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Cadmus

Cadmus or '''Kadmos'''Of uncertain etymology. It has been connected to Semitic ''qdm'' "the east" and Greek ''kekasmai'' (<*kekadmai) "to shine". (), in Greek mythology|Greek mythology, was the son of Agenor and the brother of Phoenix (son of Agenor)|Phoenix, Cilix and Europa (mythology)|Europa.A modern application of genealogy would make him the paternal grandfather of Dionysus, through his daughter with Harmonia, Semele, but no ancient Greek myth or cult was based on this connection. Cadmus founded the Greek city of Thebes (Greece)|Thebes, with its acropolis originally named ''Cadmeia'' in his honor. Most significantly he was generally accredited by Greeks like HerodotusHerodotus, ''Histories'', Book V, 58. with the introduction of the Phoenician alphabet, ''phoinikeia grammata'', "Phoenician letters" to the Greeks, who adopted it to form their History of the Greek alphabet|Greek alphabet. Herodotus, who gives this account, estimates that Cadmus lived sixteen hundred years before his time, or around 2000 BCE.Herodotus. ''Histories'', Book II, 2.145 Though Cadmus' role in the founding myth of Thebes sets him early in the Mycenaean age, History of the Greek alphabet|the alphabet arrived in Greece centuries afterwards. Thus the introduction of the alphabet in mainland Greece postdated the setting of the myth of Cadmus, which, inasmuch as it is the founding myth of Thebes, lay previous even to the Trojan War, in which Theban warriors were engaged. The Homeric picture of this Mycenaean age is agreed to be pre-literate, from internal evidence in ''Iliad''.The sole example of written letters is in Nestor's narrative concerning Bellerophon and the "Bellerophontic letter". This conclusion suggests that there would be a pre-literate stratum of the Cadmeia at Thebes, and archaeology has confirmed that there is. According to Walter Burkert, ''The Orientalizing Revolution'', literacy explodes within a few decades after 750 BCE: "The earliest Greek letters recognized to date originate in Naxos, Ischia, Athens, and Euboea, and appear around or a little before 750".Burkert, ''The Orientalizing Revolution'' 1993:26, noting the inscribed Dipylon jug at Athens, the Ischia inscription on the "cup of Nestor", a geometric period shard from Naxos and some Euboean material). According to Greek myth, Cadmus' descendants ruled at Thebes on-and-off for several generations, including the time of the Trojan War. For a discussion of the mythical kings of Thebes, see Theban kings in Greek mythology.

Wanderings

Samothrace

After his sister Europa had been carried off by Zeus from the shores of Phoenicia, Cadmus was sent out by his mother to find her, enjoined not to return without her. Unsuccessful in his search, he came to Samothrace, the island sacred to the "Great Gods"The ''Megaloi theoi'' of the Samothrace temple complex|Mysteries of Samothrace. and the Kabeiroi, whose mysteries would be celebrated also at Thebes, Greece|Thebes. At Samothrace, Cadmus was not journeying alone: he appeared with his "far-shining" mother TelephassaOr known by another lunar name, Argiope, "she of the white face" (Kerenyi 1959:27. in the company of his brother, who gave his name to the island of Thasos nearby. An identically-composed trio had other names at Samothrace, according to Diodorus Siculus:Diodorus Siculus, v.48; Clement of Alexandria, ''Proreptikos'' ii.13.3. Electra|Elektra and her two sons, Dardanos and Eetion or Iasion. There was a fourth figure, Elektra's daughter, Harmonia (Greek goddess)|Harmonia.Harmonia at Thebes was accounted the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite; all these figures appeared in the sculptures on the pediment of the Hellenistic main temple in the Sanctuary of the Great Gods at Samothrace, the ''Hieron''; the ancient sources on this family grouping were assembled by N. Lewis, ''Samothrace. I: The Ancient Literary Soiurces'' (New York) 1958:24-36. whom Cadmus took away as a bride, as Zeus had absconded with Europa.Kerenyi (1959) notes that Cadmus in some sense found another Europa at Samothrace, according to an obscure scholium on Euripides' ''Rhesus'' 29. The wedding was the first celebrated on earth to which the gods brought gifts, according to DiodorusDiodorus, v.49.1; when the gods attended the later wedding of Peleus and Thetis, the harmony was shattered by the Apple of Discord. and dined with Cadmus and his bride.The full range of references in Antiquity to this wedding is presented by Matia Rocchi, ''Kadmos e Harmonia: un matrimonio problemmatico'' (Rome: Bretschneider) 1989.

