Armed with a huge flinty rock, he breaks open
the entrance of the cavern, and confronts the demon within,
who vomits forth flames at him and roars like the thunder in
the storm-cloud. After a short combat, his hideous body falls
at the feet of the invincible hero, who erects on the spot an
altar to Jupiter Inventor, in commemoration of the recovery of
his cattle. Ancient Rome teemed with reminiscences of this
event, which Livy regarded as first in the long series of the
exploits of his countrymen. The place where Hercules pastured
his oxen was known long after as the Forum Boarium; near it
the Porta Trigemina preserved the recollection of the
monster's triple head; and in the time of Diodorus Siculus
sight-seers were shown the cavern of Cacus on the slope of the
Aventine. Every tenth day the earlier generations of Romans
celebrated the victory with solemn sacrifices at the Ara
Maxima; and on days of triumph the fortunate general deposited
there a tithe of his booty, to be distributed among the
citizens.
In this famous myth, however, the god Hercules did not
originally figure. The Latin Hercules was an essentially
peaceful and domestic deity, watching over households and
enclosures, and nearly akin to Terminus and the Penates. He
does not appear to have been a solar divinity at all.
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