Caenus
Lapith warrior transformed from a woman into an invulnerable man by Poseidon, killed by Centaurs pounding him into the earth.
The Legend of Caenus
Caenis was a Lapith woman from Thessaly who caught the attention of Poseidon. He lay with her and granted her a wish; she asked to become an invulnerable man, which Poseidon fulfilled, transforming her into Caenus. As a man, Caenus became a celebrated warrior, fought with the Lapiths, and was said by some accounts to have joined the Argonauts. At the famous battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs at the wedding of Pirithous, Caenus proved impossible to wound. The Centaurs, unable to pierce his skin with weapons, resorted to hammering him into the earth with pine trunks and boulders, driving him down like a stake. Ancient sources disagree on what happened: some said Caenus died underground, others that he emerged as a bird from the earth and flew away. His story is one of very few in Greek myth to deal explicitly with gender transformation and the granting of a changed sexual identity.
Parents
Elatus (father)
Symbols
Fun Fact
Caenus is one of the extremely rare figures in Greek myth who underwent gender transformation — originally Caenis, a woman, before becoming the invulnerable male warrior Caenus at his own request.
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