Founder of Thebes

He came in the course of his wanderings to Delphi, where he consulted the Pythia|oracle. He was ordered to give up his quest and follow a special cow, with a half moon on her flank, which would meet him, and to build a town on the spot where she should lie down exhausted. The cow was given to Cadmus by Pelagon, King of Phocis, and it guided him to Boeotia, where he founded the city of Thebes (Greece)|Thebes. Robert Graves (''The Greek Myths'') suggested that the cow was actually turned loose within a moderately confined space, and that where she lay down, a temple to the moon-goddess (Selene) was erected: "A cow's strategic and commercial sensibilities are not well developed," Graves remarked. Intending to sacrifice the cow to Athena, Cadmus sent some of his companions to the nearby Castalian Spring, for water. They were slain by the spring's guardian water-dragon (compare the Lernaean Hydra), which was in turn destroyed by Cadmus, the duty of a culture hero of the new order. By the instructions of Athena, he sowed the dragon's teeth (mythology)|dragon's teeth in the ground, from which there sprang a race of fierce armed men, called ''Spartes'' ("sown"). By throwing a stone among them, Cadmus caused them to fall upon one another until only five survived, who assisted him to build the Cadmeia or citadel of Thebes, and became the founders of the noblest families of that city. The dragon had been sacred to Ares, so the god made Cadmus to do penance for eight years by serving him. According to Theban tellings, it was at the expiration of this period that the gods gave him Harmonia (Greek goddess)|Harmonia as wife. At Thebes, Cadmus and Harmonia began a dynasty with a son Polydorus, and four daughters, Agave (mythology)|Agave, Autonoë, Ino (Greek mythology)|Ino and Semele. At the wedding, whether celebrated at Samothrace or at Thebes, all the gods were present; Harmonia received as bridal gifts a ''peplos'' worked by Athena and a necklace made by Hephaestus. This necklace, commonly referred to as the Necklace of Harmonia, brought misfortune to all who possessed it. Notwithstanding the divinely ordained nature of his marriage and his kingdom, Cadmus lived to regret both: his family was overtaken by grievous misfortunes, and his city by civil unrest. Cadmus finally abdicated in favor of his grandson Pentheus, and retired with Harmonia to Illyria, whose inhabitants proclaimed him their king and founded the city of Lychnidos and Bouthoe.Wilkes, J. J. ''The Illyrians'', 1992, ISBN 0631198075, p. 99. ''After this had come about as foretold, Cadmus and Harmonia ruled over them and founded the towns of Bouthoe (Budva) and Lychnidus (Ohrid).'' Nevertheless, Cadmus was deeply troubled by the ill-fortune which clung to him as a result of his having killed the sacred dragon, and one day he remarked that if the gods were so enamoured of the life of a serpent, he might as well wish that life for himself. Immediately he began to grow scales and change in form. Harmonia, seeing the transformation, thereupon begged the gods to share her husband's fate, and she did (Hyginus). In another telling of the story, the bodies of Cadmus and his wife were changed after their deaths; the serpents watched their tomb while their souls were translated to the fields. In Euripides' ''The Bacchae'', Cadmus is depicted as being turned into a dragon, or alternatively a serpent, after Dionysus overthrows Thebes.

Historical legacy

Al-Qadmūs, Tartus, (in Syria) is named after Cadmus.

Footnotes

References

Classical sources

- Hyginus. ''Fabulae'', 178.
- Pseudo-Apollodorus. ''Bibliotheke'', III, i, 1-v, 4;
- Ovid. ''Metamorphoses (poem)|Metamorphoses'', III, 1-137; IV, 563-603.

Secondary material

- Theoi Project
- Karl Kerenyi|Kerenyi, Karl. ''The Heroes of the Greeks'', 1959.
- R.B. Edwards. ''Kadmos, the Phoenician''. Amsterdam, 1979. *

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