CADMUS, in Greek Legend, was the founder of the town of Thebes originally called Cadmeia, and according to the tradition was a son of Agenor, king of Phoenicia, whence he had proceeded to Greece in search of his sister Europa, but failing to find her had, in obedience to an oracle, settled at Thebes. He there founded a town over which he in time became king, received from the gods Harmonia, a daughter of Ares and Aphrodite, as his wife, by her had a family on whom fell heavy misfortunes, and finally retired with her to Illyria, where they both died in peace, and were transformed into snakes which watched the tomb while their spirits were translated to Elysium. At the marriage all the gods were present, and the muses sang. Harmonia received a dress (peplos) worked by Athena, and a necklace made by Hephaestus. Their offspring were Semele, Ino, Autonoë, Agave, and a son Polydorus. On his first settlement at Thebes, Cadmus had slain a dragon, which guarded a spring, and at the orders of Athena had sown its teeth in the ground, from which there sprang a race of fierce armed men (Spartoi). By throwing a stone among them Cadmus caused them to fall upon each other till only five survived, and they became the founders of the noblest families of Thebes. Cadmus, however, because of this bloodshed, had to do penance for a long year (i.e., eight years). Such is the legend. When Greek writers came to explain it they identified Cadmus as a Phoenician hero who had introduced into Greece the Phoenician writing, mining, and other arts or institutions of civilization. But his name is Greek rather than Phoenician, and like Cadmilus in Samothrace appears to mean “order,” and to indicate a person who has instituted order in a state. He may have adopted much from the early Phoenician ...