Cadmus

Cadmus, i, m., = Κάδμος.

• Son of the Phoenician king Agenor, brother of Europa, husband of Harmonia, father of Polydorus, Ino, Semele, Autonoë, and Agave; founder of the Cadmea, the citadel of the Boeotian Thebes, Cic. Tusc. 1, 12, 28; id. N. D. 3. 19, 48; Ov. M. 3, 14 sq.; id. F. 1, 490; id. P. 4, 10, 55; the inventor of alphabetic writing, Plin. 7, 56, 57, § 192 sqq. (hence letters are called Cadmi filiolae atricolores, Aus. Ep. 29; and Cadmi nigellae filiae, id. ib. 21). He and his wife. Harmonia were at last changed into serpents, Ov. M. 4, 572 sq.; Hor. A. P. 187; cf. Hyg. Fab. 6; 148; 179; 274.—Hence, Cadmi soror, i.e. Europa, Ov. P. 4, 10, 55.—
• • B Derivv.
  • • 1 Cadmēus, a, um, adj., = Καδμεῖος, of or pertaining to Cadmus, Cadmean: Thebae, Prop. 1, 7, 1: juventus, i. e. Thebana, Theban, Stat. Th. 8, 601: Dirce (because in the neighborhood of Thebes), Luc. 3, 175: mater, i.e. Agave, the mother of Pentheus, Sen. Oedip. 1005: cistae, i. e. of Bacchus (because Bacchus was the grandson of Cadmus by Semele), id. Herc. Oet. 595: Tyros (because Cadmus came from Phoenicia), Prop. 3 (4), 13, 7.—Also Carthaginian: gens, stirps, manus = Carthaginiensis, Sil. 1, 6; 1, 106; 17, 582.—
    • • b Subst.: Cadmēa, ae, f. (sc. arx), the citadel of Thebes founded by Cadmus, Nep. Pelop. 1, 2; id. Epam. 10, 3.—
    • 2 Cad-mēĭus, a, um, adj., Cadmean: genitrix, i.e. Agave, Stat. Th. 4, 565: seges, i. e. the armed men that sprang from the dragon’s teeth sown by Cadmus, Val. Fl. 7, 282: heros, i.e. the Theban, Polynices, Stat. Th. 3, 366; so, Haemon, id. 8, 458 and 520.—
    • 3 Cadmēïs, ĭdis, f. adj. (acc. Cadmeidem and Cadmeida, Neue, Formenl. 1, 211; 1, 305; voc. Cadmei, ib. 1, 293), = Καδμηΐς, of Cadmus, Cadmean: domus, Ov. M. 4, 545: arx, id. ib. 6, 217: matres, i.e. Theban women, id. ib. 9, 304.—
    • • b Subst., a female descendant of Cadmus; so of Semele, Ov. M. 3, 287; of Ino, id. F. 6, 553.—Plur. Cadmeïdes, the daughters of Cadmus, Agave, Ino, and Autonoë, Sen. Herc. Fur. 758.—
• II An historian of Miletus, said to have been the earliest prose writer, Plin. 5, 29, 31, § 112; 7, 56, 57, § 205.—
• III A bloodthirsty executioner in the time of Horace, Hor. S. 1, 6, 39; Schol. Crucq.—
• IV A mountain in Caria, Plin. 5, 29, 31, § 118.

