Set III-4-cad-002. A collection of selected literary quotations associated with "Cadmus" as the main subject. The entries are organised chronologically, from the the earliest to the latest. The intentionally omitted textual fragments are indicated by an ellipsis placed inside angle brackets. The translator's notes and curator's commentaries are placed inside square brackets and indicated by the quartz colour. Direct mentions of the main subject are indicated by the azure colour. Direct mentions of snakes/serpents and their derivatives are indicated by the amber colour and complemented by references to the sources' original language and the words' lemmas. Important descriptive details that inform the artefacts' iconographic interpretation are indicated by the malachite colour.
------------------------------------------------- « ● Selected Classical Quotations ● » --------------------------------------------------
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⟨...⟩ Cadmus of Tyre and those who came with Cadmus from Phoenice to the land now called Boeotia.
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⟨...⟩ the Phoenicians who came with Cadmus to the country now called Boeotia ⟨...⟩
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These Phoenicians who came with Cadmus ⟨...⟩
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| Author: |
Work/Anthology: |
Verse/Fragment: |
Translator(s): |
Collection & Publisher: |
Herodotus
(c. 484-425 BC) |
Histories |
● II: 49
● V: 57 ● V: 58 |
Alfred Denis Godley |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 117) © Harvard
University Press, 1920 |
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HERALD: Come and let the Sown Men's [Σπαρτός] spear hurl you into the dust! THESEUS: What sort of martial fury can come from a dragon [δράκων]? HERALD: You'll learn by painful experience. You are still young.
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HERALD: (to his retinue) All hoplites must march, and all riders of chariots and of single horses must set their cheekpieces, dripping with foam, in motion onward to the land of Cadmus! I shall proceed to Cadmus' seven gates [Thebes]: I myself shall wield a whetted sword and I myself shall be my herald.
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MESSENGER: ⟨...⟩ Dashing their whole force into the breach, the Thebans gave death and received it, passing the command along the ranks with great shouts: "Strike, push hard against the sons of Erechtheus [Athenians]!" For his part Theseus did not allow his own affairs to be ruined by hesitation: snatching up his bright·armor he rushed forward. But the company of men sprung from the dragon's [ὄφις] teeth [Spartoi] was hard to wrestle against: they turned back our left wing, while their own left was beaten and put to flight by our right. The battle was evenly balanced. At this point the general did a praiseworthy deed. He not only got the benefit of his victorious wing but went off toward the part of his army that was struggling. His shout burst forth so that the land echoed with it: "Either stop these Sown Men's [Σπαρτός] hard spears, lads, or it's all over for Pallas Athena!"
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| Author: |
Work/Anthology: |
Verse/Fragment: |
Translator(s): |
Collection & Publisher: |
Euripides
(c. 480-406 BC) |
Suppliant Women |
● 578-580
● 584-589
● 699-712 |
David Kovacs |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 009) © Harvard
University Press, 1998 |
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AMPHITRYON: What mortal does not know me, Amphitryon of Argos, the man who shared his wife with Zeus? My father was Alcaeus, son of Perseus, and I am the father of Heracles. I took this city of Thebes as my home, the place where the earthborn harvest, the Sown Men [Σπαρτός], once sprang up [Translator's note: The teeth of the serpent of Ares, sown in the ground, sprang up as armed men. They fought each other and most were killed. The survivors were the ancestors of the Theban nobility. In the usual version of the story, Cadmus, founder of Thebes, kills the serpent and sows its teeth. In this play (see lines 252-253 below) the sower is Ares.]. Only a small number of their race were spared by Ares, but they [Spartoi] begot in their posterity the city of Cadmus.
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CHORUS LEADER: Offspring of earth [Spartoi] that Ares once sowed when he had despoiled the fierce jaw of the dragon [δράκων] ⟨...⟩
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| Author: |
Work/Anthology: |
Verse/Fragment: |
Translator(s): |
Collection & Publisher: |
Euripides
(c. 480-406 BC) |
Heracles |
● 1-6
● 252-253 |
David Kovacs |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 009) © Harvard
University Press, 1998 |
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JOCASTA: [O you that cut your heavenly path through the stars and ride in a chariot inlaid with gold,] Sun, who on swift steeds whirl your blaze in an arc, how unblest for Thebes was the beam you shed the day when Cadmus came to this country [Boeotia], leaving his seagirt land in Phoenicia [Translator's note: I.e. the day Cadmus came to found Thebes was inauspicious. Tyre, Cadmus' old city, is called "seagirt" because it was an island until the time of Alexander the Great, who joined it to the mainland by a mole.]!
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CHORUS: Cadmus came to this land, the man of Tyre, for whom a calf, on its four legs, unbent to the yoke, threw itself down, fulfilling prophecy in the place where the oracle ordained he should come to live in the wheat-bearing fields [Translator's note: Cadmus, ordered by his father Agenor to find his sister Europa, who had been abducted by Zeus, went to Delphi. Apollo told him to follow a calf and to found a city where the animal lay down.], the place where by Dirce's stream the dew of lovely rivers visits the grassy and luxuriant plains. There it was that Bromius' mother [Translator's note: Semele, impregnated by Zeus, gave birth to Dionysus, also called Bromius.] gave birth to him when she had lain with Zeus, and about him, though still a babe, forthwith the curling ivy with its shoots of shady green covered him in blessedness, the Bacchic god worshiped in dancing by maids and matrons of Thebes in their ecstasy. In that place was the deadly serpent [δράκων] of Ares, fierce-tempered guardian: over the watery eddies and fresh streams he kept watch with gazing eye that ever moved. Going in quest of lustral water Cadmus slew him with a stone, smiting and bloodying his head with the cast of his beast-slaying arm. ⟨And⟩ at the word of the bright one, her of no mother, Pallas [Athena], ⟨he threw⟩ onto the luxuriant plains the teeth that fell to earth. Then earth put forth on its topmost bourne a vision of men full-armored. But cruel slaughter joined them once more to dear earth's embrace. It moistened with blood the earth that had brought them forth to the lovely sun and the air of heaven [Translators's note: This myth tells the origin of the Theban aristocracy, the Spartoi or Sown Men. The warlike men who sprang from the dragon's teeth were mostly killed in battle with each other, but some survived to beget the best fighters of Thebes. Thebes' warriors therefore can be called Sown Men, for instance in lines 795 and 1245 below.].
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CHORUS: You bore, O Earth, you bore long ago (so runs the barbarian tale I heard at home) the race sprung from the beast-brood serpent [δράκων] with crimson crest, race which grew from its teeth, fairest reproach that Thebes can hear [Translator's note: Birth from the teeth of a serpent can be treated as a reproach of bestial origins, but to Thebes it is a source of pride.].
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CREON: Why has this woe come upon me and my son [Menoeceus]? TEIRESIAS: [You are right to ask me and to enter a contest of words.] This boy must be slaughtered in the chamber where the earthborn snake [δράκων], guardian of Dirce's waters, came to birth: he must give the earth a libation of blood because of the ancient grudge of Ares against Cadmus: Ares is now avenging the death of the earthborn snake [δράκων]. If you do this, you will have Ares as your ally. And if the ground receives offspring in place of offspring and mortal blood for blood, Earth will be propitious to you, Earth who once sent forth the gold-helmeted harvest of the Sown Men [Σπαρτός]. One of this race must die, one begotten from the jaw of the snake [δράκων]. You are one of the last remaining members of the Sown Men [Σπαρτός] here, of pure lineage on your mother's and father's side. [And so are your children. Haemon's coming marriage prevents him from being slaughtered, for he is not a man unwed. Even if he has not yet experienced the bed of love, still he has a wife.] This colt, sacrificial animal for the city, will rescue his fatherland by his death. Sorry is the homecoming he will give Adrastus and the Argives, casting black death upon their eyes, and glorious will he make Thebes. Of these two fates choose one: save your son or your city.
