A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

524 CADMUS.
caleo, and coquo. There were at Rome various
things connected with the legends about Cacus.
On the side of the Palatine hill, not far from the
hut of Faustulus, there was a foot-path leading up
the hill, with a wooden ladder called " the ladder
of Cacus," and the ancient cave of Cacus, which is
still shewn at Rome, was in the Salina, near the
Porta Trigemina. (Diod., Solin., II. cc.; Klausen,
Aeneas u. die Penaten, p. 768, &c.; Bunsen, Beschreib. der Stadt Rom, i. p. 134, iii. 1. p. 407.) [L. S.]
CA'DIUS RUFUS. [RUFUS.]
CA'DMILUS, CA'SMILUS, or CADMUS
(KaLif\os, KaouztAos, or Kdiaos), according to
Acusilaus (ap. Strab. x. p. 472) a son of Hephaestus
and Cabeiro, and father of the Samothracian Cabeiri and the Cabeirian nymphs. Others consider
Cadmilus himself as the fourth of the Samothracian
Cabeiri. (Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. i. 917; comp.
CABEIRI.) [L. S.]
CADMUS (Kdaluos), a son of Agenor and Telephassa, and brother of Europa, Phoenix, and Cilix.
When Europa was carried off by Zeus to Crete,
Agenor sent out his sons in search of their sister,
enjoining them not to return without her. Telephassa accompanied her sons. All researches being
fruitless, Cadmus and Telephassa settled in Thrace.
Here Telephassa died, and Cadmus, after burying
her, went to Delphi to consult the oracle respecting
his sister. The god commanded him to abstain
from further seeking, and to follow a cow of a certain kind, and to build a town on the spot where
the cow should sink down with fatigue. (Schol. ad
ELurip. Phoen. 638, ad Aristoph. Ran. 1256; Pans.
ix. 12. ~ 1.) Cadmus found the cow described by
the oracle in Phocis among the herds of Pelagon,
and followed her into Boeotia, where she sank
down on the spot on which Cadmus built Thebes,
with the acropolis, Cadmea. As he intended to
sacrifice the cow here to Athena, he sent some persons to the neighbouring well of Ares to fetch water. This well was guarded by a dragon, a son of
Ares, who killed the men sent by Cadmus. Hereupon, Cadmus slew the dragon, and, on the advice
of Athena, sowed the teeth of the monster, out of
which armed men grew up, who slew each other,
with the exception of five, Echion, Udaeus, Chthonius, Hyperenor, and Pelor, who, according to the
Theban legend, were the ancestors of the Thebans.
Cadmus was punished for having slain the dragon
by being obliged to serve for a certain period of time,
some say one year, others eight years. After this
Athena assigned to him the government of Thebes,
and Zeus gave him Harmonia for his wife. The
marriage solemnity was honoured by the presence
of all the Olympian gods in the Cadmea. Cadmus
gave to Harmonia the famous TreTrAos and necklace
which he had received from Hephaestus or from
Europa, and became by her the father of Autono6,
Ino, Semele, Agave, and Polydorus. Subsequently
Cadmus and Harmonia quitted Thebes, and went
to the Cenchelians This people was at war with
the Illyrians, and had received an oracle which
promised them victory if they took Cadmus as
their commander. The Cenchelians accordingly
made Cadmus their king, and conquered the enemy. After this, Cadmus had another son, whom
he called Illyrius. In the end, Cadmus and Harmonia were changed into dragons, and were removed by Zeus to Elysium.
This is the account given by Apollodorus (iii. 1.
~ 1, &c.), which, with the exception of some par

CADMUS.
ticulars, agrees with the stories in Hyginus (Fab.
178)and Pausanias (ix. 5. ~ 1, 10. ~ 1, 12. ~ l,&c.).
There are, however, many points in the story of
Cadmus in which the various traditions present
considerable differences. His native country is
commonly stated to have been Phoenicia, as in
Apollodorus (comp. Diod. iv. 2; Strab. vii. p. 321,
ix. p. 401); but he is sometimes called a Tyrian
(HIerod. ii. 49; Eurip. Phoen. 639), and sometimes
a Sidonian. (Eurip. Bacch. 171; Ov. Met. iv. 571.)
Others regarded Cadmus as a native of Thebes in
Egypt (Diod. i. 23; Paus. ix. 12. ~ 2), and his
parentage is modified accordingly; for he is also
called a son of Antiope, the daughter of Belus, or
of Argiope, the daughter of Neilus. (Schol. ad
Eurip. Phoen. 5, with Valck. note; Hygin. Fab.
6, 178, 179.) He is said to have introduced into
Greece from Phoenicia or Egypt an alphabet of
sixteen letters (Herod. v. 58, &c.; Diod. iii. 67,
v. 57; Plin. 1. N. vii. 56; Hygin. Fab. 277), and
to have been the first who worked the mines of
mount Pangaeon in Thrace. The teeth of the
dragon whom Cadmus slew were sown, according
to some accounts, by Athena herself; and the spot
where this was done was shewn, in aftertimes, in
the neighbourhood of Thebes. (Schol. ad Eurip.
Phoen. 670; Paus. ix. 10. ~ 1.) Half of the teeth
were given by Athena to Aeetes, king of Colchis.
(Apollon. Rhod. iii. 1183; Apollod. i. 9. ~ 23;
Serv. ad Virg. Georg. ii. 141.) The account of his
quitting Thebes also was not the same in all traditions; for some related, that he was expelled by
Amphion and Zethus, or by Dionysus. (Syncell.
p. 296, ed. Dindorf.) A tradition of Brasiae stated,
that Cadmus, after discovering the birth of Dionysus by his daughter Semele, shut up the mother
and her child in a chest, and threw them into the
sea. (Paus. iii. 24. ~ 3.) According to the opinion
of Herodotus (ii. 49), however, Melampus learned
and received the worship of Dionysus from Cadmus,
and other traditions too represent Cadmus as worshipping Dionysus. (e.g. Eurip. Bacch. 181.) According to Euripides, Cadmus resigned the government of Thebes to his grandson, Pentheus; and
after the death of the latter, Cadmus went to Illyria, where he built Butho6 (Bacch. 43, 1331, &c.),
in the government of which he was succeeded by
his son Illyrius or Polydorus.
The whole story of Cadmus, with its manifold
poetical embellishments, seems to suggest the immigration of a Phoenician or Egyptian colony into
Greece, by means of which civilisation (the alphabet, art of mining, and the worship of Dionysus)
came into the country. But the opinion formed on
this point must depend upon the view we take of
the early influence of Phoenicia and Egypt in general upon the early civilisation of Greece. While
Buttmann and Creuzer admit such an influence,
C. 0. Miller denies it altogether, and regards
Cadmus as a Pelasgian divinity. Cadmus was
worshipped in various parts of Greece, and at
Sparta he had a heroum. (Paus. iii. 15. ~ 6; comp.
Buttmann, Mytholog. ii. p. 171; Miiller, Orchom.
p. 113, &c.) [L. S.]
CADMUS (KaS1os), the son of Scythes, a man
renowned for his integrity, was sent by Gelon to
Delphi, in B. c. 480, with great treasures, to await
the issue of the battle between the Greeks and
Persians, and with orders to give them to the Persians if the latter conquered, but to bring them
back to Sicily if the Greeks prevailed. After the