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the Son of Agenor, King of Phoenicia, who was sent by his Father to find out Europa, which Jupiter had taken away, but not hearing of her after several long and dangerous Voyages, he went to consult the Oracle of Delphi, who ordered him to build a City in the Place, whither an Ox should lead him. And preparing in the first place to sacrifice to the Gods, he sent
his Companions to the Fountain of Dirce, which was near, to fetch him some Water, but they were devoured by a Dragon. Minerva to comfort him for this Loss, advised him to go and slay the Monster, and to sow its Teeth upon the Earth. This being done, he saw armed Men immediately to grow up, who slew one another, except Five who surviving that Slaughter helped him to build the City, which he called Thebes, and reigned there several Years. He mar∣ried Harmonia, or according to Ovid, Hermione, the Daughter of Mars and Venus, by whom he had several Children, which came all to miserable ends. Cadmus was expelled out of Thebes by Amphion, and went into Europe with the Phaenicians. 'Tis said that he brought with him Sixteen Letters of the Greek Alphabet, that he taught to write in Prose, and that he was the first that set up Images in the Temples of the Gods He was changed into a Serpent with his Wife, through the Anger of the God Mars, be∣cause he slew the Dragon which kept the Fountain of Dirce.
Cadmus was one of the Graecian Heroes, of which the Pagans often made their Gods.
Bochart informs us, that Cadmus was one of those Cadmonites, of whom Moses speaks in Genesis. The Name of Cadmonites, was gi∣ven them, because they lived about Mount Hermon, which was the most Easterly Coun∣try. It is probable that Hermione Cadmus's Wife might have taken her Name from that Hill. And because these People were part of the Hivites, it was feigned that Cad∣mus and Hermione were changed into Ser∣pents, because the Syriack Word Hevaeus signifies a Serpent. The Fable says, that Cad∣mus having sown the Serpents Teeth, there came up armed Souldiers, which slew one another, and there survived Five of them only, which subdued Baeotia. Bochart in∣geniously conjectures, that these are only Allusions to the Phoenician or Hebrew words, for these Two Terms, seni naas, signify both the Teeth of Serpents, and Points of a Sword. Hyginus tells us, that Cadmus found out Steel first at Thebes, as also the Metallick Stone, of which, Steel and Copper is made, still called Cadmia. The armed Souldiers were at length reduced to Five, because the word Hames signifies Five. It imports also a Soldier girded, and ready for Battle, because the Souldiers girded their Body about the fifth Rib.
Nevertheless some Interpreters of Finder relate, that Cadmus and Hermione lived to a very old Age, and were by the special Fa∣vour of the Gods carried into the Elysian Fields in a Chariot drawn by two Dragons, which doubtless was the Occasion of the Fable.
Euhemerus, of the Isle of Cos, in the third Book of his sacred History, will have it that Cadmus was the Cook of the King of the Cydonians, one of whose Maids, a Player the Flute he debauched, and had by her Semele, whom she put in a Chest with Bac∣chus, and cast her into the Sea, because she prostituted her self to Jupiter.
Such as have allegorized this Fable, say, that Cadmus was a very valiant Prince, who conquered the Kingdom of Boeotia, by force of Arms, which was then governed by a King named Draco; that he endeavoured to divide it among his Subjects, but they quar∣relled and destroyed one another, and so he invaded the Kingdom. This History made the Poets feign that he slew a Dra∣gon, and sowing the Teeth their sprung up Men, which killed one another.