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MENOECEUS: Women, how effectively I took my father's [Creon's] fear away, stealing it from him by talk so that I could get my heart's desire! He is trying to send me away, depriving the city [Thebes] of its fate and making me out to be a coward. To be sure, in an old man this is pardonable, but there would be no pardon for me if I betrayed the country that begot me. Know this: I shall go and save the city, giving my life for the country and dying for it. The contrast would otherwise be disgraceful. On the one hand, men under no compulsion from oracles or the gods stand by their shields and do not shrink from death. And on the other, shall I betray father, brother [Haemon], and my own city, leave the country like a coward, and be shown up as base wherever I live? No, by Zeus enthroned among the stars and by Ares, god of slaughter, who established the Sown Men [Σπαρτός], rising out of the earth, as rulers of this land! I shall go now, take my stand upon the high battlements, slit my own throat above the deep black precinct of the serpent [δράκων], the place the seer named, and set the city free. You have heard all I have to say. [I go in order to give the city the not ignoble gift of my death, and I shall free this land from plague. If each man were to take whatever useful thing he might do, examine it thoroughly, and contribute it to the common good, cities would have less trouble and prosper henceforth and forever.]
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CHORUS: ⟨...⟩ dear Pallas [Athena]! It was you who inspired the serpent's [δράκων] bloody death by stoning and set the tensed effort of Cadmus on the path to completion. From this deed there rushed against the land the snatching ruinous hand of heaven.
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MESSENGER: ⟨...⟩ At the seventh gate was Adrastus, who had pictured on his shield [ἀσπίς] a hundred snakes [ἔχιδνα], hydras [ὕδρα] he bore on his left·arm, an Argive boast. And from the middle of the battlements the snakes [δράκων] were bearing off with their teeth the Thebans' children. I got to see each of these sights when I took round the watchword to the captains of the companies.
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CREON: Ah, ah, what shall I do? Shall I weep and groan for myself or my city [Thebes], so set about by a cloud of woe as to send it down to Acheron? My son [Menoeceus] is dead, perished for his country, having won a name that is noble but painful for me. I have just now taken him, self-slain, from the dragon [δράκων] cliffs and brought him back in my arms. My whole house is wailing.
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| Author: |
Work/Anthology: |
Verse/Fragment: |
Translator(s): |
Collection & Publisher: |
Euripides
(c. 480-406 BC) |
Phoenician Women |
● 1-6
● 638-675
● 818-821
● 929-952
● 991-1018
● 1061-1066
● 1134-1140
● 1310-1316 |
David Kovacs |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 011) © Harvard
University Press, 2002 |
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DIONYSUS: To this land of Thebes I have come, I Dionysus, son of Zeus: Cadmus' daughter Semele, midwived by the lightning fire, once gave birth to me.
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I praise Cadmus, who made this ground sacred and untrodden, a holy spot for his daughter. And I have covered it all around with the clustering growth of grapevines.
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⟨...⟩ that Cadmus' city [Thebes] may see you!
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TEIRESIAS: ⟨...⟩ Cadmus, Agenor's son, who left Sidon and founded this citadel of Thebes!
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CHORUS LEADER: What impiety! Stranger [Pentheus], do you not reverence the gods? You are Echion's son: are you going to bring shame on your family and on Cadmus who sowed the crop of the Earthborn [Translator's note: Cadmus sowed the teeth of a dragon on the soil of Thebes. These sprouted as the Sown Men, fierce warriors who were the ancestors of the Theban nobility.]?
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CHORUS: ⟨...⟩ [What anger] He shows his earthborn origin, that he was born from a dragon [δράκων], does Pentheus, son of earthborn Echion, a monster with visage wild, no man of mortal frame but one of the murderous Giants who opposed the gods.
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CHORUS: ⟨...⟩ Who gave birth to him [Pentheus]? It was from no woman's blood that he has sprung: he is the offspring of some lioness or Libyan Gorgon.
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⟨...⟩ the earthborn son of Echion!
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⟨...⟩ the earthborn son of Echion! Show yourself as a bull in appearance or a many-headed serpent [δράκων] or a lion blazing like fire!
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SECOND MESSENGER: O house, which once prospered in the sight of Greece, [house of the old man of Sidon [Cadmus], who sowed the earthborn harvest of the dragon [δράκων] in the soil [of the snake [ὄφις]],] how I lament for you, slave though I am!
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CHORUS: ⟨...⟩ the calamity of Pentheus, the dragon's [δράκων] offspring ⟨...⟩
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AGAVE: ⟨...⟩ Echion, one of the Sown Men [Σπαρτός] ⟨...⟩
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CADMUS: ⟨...⟩ I, Cadmus the great, who sowed and reaped the lovely harvest that is the people of Thebes.
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DIONYSUS: ⟨...⟩ you [Cadmus] will change your form and become a snake [δράκων], and your wife, Ares' daughter Harmonia, whom you married though a mere mortal, will also take on the form of a serpent [ὄφις]. Then at the head of a barbarian army you will drive an oxcart and will sack many cities with your innumerable host: that is what Zeus's prophecy says. And when they have plundered Apollo's oracle, they will have a miserable homecoming. But Ares will rescue you and Harmonia and settle you to live in the Land of the Blessed. It is I, Dionysus, who make this prediction, and my father is not a mortal but Zeus.
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CADMUS: To what terrible misery we have come, daughter [Agave], ⟨all of us,⟩ you in your wretchedness and your sisters and I the unblest. I, an old man, must emigrate to the barbarians, and what is more, it is prophesied that I must lead against Greece an army of barbarians of many races. And my wife, Ares' daughter Harmonia - in the ⟨form⟩ of a fierce snake [δράκαινα] I must lead her, a serpent [δράκων] myself, against the altars and tombs of Greece, going before the spearmen. I shall have no surcease from misery, poor man that I am, and will not even sail the Acheron, that downward-flowing river, and find rest.
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CHORUS LEADER: What heaven sends has many shapes, and many things the gods accomplish against our expectation. What men look for is not brought to pass, but a god finds a way to achieve the unexpected. Such was the outcome of this story.
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| Author: |
Work/Anthology: |
Verse/Fragment: |
Translator(s): |
Collection & Publisher: |
Euripides
(c. 480-406 BC) |
Bacchae |
● 1-3
● 10-11
● 61
● 170-172
● 263-265
● 537-544
● 987-991
● 995
● 1015-1019
● 1024-1027
● 1154-1155
● 1274
● 1314-1315
● 1330-1341
● 1352-1362
● 1388-1392 |
David Kovacs |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 495) © Harvard
University Press, 2003 |
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CHORUS: ⟨...⟩ The Boeotians' seagoing panoply, fifty ships, I saw blazoned with ensigns. There was Cadmus holding a golden serpent [δράκων] aloft on the ships' high sterns. Leitus, one of the Sown Men [Spartoi], led this naval armament. From the land of Phocis ⟨...⟩ and Locrian ships, equal in number with these, were led by the son of Oileus [Ajax the Lesser], who left behind the famous city of Thronium.
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| Author: |
Work/Anthology: |
Verse/Fragment: |
Translator(s): |
Collection & Publisher: |
Euripides
(c. 480-406 BC) |
Iphigenia at Aulis |
● 253-264 |
David Kovacs |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 495) © Harvard
University Press, 2003 |
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EURIPIDES: Cadmus, Agenor's son, departed Sidon's citadel ⟨...⟩
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| Author: |
Work/Anthology: |
Verse/Fragment: |
Translator(s): |
Collection & Publisher: |
Aristophanes
(c. 446-386 BC) |
Frogs |
● 1225-1226 |
Jeffrey Henderson |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 180) © Harvard
University Press, 2002 |
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⟨...⟩ Cadmus of Sidon became king of Thebes ⟨...⟩
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| Author: |
Work/Anthology: |
Verse/Fragment: |
Translator(s): |
Collection & Publisher: |
Isocrates
(436-338 BC) |
Discourses |
● X. Helen, 68 |
La Rue Van Hook |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 373) © Harvard
University Press, 1945 |
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⟨...⟩ at daybreak they [Argonauts] sent two men to go to Aeetes and ask for the seed: foremost, Telamon himself, beloved of Ares, and with him Aethalides, Hermes' famous son. They set out and went on no vain journey, for when they arrived King Aeetes gave them the deadly teeth for the contest, the ones from the Aonian [Translator's note: I.e. Boeotian. The Aones, descended from Poseidon's son Aon, were the pre-Cadmeian inhabitants.] snake [δράκων], the guardian of the spring of Ares, which Cadmus slew in Ogygian [Translator's note: Ogygus was the first king of Boeotia, before the Aonians. The name came to mean "primeval".] Thebes when he came there in search of Europa [Translator's note: Europa, Cadmus' sister, was abducted by Zeus disguised as a bull. Cadmus was told by Apollo to follow a cow until it lay down to rest, at which place he was to sacrifice the animal and found a city (Thebes). In order to draw water at Ares' spring for the sacrifice, he had to kill the guardian serpent.]. It was there he settled, guided by the heifer that Apollo had provided for him with his oracles to lead him on his journey. The Tritonian goddess [Translator's note: Athena.] knocked the teeth from its jaws and gave them in equal portions as a gift to Aeetes and to the slayer himself. Cadmus, son of Agenor, sowed his in the Aonian plain and founded the earthborn people from all those left when Ares was reaping them with his spear [Translator's note: Cadmus got the men who emerged from the teeth to fight among themselves by throwing stones in their midst. The five remaining Spartoi ("Sown Men") became the ancestors of the Thebans. For Ares as the sower of the teeth, see Euripides Heracles 252-253.].
