Cacu
Etruscan · mortal · classical · Recorded classification
The Etruscan Cacu is a young man with a lyre. On a group of bronze mirrors he sits prophesying, one hand raised in explanation, while a boy named Artile reads from an open writing-tablet at his side and the brothers Aule and Caile Vipinas close in from left and right. Whether they mean to overhear the prophecy or to seize the prophet is read both ways, and the record keeps the ambiguity rather than picking a story. What is clear is that this Cacu has nothing to do with the Roman Cacus, the fire-breathing cattle thief Hercules kills at the future site of Rome: the name is shared, the figure is not.
Variant accounts
- The Etruscan Cacu is not the Roman monster Cacus.Roman legend made Cacus a fire-breathing cattle-thief killed by Hercules at the site of Rome. The Etruscan Cacu of the mirrors is a young seer with a lyre, connected with divination; the two share a name and very little else, and this record follows the Etruscan evidence only.Reference discussion noting that in Etruscan tradition Cacu appears as a prophet with divinatory connections, unlike the monstrous Roman Cacus. (secondary)
Domains
- prophecy
- music
Powers
- to prophesy to the lyre, expounding what the boy reads from the tablet
Relations
- enemy: Avile VipinasApproached by Aule Vipinas in the mirror scene; readings differ over whether the brothers come to overhear the prophecy or to capture the seer, and the record keeps both.Etruscan mirrors in which Aule and Caile Vipinas advance on the seated Cacu from either side, either to eavesdrop on him or to seize him. (iconographic)
- enemy: Caile VipinasApproached by Caile Vipinas in the same scene, with the same ambiguity between eavesdropping and capture.Etruscan mirrors in which Aule and Caile Vipinas advance on the seated Cacu from either side. (iconographic)
Sources
- Cacu is an Etruscan seer depicted on bronze mirrors seated with a lyre and prophesying, attended by the boy Artile with a writing-tablet, while Aule and Caile Vipinas advance on him from either side; the Etruscan figure is a prophet, unlike the monstrous Roman Cacus.: Etruscan bronze mirrors depicting Cacu, Artile and the Vibenna brothers. (iconographic); Reference discussion of the Cacu scene and of the contrast with the Roman Cacus. (secondary)