Caeneus

In mythic accounts Caeneus is born female as Caenis, daughter (in most accounts) of Elatus (variant tradition names Atrax). After Poseidon had sexual relations with Caenis, the god granted a wish; Caenis asked to be changed into a man (and, in later traditions, to be invulnerable), whereupon Poseidon transformed her into Caeneus. This divine gift sets Caeneus among the generation of heroic men active in episodes such as the Centauromachy and other pan-Hellenic adventures.

Literary and iconographic sources present Caeneus as an imposing, spear-bearing Lapith warrior and king. Homeric reference lists him among the 'mightiest' of earlier warriors, and archaic vase and relief imagery (e.g., the François Vase and Olympia reliefs) show Caeneus being driven partly into the earth while resisting Centaur assault; Hesiodic Shield tradition names 'the spear-bearing Lapiths around Caeneus their king.' Classical texts do not provide detailed corporeal description beyond heroic martial markers.

In the dominant literary tradition Poseidon grants Caeneus male form and exceptional invulnerability and strength; later mythographers describe Caeneus as stronger than other warriors and unhurt by Centaur weapons. Caeneus functions politically as a Lapith leader/king and appears among elite heroic rosters (Homeric list of 'mightiest,' later lists of Calydonian hunters and associated heroic companies). Variant scholiastic traditions attribute Caeneus's downfall to impious behavior—reports that he set up and ordered worship of his spear or treated it as a cult object—which is presented as a motive for divine anger and the ensuing violence carried out by the Centaurs. Sources differ on exact motives and on details of his final fate.