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| Author: |
Work/Anthology: |
Verse/Fragment: |
Translator(s): |
Collection & Publisher: |
Apollonius Rhodius
(c. 295-215 BC) |
Argonautica |
● III: 1172-1187 |
William H. Race |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 001) © Harvard
University Press, 2009 |
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Cadmus, who was a citizen of Egyptian [!] Thebes ⟨...⟩
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⟨...⟩ Cadmus, the son of Agenor, was sent forth from Phoenicia by the king to seek out Europe, under orders either to bring him the maiden or never to come back to Phoenicia. After Cadmus had traversed a wide territory without being able to find her, he despaired of ever returning to his home; and when he had arrived in Boeotia, in obedience to the oracle which he had received he founded the city of Thebes.
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⟨...⟩ Cadmus, they say, in accordance with the oracle he had received, founded Thebes in Boeotia ⟨...⟩
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⟨...⟩ Cadmus, the son of Agenor, having been dispatched by the king to seek out Europe, put ashore at Rhodes. He had been severely buffeted by tempests during the voyage and had taken a vow to found a temple to Poseidon, and so, since he had come through with his life, he founded in the island a sacred precinct to this god and left there certain of the Phoenicians to serve as its overseers.
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⟨...⟩ Cadmus honoured ⟨...⟩ the Lindian Athena with votive offerings, one of which was a striking bronze cauldron worked after the ancient manner, and this carried an inscription in Phoenician letters, which, men say, were first brought from Phoenicia to Greece. Subsequent to these happenings, when the land of Rhodes brought forth huge serpents [ὄφις], it came to pass that the serpents [ὄφις] caused the death of many of the natives; consequently the survivors dispatched men to Delos to inquire of the god [Apollo] how they might rid themselves of the evil. And Apollo commanded them to receive Phorbas and his companions and to colonize together with them the island of Rhodes - Phorbas was a son of Lapithes and was tarrying in Thessaly together with a considerable number of men, seeking a land in which he might make his home - and the Rhodians summoned him as the oracle had commanded and gave him a share in the land. And Phorbas destroyed the serpents [ὄφις], and after he had freed the island of its fear he made his home in Rhodes; furthermore, since in other respects he proved himself a great and good man, after his death he was accorded honours like those offered to heroes.
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⟨...⟩ these Phoenicians are those who sailed to Europe together with Cadmus ⟨...⟩
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⟨...⟩ Cadmus built the Cadmeia [Translator's note: The Cadmeia was the acropolis of Thebes.], which was called after his name, there came together there with him a folk whom some call the Spartoi [Σπαρτός] [Translator's note: All ancient authorities derive the name from σπείρειν, "to sow" or "scatter", but with many different explanations. The Spartoi are, variously, [1] men who had been scattered but were brought together by Cadmus, [2] men sown or scattered among the other Thebans, [3] the children of Cadmus himself born of many different mothers, or [4] the offspring of the dragon's teeth that had been sown by Cadmus. The last explanation is by far the commonest.] because they had been gathered together from all sides, and others the Thebagenes [Translator's note: I.e. "Theban-born".] because they were originally from Thebes ⟨...⟩
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| Author: |
Work/Anthology: |
Verse/Fragment: |
Translator(s): |
Collection & Publisher: |
Diodorus Siculus
(c. 90-30 BC) |
Library of
History |
● I: xxiii, 4
● IV: ii, 1
● V: xlix, 2
● V: lviii, 2
● V: lviii, 3-5
● V: lxxiv, 1
● XIX: liii, 4 |
Charles Henry Oldfather
(I, IV, V);
Russel
Mortimer
Geer (XIX) |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 279) © Harvard
University Press, 1933
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 303) © Harvard
University Press, 1935
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 340) © Harvard
University Press, 1939
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 377) © Harvard
University Press, 1947 |
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⟨...⟩ Procne be turned into a bird, Cadmus into a snake [anguis] ⟨...⟩
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| Author: |
Work/Anthology: |
Verse/Fragment: |
Translator(s): |
Collection & Publisher: |
Quintus Horatius Flaccus
(65-8 BC) |
Ars Poetica |
● 187 |
Henry Rushton Fairclough |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 194) © Harvard
University Press, 1926 |
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“
⟨...⟩ Cadmeia [the acropolis of Thebes] [was built] by the Phoenicians who came with Cadmus ⟨...⟩
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“
⟨...⟩ Boeotia in earlier times was inhabited by barbarians, the Aones and the Temmices, who wandered thither from Sunium, and by the Leleges and the Hyantes. Then the Phoenicians occupied it, I mean the Phoenicians with Cadmus, the man who fortified the Cadmeia [Translator's note: The acropolis of Thebes.] and left the dominion to his descendants. Those Phoenicians founded Thebes in addition to the Cadmeia, and preserved their dominion, commanding most of the Boeotians until the expedition of the Epigoni. On this occasion they left Thebes for a short time, but came back again.
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| Author: |
Work/Anthology: |
Verse/Fragment: |
Translator(s): |
Collection & Publisher: |
Strabo
(c. 64 BC-24 AD) |
Geography |
● VII: vii, 1
● IX: ii, 3 |
Horace
Leonard
Jones |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 182) © Harvard
University Press, 1924
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 196) © Harvard
University Press, 1927 |
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And now the god [Jupiter], having put off disguise of the bull, owned himself for what he was, and reached the fields of Crete. But the maiden's [Europa's] father [Agenor], ignorant of what had happened, bids his son, Cadmus, go and search for the lost girl, and threatens exile as a punishment if he does not find her - pious and guilty by the same act. After roaming over all the world in vain (for who could search out the secret loves of Jove?) Agenor's son becomes an exile, shunning his father's country [Phoenicia] and his father's wrath. Then in suppliant wise he consults the oracle [in Delphi] of Phoebus [Apollo], seeking thus to learn in what land he is to settle. Phoebus replies: "A heifer will meet you in the wilderness, one who has never worn the yoke or drawn the crooked plough. Follow where she leads, and where she lies down to rest upon the grass there see that you build your city's walls and call the land Boeotia [Translator's note: I.e. "the land of the heifer."]." Hardly had Cadmus left the Castalian grotto when he saw a heifer moving slowly along, all unguarded and wearing on her neck no mark of service. He follows in her track with deliberate steps, silently giving thanks the while to Phoebus for showing him the way. And now the heifer had passed the fords of Cephisus and the fields of Panope, when she halted and, lifting towards the heavens her beautiful head with its spreading horns, she filled the air with her lowings; and then, looking back upon those who were following close behind, she kneeled and let her flank sink down upon the fresh young grass. Cadmus gave thanks, reverently pressed his lips upon this stranger land, and greeted the unknown mountains and the plains. With intent to make sacrifice to Jove, he bade his attendants hunt out a spring of living water for libation. There was a primeval forest there, scarred by no axe; and in its midst a cave thick set about with shrubs and pliant twigs. With well-fitted stones it fashioned a low arch, whence poured a full-welling spring, and deep within dwelt a serpent [anguis] sacred to Mars. The creature had a wondrous golden crest; fire flashed from his eyes; his body was all swollen with venom; his triple tongue flickered out and in and his teeth were ranged in triple row. When with luckless steps the wayfarers of the Tyrian race had reached this grove, they let down their vessels into the spring, breaking the silence of the place. At this the dark serpent [serpens] thrust forth his head out of the deep cave, hissing horribly. The urns fell from the men's hands, their blood ran cold, and, horror-struck, they were seized with a sudden trembling. The serpent [Ø] twines his scaly coils in rolling knots and with a spring curves himself into a huge bow; and, lifted high by more than half his length into the unsubstantial air, he looks down upon the whole wood, as huge, could you see him all, as is that serpent [Ø] in the sky that lies outstretched between the twin bears. He makes no tarrying, but seizes on the Phoenicians, whether they are preparing for fighting or for flight or whether very fear holds both in check. Some he slays with his fangs, some he crushes in his constricting folds, and some he stifles with the deadly corruption of his poisoned breath. The sun had reached the middle heavens and drawn close the