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Cadmus

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Cadmus

In Greek legend, the son of Phoenician king Agenor of Tyre, and brother of Europa, who was abducted by Zeus. Cadmus sought to retrieve her, but was advised by the Delphic oracle to follow a heifer with a moon-shaped mark and build a city where she rested. He founded Thebes and its acropolis, the Cadmeia. At Athena's bidding, Cadmus killed the sacred dragon guarding the spring of Ares, god of war, and sowed its teeth. Armed warriors, the sparti ‘sown men’, sprang up and fought together until five remained, the legendary ancestors of the Theban aristocracy.

Athena appointed Cadmus king of Thebes, and Zeus gave him Harmonia, daughter of Ares and Aphrodite, goddess of love. She bore him two sons, Polydorus and Illyrius, and four daughters Autonoe, Ino, Semele, and Agave. After death, Cadmus and Harmonia were transformed into serpents and received in the Islands of the Blessed.

Cadmus was credited with the introduction of the Phoenician 16-letter alphabet into Greece. The story of his descendants is sometimes referred to as the Theban legend.



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? Mentioned in ? References in classic literature
 
Seated on the grass, the child was almost hidden under an abundance of buds and blossoms, whence her rosy face peeped merrily out, and, as Cadmus said, was the prettiest of all the flowers.
Tanglewood Tales by Hawthorne, Nathaniel View in context
When he was in this plight, Ino daughter of Cadmus, also called Leucothea, saw him.
The Odyssey by Homer View in context
Grim war and dread battle destroyed a part of them, some in the land of Cadmus at seven- gated Thebe when they fought for the flocks of Oedipus, and some, when it had brought them in ships over the great sea gulf to Troy for rich-haired Helen's sake: there death's end enshrouded a part of them.
Collection Of Hesiod, Homer and Homerica by Homer View in context
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