Cadmus, ī, m. (Κάδμος), I) Sohn des phönizischen Königs Agenor, Gemahl der Harmonia, Vater des Polydorus, der Semele, Agave, Ino u. Autonoë. Er kam, um seine von Zeus nach Kreta entführte Schwester Europa zu suchen, nach Böotien, gründete dort Cadmea, die Burg des spätern böotischen Thebens (Ov. met. 1, 15 sq.; fast. 1, 490), brachte ein Alphabet von 16 Buchstaben mit nach Griechenland (Plin. 7, 192), erfand das Schmelzen des Erzes (Plin. 7, 197. Hyg. fab. 274) u. wurde zuletzt samt seiner Gattin Harmonia in Drachen verwandelt, Ov. met. 4, 463 sqq. Hor. de art. poët. 187; vgl. Hyg. fab. 178 sq. – dah. Cadmi soror, Europa (als Weltteil), Ov. ex Pont. 4, 10, 55: Cadmi nigellae filiae od. filiolae atricolores, von den Buchstaben, Auson. ep. 4, 74 u. 7, 52. – Dav. abgel.: A) Cadmēis, idos, Akk. ida, f. (Καδμηΐς), zu Kadmus gehörig, kadmëisch, poet. = thebanisch, arx, Ov.: matres, Ov. – subst., eine Kadmëide (= Tochter des Kadmus), wie Semele u. Ino, Acc. fr. u. Ov.: u. Plur. Cadmēides, Agave, Ino u. Autonoë, Sen. poët. – B) Cadmēius, a, um (Καδμήϊος), kadmëisch, genetrix, Agave, Stat.: seges, die von Kadmus gesäten Drachenzähne, Val. Flacc.: heros, der Thebaner Polyneikes, Stat. – C) Cadmēus, a, um (Καδμεῖος), zu Kadmus gehörig, kadmëisch, poet. = thebanisch, Thebae, Prop.: cistae, bacchische (weil Bacchus Enkel des Kadmus von der Semele), Sen. poët.: Tyros (weil Kadmus aus Phönizien), Prop.: dah. gens, stirps, manus, karthagisch, Sil. – subst., Cadmēa, ae, f. (sc. arx), die Burg in Theben (von Kadmus gegründet), Nep. – D) Cadmogena, ae, f., von Kadmus gezeugt, Semela, *Acc. tr. 642. – II) aus Milet, Logograph u. einer der ersten Prosaisten, kurz vor den Perserkriegen, Plin. 7, 205. – III) ein grausamer Henker zur Zeit des Horaz, Hor. sat. 1, 6, 39.

Cadmus, (12) ī, m. (Κάδμος), ¶ 1 fils dʼAgénor, frère dʼEurope, fondateur de la Cadmée : Cic. Tusc. 1, 28 ; Ov. M. 1, 15 ; F. 1, 490 ¶ 2 nom dʼun bourreau à Rome : Hor. S. 1, 6, 39 ¶ 3 Milésien qui le premier a écrit lʼhistoire en prose : Plin. 5, 112 ¶ 4 montagne de Phrygie : Plin. 5, 118.

Cadmus

(Κάδμος), a son of Agenor and Telephassa, and brother of Europa, Phoenix, and Cilix. When Europa was carried off by Zeus to Crete, Agenor sent out his sons in search of their sister, enjoining them not to return without her. Telephassa accompanied her sons. All researches being fruitless, Cadmus and Telephassa settled in Thrace. Here Telephassa died, and Cadmus, after burying her, went to Delphi to consult the oracle respecting his sister. The god commanded him to abstain from further seeking, and to follow a cow of a certain kind, and to build a town on the spot where the cow should sink down with fatigue. (Schol. ad Eur. Phoen. 638, ad Aristoph. Ran. 1256; Paus. 9.12.1.) Cadmus found the cow described by the oracle in Phocis among the herds of Pelagon, and followed her into Boeotia, where she sank down on the spot on which Cadmus built Thebes, with the acropolis, Cadmea. As he intended to sacrifice the cow here to Athena, he sent some persons to the neighbouring well of Ares to fetch water. This well was guarded by a dragon, a son of Ares, who killed the men sent by Cadmus. Hereupon, Cadmus slew the dragon, and, on the advice of Athena, sowed the teeth of the monster, out of which armed men grew up, who slew each other, with the exception of five, Echion, Udaeus, Chthonius, Hyperenor, and Pelor, who, according to the Theban legend, were the ancestors of the Thebans. Cadmus was punished for having slain the dragon by being obliged to serve for a certain period of time, some say one year, others eight years. After this Athena assigned to him the government of Thebes, and Zeus gave him Harmonia for his wife. The marriage solemnity was honoured by the presence of all the Olympian gods in the Cadmea. Cadmus gave to Harmonia the famous πέπλος and necklace which he had received from Hephaestus or from Europa, and became by her the father of Autonoe, Ino, Semele, Agave, and Polydorus. Subsequently Cadmus and Harmonia quitted Thebes, and went to the Cenchelians This people was at war with the Illyrians, and had received an oracle which promised them victory if they took Cadmus as their commander. The Cenchelians accordingly made Cadmus their king, and conquered the enemy. After this, Cadmus had another son, whom he called Illyrius. In the end, Cadmus and Harmonia were changed into dragons, and were removed by Zeus to Elysium.

