A prince of divine blood, he was a brother of Europa whose life was dogged by dragons. First he killed one, which happened to be Ares’s special favorite. Oops. Then, following the advice of Athena, he got involved in the ridiculous enterprise of sowing dragon’s teeth. Everyone knows these turn into giants. Still it all ended well as the giants all killed each other, leaving five survivors who became the first Thebans.

Before settling into kingship, Cadmus thought it prudent to placate Ares, who was still very cross about the dragon-slaying incident. So he spent eight years as his servant. Or should that be serpent? Whoever wrote the job application might have got his wires crossed.

Cadmus obviously got into the God of War’s good books, as he ended up marrying his daughter Harmonia. She gave birth to all sorts of legendary people, including Agave, Ino and Semele, and it was a happy ever after thing from then on. Although not for their daughters. Cadmus himself spent a lot of his time inventing new letters of the alphabet, or rather watching while his scribes did it. The Cadmiean Alphabet is still in use today, although not by anyone we exchange emails with.

Cadmus and Harmonia are now enjoying life in the Elysian Fields for ever. In, as it happens, the form of serpents.

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Article last revised on September 06, 2018 by Rowan Allen.
Editors: Peter J. Allen, Chas Saunders

References: Coming soon.

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