Cadmus

Cadmus was the founder and first king of Thebes in Greek mythology. He was the son of King Agenor and Queen Telephassa of the Phoenician city of Tyre, and brother of Phoenix, Cilix and Europa. He killed the dragon of the spring of Ares, sowed its teeth, and married Harmonia, and Herodotus says that the Phoenicians who came with him brought the alphabet to Greece.

Family and the Search for Europa

According to Apollodorus, Agenor went to Phoenicia, married Telephassa, and had a daughter, Europa, and three sons, Cadmus, Phoenix and Cilix (Library 3.1.1). Hyginus gives their mother as Argiope instead (Fabulae 178). When Zeus carried Europa off, Agenor sent his sons to find her and forbade them to return without her (Hyginus, Fabulae 178). Their mother Telephassa went with them, and so did Thasus, a son of Poseidon or, according to Pherecydes, of Cilix, who later settled on Thasos (Apollodorus, Library 3.1.1). Cadmus wandered abroad; Apollodorus says that his mother Telephassa died on the way, that he buried her, and that after being received hospitably by the Thracians he went to Delphi to ask about Europa (Library 3.4.1). In another version, Diodorus says that Cadmus came to Samothrace during his search, was initiated into the mysteries there and married Harmonia, the sister of Iasion (Diodorus 5.48.5).

The Oracle and the Founding of Thebes

The god at Delphi told him not to trouble about Europa, but to follow a cow and found a city wherever she lay down from weariness (Apollodorus, Library 3.4.1). Cadmus took the cow from the herds of Pelagon and followed her through Phocis and Boeotia until she sank down on the site of Thebes. Pausanias says that she had a white mark like the orb of a full moon on each of her flanks (9.12.1); Hyginus says only that she bore the sign of the moon on her side (Fabulae 178). So the detail of a “half-moon” is a variant, not part of every version. Euripides also has the heifer fall at Cadmus’ feet in fulfilment of an oracle (Phoenician Women 638ff.).

The Dragon and the Spartoi

Cadmus wanted to sacrifice the cow to Athena and sent his companions to fetch water from the spring of Ares. A dragon, which some said was the offspring of Ares, guarded the spring and killed most of them. In his anger Cadmus killed the dragon, and on the advice of Athena he sowed its teeth (Apollodorus, Library 3.4.1). Hyginus says that he killed it with a stone and that Athena showed him how to sow the teeth (Fabulae 178). Armed men called Sparti (“sown men”) rose from the ground and killed each other, some in a chance brawl and some in ignorance; Apollodorus adds that, according to Pherecydes, Cadmus threw stones among them so that they fought each other. Five survived: Echion, Udaeus, Chthonius, Hyperenor and Pelorus (Library 3.4.1; Ovid also says that five survived, Metamorphoses 3.126–130). These men helped Cadmus build Thebes.

Service to Ares and Marriage to Harmonia

To atone for the killing, Cadmus served Ares for an “eternal year”, which Apollodorus says was equal to eight years of ordinary reckoning. Afterwards Athena obtained the kingdom for him and Zeus gave him Harmonia, the daughter of Aphrodite and Ares, as his wife. All the gods left the sky and feasted in the Cadmea, the citadel of Thebes, and celebrated the marriage with hymns (Apollodorus, Library 3.4.2). Pausanias reports that the Thebans placed the house of Cadmus on their citadel, showed the ruins of Harmonia’s bridal chamber, and the spot where the Muses were said to have sung at her wedding (9.12.3). Cadmus gave Harmonia a robe and a necklace made by Hephaestus (Library 3.4.2); the Necklace of Harmonia later brought disaster to those who owned it.

Children of Cadmus

Cadmus and Harmonia had four daughters, Ino, Semele, Agave and Autonoe, and a son, Polydorus (Hesiod, Theogony 975–978; Apollodorus, Library 3.4.2). Autonoe married Aristaeus (Theogony 977), and Semele bore Dionysus to Zeus (Euripides, Bacchae 1–3). A last son, Illyrius, was born to him later in Illyria (Apollodorus, Library 3.5.4). Euripides’ Bacchae shows the old Cadmus, with the seer Teiresias, taking up the worship of his grandson Dionysus (Bacchae 170ff.).

Cadmus and the Alphabet

Herodotus writes that the Phoenicians who came with Cadmus to Boeotia brought many kinds of learning to Greece, among them the alphabet, which he thought had been unknown to the Greeks before, and that the Greeks later changed the sounds and shapes of the letters (Herodotus 5.58–59).

The End of Cadmus and Harmonia

Apollodorus says that Cadmus and Harmonia left Thebes and went to the Encheleans, who were being attacked by the Illyrians; an oracle declared that the Encheleans would win if they had Cadmus and Harmonia as leaders. They did win, and Cadmus reigned over the Illyrians. Afterwards he and Harmonia were turned into serpents and Zeus sent them to the Elysian Fields (Library 3.5.4). In Euripides’ Bacchae, Dionysus foretells that Cadmus will become a dragon and Harmonia a snake, that they will lead a barbarian host, and that Ares will rescue them and settle them in the land of the blessed (Bacchae 1330–1339). In Ovid, Cadmus, worn down by his misfortunes, wonders aloud whether the serpent he killed was sacred to a god, and prays that, if the gods are avenging it, he too may be stretched out as a serpent; his wish is granted at once (Metamorphoses 4.563–603). Harmonia then asks for the same fate. The sources therefore disagree on whether the change was a punishment, a prophecy or a reward.

Cadmus Sources

Hesiod, Theogony 975–978; Euripides, Bacchae 1–3, 170ff., 1330–1339, and Phoenician Women 638ff.; Herodotus 5.58–59; Apollodorus, Library 3.1.1, 3.4.1–2, 3.5.4; Pausanias 9.12.1, 9.12.3; Diodorus 5.48.5; Hyginus, Fabulae 178; Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.126–130, 4.563–603.

See Also: Europa, Zeus, Harmonia, Necklace of Harmonia, Ares, Athena, Spartoi, Semele, Dionysus