shadows. And now Cadmus, wondering what has delayed his companions, starts out to trace them. For shield, he has a lion's skin; for weapon, a spear with glittering iron point and a javelin; and, better than all weapons, a courageous soul. When he enters the wood and sees the corpses of his friends all slain, and victorious above them their huge-bodied foe licking their piteous wounds with bloody tongue, he cries: "O ye poor forms, most faithful friends, either I shall avenge your death or be your comrade in it." So saying, he heaved up a massive stone with his right·hand and with mighty effort hurled its mighty bulk. Under such a blow, high ramparts would have fallen, towers and all; but the serpent [serpens] went unscathed, protected against that strong stroke by his scales as by an iron doublet and by his hard, dark skin. But that hard skin cannot withstand the javelin too, which now is fixed in the middle fold of his tough back and penetrates with its iron head deep into his flank. The creature, mad with pain, twists back his head, views well his wound, and bites at the spear-shaft fixed therein. Then, when by violent efforts he had loosened this all round, with difficulty he tore it out; but the iron head remained fixed in the backbone. Then indeed fresh fuel was added to his native wrath; his throat swells with full veins, and white foam flecks his horrid jaws. The earth resounds with his scraping scales, and such rank breath as exhales from the Stygian cave befouls the tainted air. Now he coils in huge spiral folds; now shoots up, straight and tall as a tree; now he moves on with huge rush, like a stream in flood, sweeping down with his breast the trees in his path. Cadmus gives way a little, receiving his foe's rushes on the lion's skin, and holds in check the ravening jaws with his spear-point thrust well forward. The serpent [Ø] is furious, bites vainly at the hard iron and catches the sharp spear-head between his teeth. And now from his venomous throat the blood begins to trickle and stains the green grass with spattered gore. But the wound is slight, because the serpent [Ø] keeps backing from the thrust, drawing away his wounded neck, and by yielding keeps the stroke from being driven home nor allows it to go deeper. But Cadmus follows him up and presses the planted point into his throat; until at last an oak-tree stays his backward course and neck and tree are pierced together. The oak bends beneath the serpent's [serpens] weight and the stout trunk groans beneath the lashings of his tail. While the conqueror stands gazing on the huge bulk of his conquered foe, suddenly a voice sounds in his ears. He cannot tell whence it comes, but he hears it saying: "Why, O son of Agenor, dost thou gaze on the serpent [serpens] thou hast slain? Thou too shalt be a serpent [serpens] for men to gaze on." Long he stands there, with quaking heart and pallid cheeks, and his hair rises up on end with chilling fear. But behold, the hero's helper, Pallas [Athena], gliding down through the high air, stands beside him, and she bids him plow the earth and plant therein the dragon's [vipera] teeth, destined to grow into a nation. He obeys and, having opened up the furrows with his deep-sunk plow, he sows in the ground the teeth as he is bid, a man-producing seed. Then, a thing beyond belief, the plowed ground begins to stir; and first there spring up from the furrows the points of spears, then helmets with coloured plumes waving; next shoulders of men and breasts and arms laden with weapons come up, and the crop grows with the shields of warriors [Spartoi]. So when on festal days the curtain in the theatre is raised, figures of men rise up, showing first their faces, then little by little all the rest; until at last, drawn up with steady motion, the entire forms stand revealed, and plant their feet upon the curtain's edge. Frightened by this new foe, Cadmus was preparing to take his arms. "Take not your arms," one of the earth-sprung brood cried out, "and take no part in our fratricidal strife." So saying, with his hard sword he clave one of his earth-born brothers, fighting hand to hand; and instantly he himself was felled by a javelin thrown from far. But he also who had slain this last had no longer to live than his victim, and breathed forth the spirit which he had but now received. The same dire madness raged in them all, and in mutual strife by mutual wounds these brothers of an hour perished. And now the youths, who had enjoyed so brief a span of life, were beating the breast of their mother earth warm with their blood - all save five. One of these five was Echion, who, at Pallas' bidding, dropped his weapons to the ground and sought and made peace with his surviving brothers. These the Sidonian wanderer had as comrades in his task when he founded the city granted him by Phoebus' oracle. And now Thebes stood complete; now thou couldst seem, O Cadmus, even in exile, a happy man.
„
“
The god [Bacchus] is now come and the fields resound with the wild cries of revellers. The people rush out of the city [Thebes] in throngs, men and women, old and young, nobles and commons, all mixed together, and hasten to celebrate the new rites. "What madness, ye sons of the serpent's [anguis] teeth [Spartoi], ye seed of Mars, has dulled your reason?" Pentheus cries. "Can clashing cymbals, can the pipe of crooked horn, can shallow tricks of magic, women's shrill cries, wine-heated madness, vulgar throngs and empty drums - can all these vanquish men, for whom real war, with its drawn swords, the blare of trumpets, and lines of glittering spears, had no terrors? You, ye elders, should I give you praise, who sailed the long reaches of the sea and planted here your Tyre, here your wandering Penates, and who now permit them to be taken without a struggle? Or you, ye young men of fresher age and nearer to my own, for whom once 'twas seemly to bear arms and not the thyrsus, to be sheltered by helmets and not garlands? Be mindful, I pray, from what seed you are sprung, and show the spirit of the serpent [serpens] [of Mars], who in his single strength killed many foes. For his fountain and his pool he perished; but do you conquer for your glory's sake! He did to death brave men: do you but put to flight unmanly men and save your ancestral honour. If it be the fate of Thebes not to endure for long, I would the enginery of war and heroes might batter down her walls and that sword and fire might roar around her: then should we be unfortunate, but our honour without stain; we should bewail, not seek to conceal, our wretched state; then our tears would be without shame.
„
“
Cadmus was all unaware that his daughter [Ino] and little grandson [Melicertes] had been changed to deities of the sea. Overcome with grief at the misfortunes which had been heaped upon him, and awed by the many portents he had seen, he fled from the city which he had founded [Thebes], as if the fortune of the place and not his own evil fate were overwhelming him. Driven on through long wanderings, at last his flight brought him with his wife [Harmonia] to the borders of Illyria. Here, overborne by the weight of woe and age, they reviewed the early misfortunes of their house and their own troubles. Cadmus said: "Was that a sacred serpent [serpens] which my spear transfixed long ago when, fresh come from Sidon, I scattered his [vipera] teeth on the earth, seed of a strange crop of men [Spartoi]? If it be this the gods have been avenging with such unerring wrath, I pray that I, too, may be a serpent [serpens], and stretch myself in long snaky [serpens] form" - Even as he spoke he was stretched out in long snaky [Ø] form; he felt his skin hardening and scales growing on it, while iridescent spots besprinkled his darkening body. He fell prone upon his belly, and his legs were gradually moulded together into one and drawn out into a slender, pointed tail. His arms yet remained; while they remained, he stretched them out, and with tears flowing down his still human cheeks he cried: "Come near, oh, come, my most wretched wife, and while still there is something left of me, touch me, take my hand, while I have a hand, while still the serpent [anguis] does not usurp me quite." He wanted to say much more, but his tongue was of a sudden cleft in two; words failed him, and whenever he tried to utter some sad complaint, it was a hiss; this was the only voice which Nature left him. Then his wife, smiting her naked breasts with her hands, cried out: "O Cadmus, stay, unhappy man, and put off this monstrous form! Cadmus, what does this mean? Where are your feet? Where are your shoulders and your hands, your colour, face, and, while I speak, your - everything? Why, O ye gods of heaven, do you not change me also into the same serpent [anguis] form?" She spoke; he licked his wife's face and glided into her dear breasts as if familiar there, embraced her, and sought his wonted place about her neck. All who were there - for they had comrades with them - were filled with horror. But she only stroked the sleek neck of the crested dragon [draco], and suddenly there were two serpents [draco] there with intertwining folds, which after a little while crawled off and hid in the neighbouring woods. Now also, as of yore, they neither fear mankind nor wound them, mild creatures, remembering what once they were. But both in their altered form found great comfort in their grandson [Bacchus], whom conquered India now worshipped, whose temples Greece had filled with adoring throngs.
