BOOK II.
given by Aurelius Victor as that of the slayer of Cacus,* must in
M. Bre'al's judgment be referred to the root cri, or kri, which has
furnished to Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin a large number of words
denoting the ideas of creation and power. M. Br^al cites from
Festus the word cerus as an epithet of Janus,^ and connects with it
the Greek Kronos and the Keres, who have power over the life
and death of men.' If then Caranus, or Garanus, is the maker,
Recaranus must be the god who makes again, or who, like Dahana,
renders all things young ; and thus Recaranus would denote the
Re-creator, and so the Recuperator or recoverer of the cattle stolen
by Cacus, Geryon, or Vritra. When, however, the Roman, becoming
acquainted with Greek myths, found the word Alexikakos among
the epithets of Herakles, he naturally came to regard Recaranus as
only another name for that hero. But the quantity of the name
Cacus leaves no room for this identification. The first syllable is
long, and the word, given by Diodoros under the form Kakios, and
reappearing in the Prsenestine Cseculus, leads M. Breal to the
conclusion that the true Latin form was Cascius, as Saeturnus answers
to Saturnus. What then is C^ecius? The idea of the being who
bears this name is clearly that of the Sanskrit Vritra, the being who
steals the beautiful clouds and blots out the light from the sky. Such
is Paris ; such also is Typhon ; and the latter word suggests to
M. Breal a comparison of Cacus with Caecus, the blind or eyeless
being.* But in a proverb cited by Aulus Gellius from Aristotle,
a being of this name is mentioned as possessing the power of drawing
the clouds towards him ;^ and thus we have in M. Breal's judgment
ing fertility and wealth, as in "semen : " and Herculus himself is necessarily in- cluded in the number of the Semones, along with Ceres, Pales, and Flora. ' Ori^. Gen. Ko»i.-i. "Recaranus quidam, Grscse originis, ingentis cor- poris et magnarum virium pastor. . . . Hercules appellatus." That Victor should look on Recaranus as strictly a Greek word is not surprising ; but as it does not occur in any Greek myths, the evidence becomes conclusive that he has here preserved the genuine Roman tra- dition. ^ " Duonus cerus es, duonus lanus." The name is found on a cup preserved in the Gregorian museum at Rome and inscribed " Ceri Poculom." ' Kj)p€j Oavaroio. The words Kvpios and Koipavos have passed into the notion of mastery from the obvious fact that he who has made a thing must have power over it. So Kpaivew is to decree, because an effectual command can be given only by him who has a constraining authority, i.e. who can make others do his bidding.
- If this can be established (and the
affinity of Cacus, C;}cius, Kakios, and the Greek KaiKias seems to leave no room for doubt), the word Cacus is at once accounted for. Ckcus is one of many words in which the negative is expressed by the particle /ta denoting the number i, which Bopp discovers in the Gothic haihs = crecus, blind, hanfs, one-handed, halts, lame, halbs, half. Crecus, then, is made up of this pri- vative particle, and iha or aiha, auge, the eye. The second compound of halts is found in the English phrase " lithe of limb." Cf. Kokalos and Codes, pp. 328, 329 ; and nrlebs.
- Ka.K icp' avrhv '(K<tiv, oir & KatKtai
ve(pos- a proverb applied to a man who is his own enemy. — Breal, td. Ill; Maury, Croyances, &.C., lyj.
