Cadmus

But I believe that Melampus learned the worship of Dionysus chiefly from Cadmus of Tyre and those who came with Cadmus from Phoenicia to the land now called Boeotia.

for Cadmus son of Agenor had put in at the place now called Thera during his search for Europa;

This would date from about the time of Laius the son of Labdacus, grandson of Polydorus and great-grandson of Cadmus.

Cadmus was a Phoenician, the inventor of letters for the Greeks, as Ephorus says;

and the Cadmean Semele bore him a shining son, having joined in love, Dionysus the bringer of much joy.

Cadmus, the father of Semele, comes to Thebes in the time of Lynceus and becomes the inventor of Greek letters;

Is not Ino, daughter of Cadmus, called Leucothea by the Greeks and held to be Matuta by ours?

It did not escape the Oeneidae that Semele was the daughter of Cadmus, and of her was born one whom it would be sacrilegious to name at this tomb, and by him Oeneus was begotten, who was called the founder of their race.

and of these Ares saved a scanty band, and their children’s children people the city of Cadmus.

and Creon became the father of this lady Megara, whom once all Cadmus’ race escorted with the glad music of lutes at her wedding, when the famous Heracles led her to my halls.

these had Cadmus at the stern holding a golden dragon at the beaks of the vessels, and earth-born Leitus was their admiral.

Cadmus destroyed it with a jagged stone, when he came there to draw lustral water;

O Sun-god, you who cut your path in heaven’s stars, mounted on a chariot inlaid with gold and whirling out your flame with swift horses, what an unfortunate beam you shed on Thebes, the day that Cadmus left Phoenicia’s realm beside the sea and reached this land!

Cadmus of Tyre came to this land, and at his feet a four-footed, untamed heifer threw itself down, fulfilling an oracle, where the god’s prophecy told him to make his home in the plains rich with wheat, and where the lovely waters of Dirce pour over the fields, the green and deep-seeded fields;

and Harmonia whom high-spirited Cadmus made his wife.

And Semele, daughter of Cadmus was joined with him in love and bore him a splendid son, joyous Dionysus,—a mortal woman an immortal son.

And Harmonia, the daughter of golden Aphrodite, bore to Cadmus Ino and Semele and fair-cheeked Agave and Autonoe whom long haired Aristaeus wedded, and Polydorus also in rich-crowned Thebes.

I am loud-crying Dionysus whom Cadmus' daughter Semele bare of union with Zeus.

and in consequence, we experienced a change so great that, although in former times any barbarians who were in misfortune presumed to be rulers over the Greek cities (for example, Danaus, an exile from Egypt, occupied Argos, Cadmus of Sidon became king of Thebes, the Carians colonized the islands, and Pelops, son of Tantalus, became master of all the Peloponnese), yet after that war our race expan …

For he conceived of his mission in terms so lofty that he was not satisfied with making up his army from all the men in private station whom he desired to have from each of the cities of Hellas, but even persuaded men of the rank of kings, who were accustomed to do in their own states whatsoever they pleased and to give orders to the world at large, to place themselves under his command, to follow …

And yet once there went from Thebes, Cadmus’ city, a hero short in stature but unflinching in spirit.

I shall give him to drink the pure water of Dirce, which the deep-waisted daughters of golden-robed Mnemosyne brought forth beside the fine-walled gates of Cadmus.

Since the Isthmus gave to the people of Cadmus six garlands from her games, the glory of triumph for my fatherland, where Alcmena bore her fearless son, before whom the bold hounds of Geryon once trembled.

Truly, the song of victory existed long ago, even before the quarrel arose between Adrastus and the race of Cadmus.

Peleus and Cadmus are counted among them, and Achilles who was brought there by his mother, when she had persuaded the heart of Zeus with her prayers—

But in time Cadmus’ three daughters, by their bitter suffering, took from him his share of joy;

yet they are said to have attained the highest prosperity of all mortal men, since they heard the Muses of the golden headbands singing on the mountain and in seven-gated Thebes, when Cadmus married ox-eyed Harmonia, and Peleus married the famous daughter of wise Nereus.

but how, Cebes, and by what argument can we find grace in the sight of Cadmus?

he lays waste to the house of Cadmus, but enriches Hades with groans and tears.

Let someone summon here Cadmus’ people, warning them that I will leave nothing untried.

My children, latest-born wards of old Cadmus, why do you sit before me like this with wreathed branches of suppliants, while the city reeks with incense, rings with prayers for health and cries of woe?