgil’s label
for Cacus—semihominis (“half-human”) (Aen. VIII.194)—makes him almost
laughably monstrous. He is half-human. The other half may be terrifying, or it
may be amusing depending on the reader’s fancy. Perhaps Virgil intended for
this semihominis creature to call to mind the satyrs of early Greek comedy.
Despite the human remains on his foribus . . . superbis (“haughty doorposts”)
(Aen. 8.196), Cacus’s behavior in the Aeneid seems more fitting for one of these
mischievous woodland troublemakers than for an ominous mythological giant.
Though Evander introduces Cacus as having a facies. . .dira (“dread face”)
the monster proves himself to be more of a bumbling coward than a real threat
(Aen. VIII.194). Cacus instigates his battle with Hercules not with violence but
with trickery. Virgil’s depiction of the act of stealing cattle—a typical “crime”
in ancient farce—as a product of “Caucus’s wits wild with the Furies” (Aen.
VIII. 205) drips with sarcasm. The Aeneid is full of characters—both human and
divine—who are carried off to madness by the furies. Generally these episodes
end in monumental storms, or battlefield killing sprees. Cacus, however, has
other plans. Virgil continues the self-referential joke when he goes on to write
that Cacus is so wild that ne quid inausum aut intractatum scelerisve dolive
fuisse (“nothing of crime or of sorrows would remain untried or untested”) (Aen.
VIII.206). Here, Virgil flirts with self-parody. Generally in the Aeneid, when
someone is leaving nothing inausum (“untried”) the consequences are emotionally
dire. In Book IV, Dido tries over and over to convince Aeneas to stay,
unwilling to leave any method untried by which she might preserve her love,
and save her own life. 2 The reference to leaving nothing untried also prefigures
the frantic pre-death scrambles of Euryalus and Turnus, who both seek out every
method possible to prolong their lives. In this light, Cacus’s horrible deed seems
a bit trivial.
All four of these characters—Dido, Turnus, Euryalus and Cacus, meet their
respective ends because the “Furies” have clouded their better judgment—essentially,
they are all victims of death by mens efferta. However, in the cases of the
first three, these lapses of sense are either moments of profound rage and
haughtiness on the battlefield, or blindness brought on by love. Stealing cattle
doesn’t really seem to rank here. By holding Cacus’s pre-mortem mindset up to
three epic death scenes, Virgil makes the monster’s forthcoming demise an
2 Ire iterum in lacrimas, iterum temptare precando/cogitur et supplex animos summittere
amori/ne quid inexpertum frustra moritura relinquat (“she is driven again to go into
tears, again to try with praying, and, as a suppliant, to raise the spirits of love, lest she,
about to die in vain, leave anything untried”) (Aen. 4.412-415).