This is the account given by Apollodorus (3.1.1, &c.), which, with the exception of some particulars, agrees with the stories in Hyginus (Hyg. Fab. 178)and Pausanias (9.5.1, 10.1, 12.1,&c.). There are, however, many points in the story of Cadmus in which the various traditions present considerable differences. His native country is commonly stated to have been Phoenicia, as in Apollodorus (comp. Diod. 4.2; Strab. vii. p.321, ix. p. 401); but he is sometimes called a Tyrian (Hdt. 2.49; Eur. Phoen. 639), and sometimes a Sidonian. (Eur. Ba. 171; Ov. Met. 4.571.) Others regarded Cadmus as a native of Thebes in Egypt (Diod. 1.23; Paus. 9.12.2), and his parentage is modified accordingly; for he is also called a son of Antiope, the daughter of Belus, or of Argiope, the daughter of Neilus. (Schol. ad Eurip. Phoen. 5, with Valck. note; Hyg. Fab. 6, 178, 179.) He is said to have introduced into Greece from Phoenicia or Egypt an alphabet of sixteen letters (Hdt. 5.58, &c.; Diod. 3.67, 5.57; Plin. Nat. 7.56; Hyg. Fab. 277), and to have been the first who worked the mines of mount Pangaeon in Thrace. The teeth of the dragon whom Cadmus slew were sown, according to some accounts, by Athena herself; and the spot where this was done was shewn, in aftertimes, in the neighbourhood of Thebes. (Schol. ad Eurip. Phoen. 670; Paus. 9.10.1.) Half of the teeth were given by Athena to Aeetes, king of Colchis. (Apollon. 3.1183; Apollod. 1.9.23; Serv. ad Virg. Georg. 2.141.) The account of his quitting Thebes also was not the same in all traditions; for some related, that he was expelled by Amphion and Zethus, or by Dionysus. (Syncell. p. 296, ed. Dindorf.) A tradition of Brasiae stated, that Cadmus, after discovering the birth of Dionysus by his daughter Semele, shut up the mother and her child in a chest, and threw them into the sea. (Paus. 3.24.3.) According to the opinion of Herodotus (2.49), however, Melampus learned and received the worship of Dionysus from Cadmus, and other traditions too represent Cadmus as worshipping Dionysus. (e.g. Eur. Ba. 181.) According to Euripides, Cadmus resigned the government of Thebes to his grandson, Pentheus; and after the death of the latter, Cadmus went to Illyria, where he built Buthoe (Bacch. 43, 1331, &c.), in the government of which he was succeeded by his son Illyrius or Polydorus.

The whole story of Cadmus, with its manifold poetical embellislinients, seems to suggest the immigration of a Phoenician or Egyptian colony into Greece, by means of which civilisation (the alphabet, art of mining, and the worship of Dionysus) came into the country. But the opinion formed on this point must depend upon the view we take of the early influence of Phoenicia and Egypt in general upon the early civilisation of Greece. While Buttmann and Creuzer admit such an influence, C. O. Muller denies it altogether, and regards Cadmus as a Pelasgian divinity. Cadmus was worshipped in various parts of Greece, and at Sparta he had a heroum. (Paus. 3.15.6; comp. Buttmann, Mytholog. ii. p. 171; Müller, Orchom. p. 113, &c.) [L.S]

Cadmus

(Κάδμος), the son of Scythes, a man renowned for his integrity, was sent by Gelon to Delphi, in B. C. 480, with great treasures, to await the issue of the battle between the Greeks and Persians, and with orders to give them to the Persians if the latter conquered, but to bring them back to Sicily if the Greeks prevailed. After tho defeat of Xerxes, Cadmus returned to Sicily with the treasures, though he might easily have appropriated them to his own use. (Hdt. 7.163, 164.) Herodotus calls Cadmus a Coan, and states further, that he received the tyranny of Cos from his father, but gave the state its liberty of his own accord, merely from a sense of justice; and that after this he went over to Sicily and dwelt along with the Samians at Zancle, afterwards called Messene. Müller (Dor. 1.8.4, note q.) thinks that this Cadmus was the son of the Scythes, tyrant of Zancle, who was driven out by the Samians (B. C. 497), and who fled to the court of Persia, where he died. (Hdt. 6.23.) In reply to the objection, that Herodotus speaks of Cadmus having inherited the tyranny from his father, but of Scythes having died in Persia, Müller remarks that the government of Cos was probably given to his father by the Persians, but that he notwithstanding continued to reside in Persia, as we know was the case with Histiaeus. If this conjecture is correct, Cadmus probably resigned the tyranny of Cos through desire of returning to his native town, Zancle. He was accompanied to Sicily by the poet Epicharmus. (Suidas, s. v. Ἐπίχαρμος.)

