Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/291

 KADMUS AND HIS DAUGHTERS. 25U and they immediately began to assault each other until all were slain except five. Ares, indignant at this slaughter, was about to kill Kadmus ; but Zeus appeased him, condemning Kadmus to an expiatory servitude of eight years, after which he married Harmonia, the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite presenting to her the splendid necklace fabricated by the hand of Hephass- tos, which had been given by Zeus to Europa. 1 All the gods came to the Kadmeia, the citadel of Thebes, to present congrat- ulations and gifts at these nuptials, which seem to have been hardly less celebrated in tho mythical world than those of Peleus and Thetis. The issue of the marriage was one son, Polydorus, and four daughters, Autonoe, Ino, Semele and Agave. 2 From the five who alone survived of the warriors sprung from the dragon's teeth, arose five great families or gentes in Thebes ; the oldest and noblest of its inhabitants, coeval with the founda- tion of the town. They were called Sparti, and their name seems to have given rise, not only to the fable of the sowing of the teeth, but also to other etymological narratives. 3 All the four daughters of Kadmus are illustrious in fabulous history. Ino, wife of Athamas, the son of ./Eolus, has already been included among the legends of the -SColids. Semele became the mistress of Zeus, and inspired Here with jealousy. Mis- guided by the malicious suggestions of that goddess, she solicited Zeus to visit her with all the solemnity and terrors which sur- 1 Apollodor. iii. 4, 1-3. Pherekydes gave this account of the necklace, which seems to imply that Kadmus must have found his sister Europa. The narrative here given is from Hellanikus ; that of Pherekydes differed from it in some respects : compare Hellanik. Fragm. 8 and 9, and Pherekyd. Frag. 44. The resemblance of this story with that of Jason and JEetes (see above, chap. xiii. p. 237) will strike every one. It is curious to observe how the old logographer Pherekydes explained this analogy in his narrative ; he said that Athene had given half the dragon's teeth to Kadmus and half to ^Eetes (see Schol. Pindar. Isthm. vi. 13). 2 Hesiod, Theogon. 976. Leukothea, the sea-goddess, daughter of Kad mus, is mentioned in the Odyssey, v. 334 ; Diodor. iv. 2. 3 Eurip. Phceniss. 680, with the Scholia; Pherekydes, Fragm. 44 ; Andru- tion, ap. Schol. Pindar. Isthm. vi. 13. Dionysius (1) called the Sparti an e&vof BoiaTiaf (Schol. Phosniss. 1. c.). Even in the days of Plutarch, there were persons living who traced their descent to the Sparti of Thebes (Plutarch, Ser. Num. Vindict. p 563).