Cadmus and Thebes

CC 303 Intro to Classical Mythology - Fall 2009
Department of Classics, University of Texas at Austin, Prof. Lawrence Kim

Cadmus, Thebes, Phoenicia, Spartoi, Harmonia, Narcissus, Echo, Tiresias

THEBES: Main city of Boeotia (Cow-land)

1. CADMUS, son of Agenor (King of PHOENICIA)
   1. Sister = EUROPA (carried off by Zeus in bull-form to CRETE)
   • Cadmus and brothers search the world for Europa
   • Cadmus goes to the Delphic Oracle
   2. Cadmus told to follow a cow and found a city where it stops
      • Cadmus kills a Dragon there
      • Cadmus sows the Dragon's teeth
      • Armed men spring up (like in Jason myth)
      • Cadmus throws stone (or not (Ovid)); they fight each other
      • Five left = Spartoi "sown men" = ancestors of Thebans
   3. Cadmus marries HARMONIA (Harmony), daughter of ARES
   • Cadmus and Harmony's Children:
   • SEMELE, mother of DIONYSUS (burnt to a crisp by Zeus)
   • Agave, mother of PENTHEUS (kills son in Bacchic frenzy)
   • Ino, wife of Athamas, stepmother of PHRIXUS and HELLE (tried to kill them)
   • Autonöe, mother of ACTAEON (turned into stag by Artemis)
   4. Cadmus gives up the throne of Thebes
   • Cadmus and Harmonia turned into snakes
   5. Significant Points
   • Cadmus comes to Thebes from PHOENICIA, from the East
   • Cadmus said to have introduced the alphabet to Greece
   • But Spartoi are grown from Greek/Theban soil itself
2. TIRESIAS, 'Blind Seer of Thebes'
   • As a Youth, sees snakes mating and hits them with staff
   • Transformed into a woman!
   • Sees them again 7 years later, strikes them again
   • Back into male form!
   • Zeus v. Hera: who gets more pleasure from sex?
   • Tiresias: "Women", agreeing with Zeus
   • Hera blinds him
   • Zeus gives him the gift of prophecy
   • Prophets and Blindness
3. ECHO and NARCISSUS
   • Tiresias foretells the fate of Narcissus
   • "He will live a long life if he never knows himself"
   • N. becomes a beautiful, proud, aloof youth
   • Rejects all lovers, incl. the nymph Echo, who wastes away
   • Falls in love with his own reflection
   • Dies of love for himself, turned into flower
   • Hence the term: "Narcissism"

1. Two Followers of Cadmus Devoured by a Dragon Cornelis van Haarlem, 1588. The National Gallery, London.
2. Cadmus and the Dragon. Red-figure vase, c. 350-340 BCE. Musée du Louvre, Paris.
   
3. Narcissus. Roman wall painting, Pompeii.
4. Echo and Narcissus. J.W. Waterhouse, 1903. Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.
5. Echo and Narcissus. Nicolas Poussin, c. 1627-28. Musée du Louvre, Paris.
6. Narcissus. Caravaggio, c. 1598-99. Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica. Rome.
7. *The Metamorphosis of Narcissus. Salvador Dali, 1936-37. The Tate Gallery, London.