Cadmus

When Zeus abducted his daughter Europa, Agenor (Ἀγηνωρ) sent his sons to find her, with the order not to come back until Europa was returned to him (see Minoan Crete, for her myth). Agenor's favourite child was Europa. Agenor was quite besotted over his daughter, ready to banish his sons if it meant bringing his daughter back to him. His wife Telephassa (Τηλέφασσα or Argiope) was so angry at the order from her husband, that she accompanied her sons during their search for her daughter.

Phoenix (Φοινιξ) did not go very far from home. The land Phoenix settled in was named after him: Phoenicia. Cilix (Κίλιξ) settled in the land that became Cilicia, while Thasus stayed on the island that was named after him. Phineus (Φινεύς) migrated to Thrace. Cadmus also stayed in Thrace until his mother died.

Only Cadmus (Κάδμος) continued his search for his sister. Cadmus and his followers went on to Delphi, to seek help from the oracle in finding his sister. The Pythia (Πυθία, high priestess of Delphi) told him to instead seek a new home. He was told by the oracle to find a heifer and follow it until the cow laid down. He spotted a cow and followed it all way to southern Boeotia, where it laid down. There, Cadmus decided to build a city that he named after himself, Cadmeia.

Cadmus killed a dragon that guarded the spring of Dirce, which was sacred to the war god Ares. The goddess Athena told him to sow the dragon teeth into the earth. Armed men sprang out of the earth and fought one another until only five of them survived. These five men - Echion (Ἐχίων), Chthonius (Χθονίος), Hyperenor, Pelorus and Udaeüs or Udaeus - became known as Sparti (Σπαρτοί – "Sown-Men"). The Sparti were Cadmus' most important allies.

For killing the dragon, Cadmus was punished, where he had to serve Ares for eight years. After his time of service was up, the gods honoured Cadmus by arranging and attending his wedding with Harmonia (Ἁρμονία), daughter of Ares and Aphrodite. They received many gifts from the gods. Among the wedding presents given to the couple was a necklace that was cursed. The necklace of Harmonia brought disaster to its owners in later generations. (See Seven Against Thebes).

Cadmus ruled Thebes for many decades. Harmonia bore him Agave (Ἀγαυή), Autonoë (Autonoe), Ino (Ἰνώ), Semele (Σεμέλη), and one son, Polydorus (Πολύδωρος). Unfortunately, most of their children and grandchildren met with tragic ends.

Diodorus Siculus, a Greek Sicilian historian of the 1st century BC, credited Cadmus with bringing the Phoenician alphabet with him from Phoenicia to Greece. The Phoenician alphabet was adapted and transformed by the Greeks; but Diodorus' claim is an unsubstantiated fabrication.

Children of Cadmus

His grandson Actaeon (Ἀκταίων), son of Autonoë and the Thessalian Aristaeüs (Aristaeus), was killed when he was still a young man. Actaeon was a great hunter like his father (Aristaeüs) and his grandmother (Cyrene). One day, Actaeon saw Artemis when the goddess was bathing. I am uncertain whether Actaeon seeing the naked goddess was deliberate or an accident. Either way, Artemis punished Actaeon by turning him into a stag. His own hounds tore the young hunter to pieces.

Cadmus' other daughter Semele (Σεμέλη) was seduced by Zeus and became pregnant. The jealous goddess Hera tricked the girl into asking Zeus to appear to her in his real form. Since Zeus had given her any boon the princess could ask of him, he reluctantly agreed. Doing so as god of thunder, he appeared as lightning. Semele died, being burnt alive by the lightning. However, Zeus managed to save their unborn son, Dionysus, by sewing the baby into his thigh. When Dionysus was ready to be born, Zeus opened up his thigh to deliver Dionysus. Semele's sisters spread lies that her lover was mortal, and they would later be punished by Dionysus.

See the Wrath of Heaven, Semele, for more details about her death and the birth of Dionysus. See also Dionysus in the pantheon of Olympians, about the life of Dionysus.

Ino (Ἰνώ) became the second wife of Athamas, king of Orchomenus. Her jealously over her stepchildren (Phrixus and Helle) was such that she plotted to have them murdered. However, her plot failed and her stepchildren escaped. She and her husband tried to raise Dionysus by trying to disguise the infant as a girl. However, Hera saw through the deception. The goddess Hera punished Athamas and Ino by causing them to murder their own sons, during a brief spell of madness. Ino then tried to kill herself by throwing herself into the sea. (See Athamas in the Aeolids for more details about Athamas and Ino.)

Despite this tragedy, Ino was turned into a minor sea-goddess named Leucothea (Λευκοθέα). As Leucothea, she saved Odysseus, the hero of the Odyssey, after he left the island of Calypso. Ino was often referred to as the White Goddess. In Laconia, she had a sanctuary where she would answer a person's question in a dream. This was her form of the oracle.

The aged Cadmus abdicated in favour of his other grandson, Pentheus (Πενθεύς). Pentheus was son of the Sparti Echion and Agave.

During Pentheus' short reign, Dionysus became the god of wine and ecstasy. When Pentheus' divine cousin Dionysus came to Thebes and wanted to establish his centre of worship in the city, Pentheus not only refused, he also forbade any man or woman to participate in their rite.

Since Dionysus' jealous aunts had spread maligned rumours about his mother's pregnancy, Dionysus caused Pentheus' mother Agave and her sisters (Ino and Autonoë) to join the Bacchants in their rites. Pentheus imprisoned some of the Bacchants. When Pentheus went into the woods to spy on Dionysus' followers, Dionysus caused Pentheus' own mother and aunts to attack the young king. They tore the young king to pieces, thinking Pentheus was a wild beast, a lion or a wild boar (depending on the sources).

See the Wrath of Heaven for a more detailed account of the the confrontation of Pentheus and Dionysus.

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Apollodorus said that Cadmus and Harmonia left Thebes to their children or grandchildren, and went to Illyria to help the Encheleans against the Illyrians in a war. Cadmus was made king of the Illyrians, and they had another son named Illyrius. At the end of their lives, their bodies were transformed into snakes, but Zeus sent their souls to the Elysian Fields.

According to Ovid, it was the fate of Ino and her son that made Cadmus leave his kingdom with his wife (see Athamas, in the Aeolids). Cadmus and Harmonia were upset over the tragedy of their children and grandchildren. They went into self-exile to Illyria, and in their old age, they were transformed into snakes.