Caenis / Caeneus

     Caenis, a child of the Lapith Elatus, began life as a girl, grew into a renowned beauty, and ended life, according to Ovid (Met. 12.189ff.), transformed into a one-of-a-kind bird (avis unica). In between Caenis stands out as a mythological individual who asked Neptune to transform her into a male, this after she was raped by god and his offering her anything she might desire. Besides the change in gender, Caenis/Caeneus also received from the god as a gift the ability to withstand injuries from spear or sword. As a man he fathered Coronus. During the Lapithocentauromachy, still according to Ovid, Caeneus resisted the Centaurs’ most concerted assaults. They deforested all Pelion, so Ovid’s Nestor claims bombastically, and piled the whole mass upon the invulnerable Caeneus until his metamorphosis into the non-descript bird. Ovid alone tells this tale. Others tell that his arrogance invited the wrath of Zeus who sent the Centaurs to correct him.