Caca

vol. III p.1164

Caca

In literature, Caca is only mentioned twice, Lact. inst. I 20, 36 colitur et Caca, quae Herculi fecit indicium de furto boum. Serv. Aen. VIII 190 = Mythogr. Vatic. II 153. III 13 hunc (Cacum) soror sua eiusdem nominis prodidit, unde etiam sacellum meruit, in quo ei pervigili igne sicut (alternative reading per virgines) Vestae sacrificabatur. <30> There is no mythological content within the account of Caca's betrayal of her brother. It is an aetiological invention, because it is incompatible with the version of the Cacus myth according to which the cattle betray their hiding place and their thief by their own braying, which is founded in fact and also turns up multiple times in the legends of the related Indo-Germanic peoples (Wissowa in Roschers Myth. Wörterbuch I 842); her connection to Cacus shows Caca to be a goddess of the old-Roman religion, <40> for which a dual-worship of a male and female divinity was typical; the presence of a sanctuary and the sacrifice found there give evidence for her cult. Preuner's suggestion (Hestia-Vesta 386f.) that Caca was an ancient goddess of the hearth, whose importance was overshadowed by Vesta, is supported by the uncertain reading of pervigili igne in Servius; since other goddesses also received sacrifices from the Vestal Virgins, <50> eg. Ops, and it would be best to leave its etymology out of the picture; cf. further the hypotheses of Osthoff Quaest. myth. Bonn 1869, 7ff.

[Aust.]

This article is referenced by: Cacus