Cadmus

(Κάδμος).

1. Of Miletus, a son of Pandion, and in all probability the earliest Greek historian or logographer.

He lived, according to the vague statement of Josephus (c. Apion. 1.2; comp. Clem. Al. Strom. vi. p. 267), very shortly before the Persian invasion of Greece; and Suidas makes the singular statement, that Cadmus was only a little younger than the mythical poet Orpheus, which arises from the thorough confusion of the mythical Cadmus of Phoenicia and the historian Cadmus. But there is every probability that Cadmus lived about B. C. 540. Strabo (i. p.18) places Cadmus first among the three authors whom he calls the earliest prose writers among the Greeks: viz. Cadmus, Pherecydes, and Hecataeus; and from this circumstance we may infer, that Cadmus was the most ancient of the three--an inference which is also confirmed by the statement of Pliny (Plin. Nat. 5.31), who calls Cadmus the first that ever wrote (Greek) prose. When, therefore, in another passage (7.56) Pliny calls Pherecydes the most ancient prose writer, and Cadmus of Miletus simply the earliest historian, we have probably to regard this as one of those numerous inconsistencies into which Pliny fell by following different authorities at different times, and forgetting what he had said on former occasions. All, therefore, we can infer from his contradicting himself in this case is, that there were some ancient authorities who made Pherecydes the earliest Greek prose writer, and not Cadmus; but that the latter was the earliest Greek historian, seems to be an undisputed fact. Works Κτίσις Μιλήτου καὶ τῆς ὅλης Ἰωνίας

Cadmus wrote a work on the foundation of Miletus and the earliest history of Ionia generally, in four books (Κτίσις Μιλήτου καὶ τῆς ὅλης Ἰωνίας). This work appears to have been lost at a very early period, for Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Jud. de Thuc. 23) expressly mentions, that the work known in his time under the name of Cadmus was considered a forgery. Confusion with Cadmus of Miletus

When Suidas and others (Bekker's Anecd. p. 781), call Cadmus of Miletus the inventor of the alphabet, this statement must be regarded as the result of a confusion between the mythical Cadmus, who emigrated from Phoenicia into Greece; and Suidas is, in fact, obviously guilty of this confusion, since he says, that Cadmus of Miletus introduced into Greece the alphabet which the Phoenicians had invented. Further Information

Comp. Clinton, Fast. Hell. ii. p. 454, 3rd edition.

Cadmus

2. Of Miletus, the Younger, is mentioned only by Suidas, according to whom he was a son of Archelaus, and a Greek historian, concerning whose time nothing is said. Suidas ascribes to him two works, one on the history of Attica, in sixteen books, and the second on the deliverance from the sufferings of love, in fourteen books. [L.S]

CADMUS

CADMUS (Κάδμος), a mountain of Phrygia Magna (Strab. p. 578), which the Turks call Baba Dagh: the sides are well wooded. A river Cadmus flowed from the mountain, probably the Gieuk Bonar, which flows into the Lycus, a tributary of the Maeander. (Hamilton, Researches, &c., vol. 1. p. 513.) The range of Cadmus forms the southern boundary of the basin of the Maeander in these parts. Pliny's remark about it (5.29) does not help us. Ptolemy (Ptol. 5.2) puts it in the latitude of Mycale, which is tolerably correct.

[G.L]

Cadmus

(Κάδμος). (1) The son of Agenor, king of Phoenicia, and of Telephassa. His sister Europa being carried off by Zeus, Cadmus, with his brothers Phoenix and Cilix, was sent out with the command to look for her, and not to return without her. In the course of his wanderings he came to Thrace. Here his mother, who had accompanied him so far, breathed her last; and Cadmus applied for counsel to the Delphic oracle. He was advised not to seek his sister any more, but to follow a cow which would meet him, and found a city on the spot where she should lie down. The cow met him in Phocis, and led him into Boeotia. He was intending to sacrifice the cow, and had sent his companions to a neighbouring spring to bring the necessary water, when they were all slain by a serpent, the offspring of Ares and the Erinys Tisiphoné, that guarded the spring. After a severe struggle, Cadmus destroyed the dragon, and at the command of Athené sowed its teeth over the neighbouring ground. A host of armed men sprang up, who immediately fought and slew each other, all except five. The survivors, who were called Spartoi, “sown,” helped Cadmus to build the Cadmea, or the stronghold of what was afterwards Thebes, which bore his name. They were the ancestors of the Theban aristocracy; and one of them, Echion, “the serpent's son,” became the husband of Cadmus's daughter, Agavé. Cadmus did atonement to Ares for eight years for the slaughter of the dragon. Then Zeus gave him to wife Harmonia, the daughter of Ares and Aphrodité, who bore him a son, Polydorus, and four daughters, Autonoé, Ino, Agavé, and Semelé. (See Harmonia; Semelé.) Crushed by the terrible doom which weighed upon his home, he afterwards sought retirement among the Euchelii in Illyria, a country which he named after his son Illyrius, who was born there. He resigned the kingdom to Illyrius; and then he and his wife Harmonia were changed into serpents, and carried by Zeus to Elysium.

