Cacus: The Fire-Breathing Thief of the Aventine
He stole Hercules’s cattle by dragging them backward into his cave to hide their tracks. It almost worked.
Creatures and Spirits
Creatures and Spirits covers the non-human inhabitants of the Roman imagination: the monsters, shades, and lesser spirits at the edges of daily life. Some, like the Cyclopes, reached Rome through Greek poetry; others, like the Lemures, belonged to genuinely Roman fears about the restless dead.
These figures rarely starred in grand myths. Instead they explained the unease of a dark house, the danger of wild places, and the thin membrane between the living and the dead.
Roman Mythology Creatures and Beings: A Complete Guide
Gods and heroes are only half the story. Roman mythology is crowded with restless dead, household guardians, sea monsters, and invisible powers that fill every dark corner.
Lemures: The Restless Spirits of the Roman Dead
The Romans held a festival in May specifically to drive the dead out of the house. Not to honor them — to expel them. The Lemures were the spirits you did not want lingering, and the Lemuria was what you did about it.