„
| Author: |
Work/Anthology: |
Verse/Fragment: |
Translator(s): |
Collection & Publisher: |
Publius Ovidius Naso
(43 BC-17 AD) |
Metamorphoses |
● III: 1-132
● III: 528-552
● III: 563-606 |
Frank Justus Miller; Revised by George Patrick Goold |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 042) © Harvard
University Press, 1916 |
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“
Cadmus ⟨...⟩ he, who of old, driven from Tyrian coasts, halted an exile on Aonian soil [Translator's note: Boeotia.].
„
| Author: |
Work/Anthology: |
Verse/Fragment: |
Translator(s): |
Collection & Publisher: |
Publius Ovidius Naso
(43 BC-17 AD) |
Fasti |
● I: 489-490 |
James George Frazer; Revised by George Patrick Goold |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 253) © Harvard
University Press, 1931 |
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“
Agenor's son Cadmus left the battlements of Sidon to establish walls in a better place [Thebes].
„
| Author: |
Work/Anthology: |
Verse/Fragment: |
Translator(s): |
Collection & Publisher: |
Publius Ovidius Naso
(43 BC-17 AD) |
Epistulae ex Ponto |
● I: iii. To Rufinus,
77-78 |
A. L. Wheeler; Revised by George Patrick Goold |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 151) © Harvard
University Press, 1924 |
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“
ANTIGONE: ⟨...⟩ All you who plow the land settled by the Assyrian king [Translator's note: Cadmus, Thebes' founder, who came from Phoenicia; "Assyrian" virtually = "Asiatic" here.] and make reverent supplication in Cadmus' grove, famed for its serpent [serpens], where Dirce's sacred spring lies hidden; all you who drink of the Eurotas and dwell in Sparta famed for twin brothers [Translator's note: Castor and Pollux.]; all you countrymen whose herds graze Elis and Parnassus and Boeotia's fertile fields: give me your attention.
„
| Author: |
Work/Anthology: |
Verse/Fragment: |
Translator(s): |
Collection & Publisher: |
Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger
(c. 4 BC-65 AD) |
Phoenician Women |
● 122-131 |
John G. Fitch |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 062) © Harvard
University Press, 2018 |
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“
⟨...⟩ followed by Mount Draco [Draco], Draco [Draco] by Tmolus, Tmolus by Cadmus, and that range by Taurus.
„
| Author: |
Work/Anthology: |
Verse/Fragment: |
Translator(s): |
Collection & Publisher: |
Gaius Plinius Secundus
(23-79 AD) |
Natural History |
● V: xxxi, 119 |
Harris Rackham |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 352) © Harvard
University Press, 1942 |
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“
⟨...⟩ stone quarrying [was invented] by Cadmus at Thebes, or according to Theophrastus, in Phoenicia ⟨...⟩
„
“
Erichthonius [!] of Athens, or according to others Aeacus, discovered silver; mining and smelting gold was invented by Cadmus the Phoenician at Mount Pangaeus, or according to others by Thoas or Aeacus in Panchaia [Translator's note: An imaginary island in the Indian Ocean.], or by the Sun, son of Oceanus, to whom Gellius also assigns the discovery of medicine derived from minerals.
„
| Author: |
Work/Anthology: |
Verse/Fragment: |
Translator(s): |
Collection & Publisher: |
Gaius Plinius Secundus
(23-79 AD) |
Natural History |
● VII: lvi, 195
● VII: lvi, 197 |
Harris Rackham |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 352) © Harvard
University Press, 1942 |
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“
Mucianus [Gaius Licinius Mucianus, fl. first century AD] states that the murex is broader than the purple, and has a mouth that is not rough nor round and a beak that does not stick out into corners but shuts together on either side like a bivalve shell; and that owing to murexes clinging to the sides a ship was brought to a standstill when in full sail before the wind ⟨...⟩ and that the shell-fish that rendered this service are worshipped in the shrine of Venus at Cnidus. Trebius Niger [fl. 100s BC] says that it is a foot [~30 cm] long and four inches [~10 cm] wide, and hinders ships ⟨...⟩
„
“
⟨...⟩ robes of scarlet and purple, which the same mother, luxury, has made almost as costly as pearls. Purples live seven years at most. They stay in hiding like the murex for 30 days at the time of the rising of the dog-star. They collect into shoals in spring-time, and their rubbing together causes them to discharge a sort of waxy viscous slime. The murex also does this in a similar manner, but it has the famous flower of purple, sought after for dyeing robes, in the middle of its throat: here there is a white vein of very scanty fluid from which that precious dye, suffused with a dark rose colour, is drained, but the rest of the body produces nothing. People strive to catch this fish alive, because it discharges this juice with its life; and from the larger purples they get the juice by stripping off the shell, but they crush the smaller ones alive with the shell, as that is the only way to make them disgorge the juice. The best Asiatic purple is at Tyre, the best African is at Meninx and on the Gaetulian coast of the Ocean, the best European in the district of Sparta.
„
“
⟨...⟩ the mad lust for the purple may be excused; but what is the cause of the prices paid for purple-shells, which have an unhealthy odour when used for dye and a gloomy tinge in their radiance resembling an angry sea? The purple's tongue is an inch long; when feeding it uses it for piercing a hole in the other kinds of shell-fish, so hard is its point. These fish die in fresh water and wherever a river discharges into the sea, but otherwise when caught they live as much as seven weeks on their own slime. All shellfish grow with extreme rapidity, especially the purple-fish; they reach their full size in a year.
„
“
Shellfish supplying purple dyes and scarlets - the material of these is the same but it is differently blended - are of two kinds: the whelk is a smaller shell resembling the one that gives out the sound of a trumpet, whence the reason of its name, by means of the round mouth incised in its edge; the other is called the purple, with a channelled beak jutting out and the side of the channel tube-shaped inwards, through which the tongue can shoot out; moreover it is prickly all round, with about seven spikes forming a ring, which are not found in the whelk, though both shells have as many rings as they are years old.
„
“
For Tyrian purple the wool is first soaked with sea-purple for a preliminary pale dressing, and then completely transformed with whelk dye. Its highest glory consists in the colour of congealed blood, blackish at first glance but gleaming when held up to the light; this is the origin of Homer's phrase, "blood of purple hue".
„
“
⟨...⟩ the double-dyed Tyrian purple, which it was impossible to buy for 1000 denarii per pound.
„
“
⟨...⟩ deep-sea purple nowhere exceeds 50 sesterces and trumpet-shell 100 sesterces per 100 lbs.
„
“
⟨...⟩ Tyrian dye ⟨...⟩ when they have made shell-dye, they think it an improvement for it to pass into Tyrian. ⟨...⟩ dye with Tyrian a fabric already dyed with scarlet, to produce hysgine colour.
„
“
The purple-fish, the murex and their kind spawn in spring.
„
| Author: |
Work/Anthology: |
Verse/Fragment: |
Translator(s): |
Collection & Publisher: |
Gaius Plinius Secundus
(23-79 AD) |
Natural History |
● IX: xli, 80
● IX: lx, 124-127
● IX: lx, 127-128
● IX: lxi, 130
● IX: lxii, 135
● IX: lxiii, 137
● IX: lxiv, 138-139
● IX: lxv, 139-141
● IX: lxxiv, 164 |
Harris Rackham |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 353) © Harvard
University Press, 1940 |
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“
⟨...⟩ the purple of the murex ⟨...⟩
„
| Author: |
Work/Anthology: |
Verse/Fragment: |
Translator(s): |
Collection & Publisher: |
Gaius Plinius Secundus
(23-79 AD) |
Natural History |
● XXI: xxii, 46 |
Harris Rackham |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 392) © Harvard
University Press, 1940 |
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“
⟨...⟩ Transalpine Gaul can produce with vegetable dyes Tyrian purple, oyster purple [Translator' note: As "Tyrian purple" and "oyster purple" are practically the same things, Warmington for atque suggests aeque, "Tyrian oyster-purple just as well as it can all other colours."] and all other colours. To get these nobody seeks the murex oyster in the depths ⟨...⟩
„
| Author: |
Work/Anthology: |
Verse/Fragment: |
Translator(s): |
Collection & Publisher: |
Gaius Plinius Secundus
(23-79 AD) |
Natural History |
● XXII: iii, 3 |
Harris Rackham |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 392) © Harvard
University Press, 1940 |
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“
⟨...⟩ the murex shell ⟨...⟩
„
| Author: |
Work/Anthology: |
Verse/Fragment: |
Translator(s): |
Collection & Publisher: |
Gaius Plinius Secundus
(23-79 AD) |
Natural History |
● XXIII: xli, 83 |
Harris Rackham |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 392) © Harvard
University Press, 1940 |
--------------------------------------------------------------------- « ● ● ● » ---------------------------------------------------------------------
“
⟨...⟩ the purple of the murex ⟨...⟩
„
| Author: |
Work/Anthology: |
Verse/Fragment: |
Translator(s): |
Collection & Publisher: |
Gaius Plinius Secundus
(23-79 AD) |
Natural History |
● XXVI: lxvi, 103 |
William Henry Samuel Jones, A. C. Andrews |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 393) © Harvard
University Press, 1956 |
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“
⟨...⟩ shells of murex or purple-fish ⟨...⟩
„
“
⟨...⟩ dyed with the purple fish ⟨...⟩ murex shell ⟨...⟩ or ⟨...⟩ other shell-fish ⟨...⟩
„
“
The shell of murex or other shell-fish reduced to ash clears spots from the faces of women, remove wrinkles, and fill out the skin, if applied with honey for seven days, but on the eighth day there should be fomentation with white of egg. To the class murex belong the shell-fish called by the Greeks coluthia, by others coryphia, equally conical but smaller and much more efficacious, and they also keep the breath sweet.