The ancient tradition was that Cadmus brought sixteen letters from Phoenicia to Greece, to which Palamedes added subsequently four more, θ, ξ, φ, χ, and Simonides, at a still later period, four others, ζ, η, ψ, ω. The traditional alphabet of Cadmus is supposed to have been the following: Α, Β, Γ, Δ, Ε, Φ, Ι, Κ, Λ, Μ, Ν, Ο, Π, Ρ, Σ, Τ, and the names were, Ἄλφα, Βῆτα, Γάμμα, Δέλτα, Εἶ, Φαῦ, Ἰῶτα, Κάππα, Λάμβδα, Μῦ, Νῦ, Οῦ, Πῖ, Ῥῶ, Ζίγμα, Ταῦ. The explanation which has just been given to the myth of Cadmus, and its connection with the Pelasgi, have an important bearing on the question relative to the existence of an early Pelasgic alphabet in Greece. See Alphabet; Pelasgi.

(2) A native of Miletus, who flourished about B.C. 520. Pliny (Pliny H. N. vii. 56) calls him the most ancient of the logographi. In another passage he makes him to have been the first prosewriter, though elsewhere he attributes this to Pherecydes. According to a remark of Isocrates (in his discourse Περὶ Ἀντιδόσεως), Cadmus was the first that bore the title of σοφιστής, by which appellation was then meant an eloquent man. He wrote on the antiquities of his native city. His work was abridged by Bion of Proconnesus. See Logographi.

Cadmus Cadmus, a Coan

• son of Scythes; an emissary from Gelon of Sicily: Hdt. 7.163

Cadmus(2), son of Agenor

• Paus. 3.15.8
• of Phoenician or Egyptian origin: Paus. 9.12.2
• of Tyre, in Boeotia: Hdt. 2.49, Apollod. 3.1.1
• chronology (cp. Cadmeans): Hdt. 2.145
• settles with his mother in Thrace: Apollod. 3.1.1
• hospitably received by the Thracians: Apollod. 3.3.1
• leaves Membliarus to govern Calliste (Thera): Paus. 3.1.8
• oracle given him at Delphi: Paus. 9.26.3ff.
• in obedience to an oracle follows a cow and founds Thebes: Apollod. 3.3.1, Apollod. 3.4.1
• guided by cow: Paus. 9.12.1ff., Paus. 9.19.4
• kills the dragon of the spring and sows its teeth: Paus. 9.10.1, Apollod. 3.4.1
• serves Ares as an atonement: Apollod. 3.4.2
• with Phoenician army defeats Hyantians and Aonians: Paus. 9.5.1
• founds Cadmea: Paus. 9.5.2
• marries daughter of Ares and Aphrodite: Paus. 9.5.2
• marries Harmonia: Apollod. 3.4.2
• his children: Apollod. 3.4.2, Apollod. 3.4.3
• succeeded by Pentheus on the throne of Thebes: Apollod. 3.5.2
• puts Semele and infant Dionysus in chest and throws them into sea: Paus. 3.24.3
• sets up image of Athena Onga: Paus. 9.12.2
• goes to dwell among Encheleans in Illyria: Paus. 9.5.3
• goes with Harmonia to the Encheleans, where they turn into serpents: Apollod. 3.5.4
• sent to Elysian Fields: Apollod. 3.5.4
• father of Illyrius: Apollod. 3.5.4
• his house: Paus. 9.12.3, Paus. 9.16.5
• his shrine: Paus. 3.15.8
• log fallen from heaven called Dionysus Cadmus: Paus. 9.12.4