Cacus

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In the seventh ditch of Hell, among the thieves, Dante encounters a centaur separated from the group seen in Canto XII; Virgil identifies him by the name Cacus. The notes to the canto describe him as the monstrous son of Vulcan, breathing his father's flames from his mouth, a figure from the myth of Hercules: half man and half beast, he lived in a cave on the Aventine where he carried out his slaughter. Cacus is famous for having cunningly stolen from Hercules four bulls and four heifers of the herd of Geryon that the hero had led from Spain; Hercules, upon discovering the theft, killed him by strangling him with the grip of his arms. The account derives from Virgil's Aeneid, Dante's principal source. Within the economy of the canto, Cacus personifies the fraudulence characteristic of the ditch of thieves. His appearance prefigures the monstrous metamorphoses that characterize the rest of the canto, during which Dante and Virgil remain silent.