„
“
⟨...⟩ the murex or purple-fish ⟨...⟩
„
“
⟨...⟩ the shells of the murex or purple-fish ⟨...⟩
„
“
⟨...⟩ by shells of murex or purple fish ⟨...⟩
„
| Author: |
Work/Anthology: |
Verse/Fragment: |
Translator(s): |
Collection & Publisher: |
Gaius Plinius Secundus
(23-79 AD) |
Natural History |
● XXXII: xxiii, 68
● XXXII: xxv, 77-78
● XXXII: xxvii, 84-85
● XXXII: xxxiv, 106
● XXXII: xxxiv, 108
● XXXII: xlvi, 129 |
William Henry Samuel Jones |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 418) © Harvard
University Press, 1963 |
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“
⟨...⟩ Sidon, the city of Cadmus.
„
| Author: |
Work/Anthology: |
Verse/Fragment: |
Translator(s): |
Collection & Publisher: |
Tiberius Catius Asconius Silius Italicus
(c. 25-101 AD) |
Punica |
● XIV: 579 |
James Duff Duff |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 278) © Harvard
University Press, 1934 |
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“
⟨...⟩ the Encheliae, whose ancient name testifies to the death and transformation of Cadmus [Translator's note: He was changed into a snake: ἔγχελυςis properly "an eel".].
„
“
⟨...⟩ from the seed sown by Cadmus the Theban warriors [Spartoi] started up and were slain by the swords of their kinsmen - a dismal omen for the Theban brothers; and thus in the land of the Phasis [Colchis] the sons of Earth, who sprang from the teeth of the sleepless dragon [campe, from κάμπη, worm/caterpillar or campus, from κάμπος, (sea)-monster?], filled the vast furrows with kindred blood, when magic spells had filled them with fury; and Medea herself was appalled by the first crime which her herbs, untried before, had wrought.
„
| Author: |
Work/Anthology: |
Verse/Fragment: |
Translator(s): |
Collection & Publisher: |
Marcus Annaeus Lucanus
(39-65 AD) |
The Civil War (Pharsalia) |
● III: 189
● IV: 549-556 |
James Duff Duff |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 220) © Harvard
University Press, 1928 |
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“
⟨...⟩ the seeds sown and warriors come forth from the teeth of Cadmus' snake [hydra] and the fallows flower with armed men [Spartoi].
„
“
Let Cadmus' harvest [Spartoi] sink now in eternal death at last ⟨...⟩
„
| Author: |
Work/Anthology: |
Verse/Fragment: |
Translator(s): |
Collection & Publisher: |
Gaius Valerius Flaccus
(c. 45-95 AD) |
Argonautica |
● VII: 75-77
● VII: 290-291 |
J. H. Mozley |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 286) © Harvard
University Press, 1934 |
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“
Pierian fire falls upon my soul: to unfold fraternal warfare, and alternate reigns fought for in unnatural hate, and guilty Thebes. Where do you command me to begin, goddesses? Shall I sing the origins of the dire folk, the rape Sidonian, the inexorable compact of Agenor's ordinance, and Cadmus searching the seas [Translator's note: Agenor, king of Tyre, ordered his son Cadmus to go in search of his daughter Europa, who had been carried off overseas by Jupiter in the form of a bull, and not to return without her. Eventually Cadmus found himself at the site of Thebes.]? Far back goes the tale, were I to recount the affrighted husbandman of covered soldiery hiding battle in unholy furrows [Translator's note: Dragon's teeth, sown by Cadmus in the Theban Field of Mars, came up as warriors, who fought each other until only five survived.] and pursue to the uttermost what followed: with what music Amphion bade mountains draw nigh the Tyrian walls, what caused Bacchus' fierce wrath against a kindred city [Translator's note: Thebes, whose king Pentheus had resisted him (theme of Euripides' Bacchae). But his wrath was against the king, not the city. Bacchus was the son of Jupiter and Cadmus' daughter Semele.], what savage Juno wrought, at whom hapless Athamas took up his bow, wherefore Palaemon's mother did not fear the vast Ionian when she made to plunge in company with her son. No; already shall I let the sorrows and happy days of Cadmus be bygones. Let the limit of my lay be the troubled house of Oedipus.
„
“
⟨...⟩ does the ancient omen for Thebes extend from the time when Cadmus, ordered to search the Carpathian Sea in vain for the Sidonian bull's [Jupiter's] seductive freight [Europa], found in exile a kingdom in Hyantean fields [Thebes] and sent down fraternal warfare from the opening of pregnant earth [Spartoi] as an augury to his remote posterity?
„
“
Who would not know of Cadmus' calamities ⟨...⟩
„
“
The work first proved itself when Harmonia's plaints turned to dire hisses and in company with prostrate Cadmus she furrowed Illyria's plains with her trailing breast.
„
“
⟨...⟩ Tyrian Cadmus ⟨...⟩
„
“
⟨...⟩ Sidonian Cadmus ⟨...⟩
„
“
Outside is a vast stretch of plain, the land of Mars, the field that fructified for Cadmus. Hard was he that after the kindred fray and the guilty furrows first dared till the soil with ploughshare and dug up the blood-softened meadows [Producing Spartoi]!
„
“
First Cadmus lowers his feeble mouth into the bloody pool and Cytherea's daughter follows next her husband. The two serpents [serpens] [Translator's note: Cadmus and Harmonia.] drink from the head top.
„
“
⟨...⟩ Cadmus and the weary heifer and the fields pregnant with bloody war [of Spartoi] ⟨...⟩
„
“
⟨...⟩ youth of Cadmus, belying your earthborn fathers [Spartoi] ⟨...⟩
„
“
⟨...⟩ Cadmus' weapon-bearing seed [Spartoi and their descendants] ⟨...⟩
„
| Author: |
Work/Anthology: |
Verse/Fragment: |
Translator(s): |
Collection & Publisher: |
Publius Papinius Statius
(c. 45-96 AD) |
Thebaid |
● I: 1-17
● I: 180-185
● I: 227-228
● II: 289-291
● II: 613
● III: 299
● IV: 434-438
● IV: 553-555
● VIII: 231-232
● VIII: 600-601
● X: 663 |
David Roy Shackleton Bailey |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 207) © Harvard
University Press, 2004 |
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PHILINUS: The fact is, Basilocles, that we went slowly, sowing words, and reaping them straightway with strife, like the men sprung from the Dragon's [Ø] teeth [Σπαρτός], words with meanings behind them of the contentious sort, which sprang up and flourished along our way.
„
| Author: |
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Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus
(c. 46-120 AD) |
Moralia V: The Oracles at Delphi no Longer Given
in Verse |
● 1, 394 E |
Frank Cole Babbitt |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 306) © Harvard
University Press, 1936 |
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⟨...⟩ Cadmus, arriving with a Phoenician fleet ⟨...⟩
„
| Author: |
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Publius Cornelius Tacitus
(c. 56-120 AD) |
Annals |
● XI: xiv |
John Jackson |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 312) © Harvard
University Press, 1937 |
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At Tyre there is the most ancient temple of Heracles of which there is any human recollection, not the Argive Heracles, son of Alcmene, for a Heracles was honoured at Tyre many generations before Cadmus sailed from Phoenicia, occupied Thebes, and had a daughter Semele, mother of Dionysus son of Zeus. For Dionysus would appear to be in the third generation from Cadmus, along with Labdacus son of Polydorus, son of Cadmus; while the Argive Heracles was probably a contemporary of Oedipus son of Laius.
