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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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