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Caeneus

Caeneus is a figure from Greek mythology, originally a woman named Caenis. In most tellings she was a resident of Thessaly who, after being raped by Poseidon (in some versions by another deity or a sea-god), asked to be transformed into a man and granted invulnerability. Poseidon or the gods granted her the change, and she became Caeneus, a male warrior reputed for strength and prowess.

The most famous episode involving Caeneus occurs during the mythic wedding bedlam of Pirithous and Hippodamia,

Caeneus’s story is frequently cited in discussions of gender, metamorphosis, and invulnerability in myth. It appears

when
the
Lapiths
and
the
centaurs
clash.
Caeneus,
now
a
man,
is
described
as
invulnerable
to
weapons,
and
the
centaurs
cannot
pierce
his
body
with
their
weapons.
The
confrontation
escalates,
and
in
various
accounts
the
outcome
differs:
some
versions
say
he
is
slain
by
the
sheer
violence
of
the
assault;
others
say
that
his
transformation
is
completed
again
as
a
result
of
the
assault,
turning
him
into
a
different
form
such
as
a
rock
or
a
bird,
depending
on
the
storyteller.
in
Greek
and
later
Roman
adaptations,
notably
in
Ovid’s
Metamorphoses,
and
has
been
used
to
illustrate
themes
of
vulnerability,
power,
and
the
limits
of
magical
protections.