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| Author: |
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Arrian of Nicomedia
(c. 86-160 AD) |
Anabasis of Alexander |
● II: xvi, 1-2 |
Peter Astbury Brunt |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 236) © Harvard
University Press, 1976 |
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When Epaminondas [Theban general (strategos), c. 418-362 BC] was wounded, they carried him still living from the ranks. For a while he kept his hand to the wound in agony, with his gaze fixed on the combatants, the place from which he looked at them being called Scope (Look) by posterity. But when the combat came to an indecisive end, he took his hand away from the wound and died, being buried on the spot where the armies met. On the grave stands a pillar, and on it is a shield with a dragon [ἀσπίς] in relief. The dragon [δράκων] means that Epaminondas belonged to the race of those called the Sparti [Σπαρτός], while there are slabs on the tomb, one old, with a Boeotian inscription, the other dedicated by the Emperor Hadrian [r. 117-138 AD], who wrote the inscription on it. Everybody must praise Epaminondas for being the most famous Greek general, or at least consider him second to none other.
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| Author: |
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Pausanias
(c. 110-180 AD) |
Description
of Greece |
● VIII. Arcadia:
xi, 7-9 |
William Henry Samuel Jones |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 272) © Harvard
University Press, 1933 |
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When the Phoenician army under Cadmus invaded the land these tribes ["Ancient" Boeotians] were defeated; the Hyantes fled from the land when night came, but the Aones begged for mercy, and were allowed by Cadmus to remain and unite with the Phoenicians. The Aones still lived in village communities, but Cadmus built the city which even at the present day is called Cadmeia. Afterwards the city grew, and so the Cadmeia became the citadel of the lower city of Thebes. Cadmus made a brilliant marriage, if, as the Greek legend says, he indeed took to wife a daughter of Aphrodite and Ares [Harmonia]. His daughters too have made him a name; Semele was famed for having a child by Zeus [Dionysos], Ino for being a divinity of the sea. In the time of Cadmus, the greatest power, next after his, was in the hands of the Sparti [Σπαρτός], namely, Chthonius, Hyperenor, Pelorus and Udaeüs; but it was Echion who, for his great valour, was preferred by Cadmus to be his son-in-law. As I was unable to discover anything new about these men, I adopt the story that makes their name result from the way in which they came into being [Springing from the dragon's teeth sown by Cadmus.].
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⟨...⟩ a place where, it is said, Cadmus (he may believe the story who likes) sowed the teeth of the dragon [δράκων], which he slew at the fountain, from which teeth men came up out of the earth [Spartoi].
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Higher up than the Ismenian sanctuary you may see the fountain which they say is sacred to Ares, and they add that a dragon [δράκων] was posted by Ares as a sentry over the spring.
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The following story also is current among the Thebans. As Cadmus was leaving Delphi by the road to Phocis, a cow, it is said, guided him on his way. This cow was one bought from the herdsmen of Pelagon, and on each of her sides was a white mark like the orb of a full moon. Now the oracle of the god had said that Cadmus and the host with him were to make their dwelling where the cow was going to sink down in weariness. So this is one of the places that they point out. Here there is in the open an altar and an image of Athena, said to have been dedicated by Cadmus. Those who think that the Cadmus who came to the Theban land was an Egyptian, and not a Phoenician, have their opinion contradicted by the name of this Athena, because she is called by the Phoenician name of Onga, and not by the Egyptian name of Sais. The Thebans assert that on the part of their citadel, where to-day stands their market-place, was in ancient times the house of Cadmus.
„
| Author: |
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Pausanias
(c. 110-180 AD) |
Description
of Greece |
● IX. Boeotia: v, 1-3
● IX. Boeotia: x, 1
● IX. Boeotia: x, 5
● IX. Boeotia: xii, 1-3 |
William Henry Samuel Jones |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 297) © Harvard
University Press, 1935 |
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⟨...⟩ Cadmus or the mighty race of men who sprang when teeth were sown ⟨...⟩ [Translator's note: The traditional ancestors of Thebes were the survivors from the warriors who fought each other after springing from the dragon's teeth sown by Cadmus.]
„
| Author: |
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Lucian of Samosata
(c. 120s-180s AD) |
In Praise of Demosthenes |
● 19 |
Matthew Donald Macleod |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 432) © Harvard
University Press, 1967 |
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⟨...⟩ the advent of Cadmus, the heifer's taking ground, the serpent's [ὄφις] teeth, and the emergence of the Sown Men [Σπαρτός]; further, the transformation of Cadmus into a serpent [δράκων] ⟨...⟩
„
| Author: |
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Lucian of Samosata
(c. 120s-180s AD) |
The Dance |
● 41 |
Austin Morris Harmon |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 302) © Harvard
University Press, 1936 |
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It happened at that season to be the festival of Dionysus Lord of the Vintage; for the Tyrians claim him as their own proper deity, singing on the subject Cadmus' myth [Translator's note: Cadmus, the mythical founder of Thebes and introducer into Greece of the art of writing, was himself a Tyrian.], which they relate as the origin of the festival ⟨...⟩
„
| Author: |
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Achilles Tatius
(c. 100s AD) |
Leucippe and Clitophon |
● II: ii, 1-2 |
Stephen Gaselee |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 045) © Harvard
University Press, 1969 |
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⟨...⟩ Aeetes ordered him [Jason] ⟨...⟩ to sow dragon's [δράκων] teeth; for he had got from Athena half of the dragon's [Ø] teeth which Cadmus sowed in Thebes.
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⟨...⟩ we have next to speak of the house of Agenor. For as I have said [II, i, 4], Libya had by Poseidon two sons, Belus and Agenor. Now Belus reigned over the Egyptians and begat the aforesaid sons; but Agenor went to Phoenicia, married Telephassa, and begat a daughter Europa and three sons, Cadmus, Phoenix, and Cilix [Translator's note: The ancients were not agreed as to the genealogies of these mythical ancestors of the Phoenicians, Cilicians, and Thebans. Herodotus (Histories VII, 91) represents Cilix as a son of the Phoenician Agenor, and he tells us (Histories IV, 147) that Cadmus, son of Agenor, left a Phoenician colony in the island of Thera. Diodorus Siculus reports (Library of History V, 58, 2-5) that Cadmus, son of Agenor, planted a Phoenician colony in Rhodes, and that the descendants of the colonists continued to hold the hereditary priesthood of Poseidon, whose worship had been instituted by Cadmus. He mentions also that in the sanctuary of Athena at Lindus, in Rhodes, there was a tripod of ancient style bearing a Phoenician inscription. The statement has been confirmed in recent years by the discovery of the official record of the temple of Lindian Athena in Rhodes.]. But some say that Europa was a daughter not of Agenor but of Phoenix. ⟨...⟩ Cadmus and Telephassa took up their abode in Thrace ⟨...⟩
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When Telephassa died, Cadmus buried her, and after being hospitably received by the Thracians he came to Delphi to inquire about Europa. The god [Apollo] told him not to trouble about Europa, but to be guided by a cow, and to found a city wherever she should fall down for weariness. After receiving such an oracle he journeyed through Phocis; then falling in with a cow among the herds of Pelagon, he followed it behind. And after traversing Boeotia, it sank down where is now the city of Thebes. Wishing to sacrifice the cow to Athena, he sent some of his companions to draw water from the spring of Ares. But a dragon [δράκων], which some said was the offspring of Ares, guarded the spring and destroyed most of those that were sent. In his indignation Cadmus killed the dragon [δράκων], and by the advice of Athena sowed its teeth. When they were sown there rose from the ground armed men whom they called Sparti [Σπαρτός]. [Translator's note: That is, "sown". Cf. Euripides Phoenician Women 929-952. For the story of the sowing of the dragon's teeth, see Pausanias Description of Greece IX. Boeotia x, 1; Scholiast on Homer Iliad II, 494; Hyginus Fabulae 178. Europa; Ovid Metamorphoses III, 26-130. Similarly, Jason in Colchis sowed some of the dragon's teeth which he had received from Athena, and from the teeth there sprang up armed men, who fought each other. See Apollodorus Library I, ix, 23. As to the dragon-guarded spring at Thebes, see Euripides Phoenician Women 929-952; Pausanias Description of Greece IX. Boeotia x, 5. It is a common superstition that springs are guarded by dragons or serpents.] These slew each other, some in a chance brawl, and some in ignorance. But Pheercydes says that when Cadmus saw armed men growing up out of the ground, he flung stones at them, and they, supposing that they were being pelted by each other, came to blows. However, five of them survived, Echion, Udaeus, Chthonius, Hyperenor, and Pelorus. [Translator's note: The names of the five survivors of the Sparti are similarly reported by Pausanias (Description of Greece IX. Boeotia, v, 3), the Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius (Argonautica III, 1179), and Hyginus (Fabulae 178. Europa). From the Scholiast on Apollonius (l.c.), we learn that their names were given in like manner by Pherecydes [Pherecydes of Athens/of Leros, fl. c. 470s-460s BC] as indeed we might have inferred from Apollodorus's reference to that author in the present passage. Ovid (Metamorphoses III, 126) mentions that five survived, but he names only one (Echion).] But Cadmus, to atone for the slaughter, served Ares for an eternal year; and the year was then equivalent to eight years of our reckoning.
