CADMUS, son of Phoenix or Agenor, king of Phoenicia and brother of Europa. Af ter his sister had been carried off by Zeus, he was sent out to find her. Unsuccessful in his search, he came to Delphi, where he consulted the oracle. He was ordered to give up his quest and follow a cow which would meet him, and to build a town on the spot where she would lie down. The cow met him in Phocis, and guided him to Boeotia, where he founded the city of Thebes. Intending to sacrifice the cow, he sent some of his companions to a neighbouring spring for water. They were slain by a dragon, which was in turn destroyed by Cadmus, and by the instructions of Athena he sowed its teeth in the ground, from which there sprang a race of fierce armed men, called Sparti (sown) . By throwing a stone among them Cadmus caused them to fall upon each other till only five survived, who assisted him to build the Cadmeia or citadel of Thebes and became the founders of the noblest families of that city (Ovid, Metam. iii. i.
ff.; Apollodorus iii.) . Cadmus, however, because of this bloodshed, had to do penance for eight years. At the expiration of this period the gods gave him to wife Harmonia (q.v.), daughter of Ares and Aphrodite, by whom he had a son Polydorus, and four daughters, Ino, Autonoe, Agave and Semele. At the marriage all the gods were present ; Harmonia received as bridal gifts a robe worked by Athena and a necklace made by Hephaestus. Cadmus is said to have finally retired with Harmonia to Illyria, where he and his wife were changed into snakes. The origin of this story is highly doubtful.