Cadmus

Family: Theban · Role: king · First appears: Book 1 · Chapter 44

In Book 3, Chapter 24, at Brasiæ, Cadmus spirited Semele and her son Dionysus away in a chest. By Book 9, Chapter 5, he had invaded Thebes with his Phœnician army, defeated the Hyantes and established Cadmea, while allowing the Aones to remain and mix with the newcomers. The Hyantes fled and settled at Hyampolis; Cadmus’s daughters included Semele and Ino, and he chose Echion as his son-in-law for his valour. The account also says he made a splendid marriage with a daughter of Aphrodite and Ares.

In Book 9, Chapter 12, a cow guided Cadmus and his army toward the place where they would settle; at the cow’s resting place, he erected an altar and statue of Athene. He later migrated to the Illyrians, among the Enchelians, and his son Polydorus (son of Cadmus) succeeded him as ruler. In Book 9, Chapter 16, Harmonia made votive offerings of Aphrodite from the wood of Cadmus’s ships. The relationships recorded elsewhere name Autonoe as his daughter, Agenor (father of Cadmus) as his father, and Electra (sister of Cadmus) as his sister; Membliarus was a leader of colonists left on an island by Cadmus. His contemporaries included Chthonius, Hyperenor, Pelorus and Udæus, and Pelagon’s cow guided him on a journey from Delphi toward Phocis.