„
| Author: |
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Pseudo-Apollodorus
(c. 100s AD?) |
Library |
● I: ix, 23
● III: i, 1
● III: iv, 1-2 |
James George Frazer |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 121) © Harvard
University Press, 1921 |
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After his children were killed by Mars in retribution for his having slain the serpent [draco] that guarded the Castalian Spring [Translator's note: The Castalian Spring is normally located in Delphi, not in Thebes as Hyginus suggests here.], Cadmus, the son of Agenor and Argiope, went to Illyria with his wife, Harmonia, the daughter of Venus and Mars. Both of them were turned into serpents [draco].
„
| Author: |
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Pseudo-Hyginus
(c. 100s AD?) |
Fabulae |
● 6. Cadmus |
Stephen M. Trzaskoma |
Apollodorus' Library and Hyginus' Fabulae: Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology © Hackett Publishing, 2007 |
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Europa was the daughter of Argiope and Agenor and lived in Sidon. Jupiter turned himself into a bull, transported her from Sidon to Crete, and fathered by her Minos, Sarpedon, and Rhadamanthus. Her father, Agenor, sent his sons either to bring their sister back or otherwise not to return to his sight. Phoenix set out for Africa and remained there; from his name the Africans are called Phoenicians. Cilix bestowed his name on Cilicia. Cadmus roamed about and came to Delphi. There he received an oracle telling him to buy from some herders a cow that had a mark resembling moon in its side and drive it before him. He was fated, the oracle continued, to found a city [Thebes] and reign wherever the cow happened to lie down. When Cadmus heard his destiny, he did exactly as he was told. He went out in search of water and came to the Castalian Spring, which was guarded by a serpent [draco], the son of Mars. After the serpent [Ø] killed his men, Cadmus killed it with a stone. Following Minerva's instructions, Cadmus plowed the land and sowed the teeth, from which the Sparti sprouted. They fought each other, and only five survived: Chthonius, Udaeus, Hyperenor, Pelorus, and Echion. The land was called Boeotia [Translator's note: Greek "Cow-land".] after the cow he followed.
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| Author: |
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Pseudo-Hyginus
(c. 100s AD?) |
Fabulae |
● 178. Europa |
Stephen M. Trzaskoma |
Apollodorus' Library and Hyginus' Fabulae: Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology © Hackett Publishing, 2007 |
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Harmonia and Cadmus are there, but not as they were before; for already they have become serpents [δράκων] from the thighs down and already scales are forming on them. Their feet are gone, their hips are gone, and the change of form is creeping [ἕρπω] upward. In astonishment they embrace each other as though holding on to what is left of the body, that this at least may not escape them.
„
| Author: |
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Philostratus of Lemnos, the Elder
(c. 190-230 AD) |
Imagines |
● I: 18. Bacchantes (4), 321 K, 26-31 |
Arthur Fairbanks |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 256) © Harvard
University Press, 1931 |
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⟨...⟩ fierce hissing of Cadmus turned to a scaly serpent [Ø] ⟨...⟩
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Marcus Aurelius Olympius Nemesianus
(fl. c. 283 AD) |
Cynegetica |
● 30-31 |
J. Wight Duff, Arnold M. Duff |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 434) © Harvard
University Press, 1934 |
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Tereus was changed into a bird, Cadmus into a snake [anguis]; Scylla looked in amaze on the dogs that girt her waist.
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Claudius Claudianus
(c. 370-404 AD) |
Against Eutropius |
● I (XVIII): 293-294 |
Maurice Platnauer |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 135) © Harvard
University Press, 1922 |
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⟨...⟩ the plough-share of the Phoenician Cadmus that has raised up thus suddenly a host sprung from the sowing of the dragon's [draco] teeth; 'tis like the crop that in the fields of Thebes drew the sword of kin in threatened battle with its own sower when, the seed once sown, the earth-born giants clave the earth, their mother's womb, with their springing helms and a harvest of young soldiery burgeoned along the armed furrows.
„
| Author: |
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Claudius Claudianus
(c. 370-404 AD) |
On Stilicho's Consulship |
● I (XXI): 318-324 |
Maurice Platnauer |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 135) © Harvard
University Press, 1922 |
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What fleece so dyed in the rich juice of the murex where stand the brazen towers of Tyre?
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| Author: |
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Claudius Claudianus
(c. 370-404 AD) |
Rape of Proserpina |
● II (XXXV): 95-96 |
Maurice Platnauer |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 136) © Harvard
University Press, 1922 |
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But Zeus Cronides did not forget Cadmos the mastersinger. He dispersed the cloud of darkness which overshadowed him, and calling him, spoke in this fashion: "Cadmos, you have crowned the gates of Olympos with your pipes! Then I will myself celebrate your bridal with heaven's own Harp [Translator's note: The constellation Lyra.]. I will make you goodson to Ares and Cythereia [Aphrodite]; gods shall be guests at your wedding-feast on the earth! I will visit your house: what more could you want, than to see the King of the Blessed touching your table? And if you wish to cross life's ferry on a calm sea, escaping the uncertain currents of Chance, be careful always not to offend Ares Dircaian [Translator's note: That is, Theban, from the fountain of Dirce in Thebes. It is rather too soon to give him that epithet, for there was no Thebes as yet and no Dirce.], Ares angry when deprived of his brood [Translator's note: All Cadmos’s troubles in later life came from killing the dragon, son of Ares, which guarded the spring near the site of Thebes, Zeus advises him to make friends with the celestial Dragon, also with Ophiuchos, as being presumably an expert in dealing with reptiles, and to accompany his prayers with fumigations of two of the most approved specifics against earthly serpents, serpentine, which if pulverized will cure their bite, Orphei Lithica 338-?, and hart's horn; for the stag is so deadly an enemy to all snakes that even to burn a piece of his antler will effectually drive them away, Pliny Natural History VIII: l, 118.]. At dead of night fix your gaze on the heavenly Serpent [Δράκων], and do sacrifice on the altar holding in your hand a piece of fragrant serpentine [ὀφίτης]; and calling upon the Olympian Serpent-holder [Ὀφιοῦχος], burn in the fire a horn of the Illyrian deer with many tines: that so you may escape all the bitter things which the wreathed spindle of apportioned Necessity has spun for your fate - if the threads of the Portioners [Moirai/Fates] ever obey!
„
| Author: |
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| Nonnus of Panopolis (c. late 300s-400s AD) |
Dionysiaca |
● II: 660-679 |
William Henry Denham Rouse |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 344) © Harvard
University Press, 1940 |
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The god [Dionysos] spoke: and Cadmos gave place. Near the temple he saw a cow, and went beside her as she walked. His men followed, and made sparing pace, equal to the slow-obeying hoof of the unerring cow, sedulous servants. On the way, Cadmos espied from the road a sacred place conspicuous; the place where the Pythian had noticed on a hill the ninecircling coil of the dragon's [Ø] back, and put to sleep the deadly poison of the Cirrhaian [Translator's note: Loosely for "Delphic," Cirrha being the harbour-town below Delphi.] serpent [ἔχιδνα]. Then the wanderer left the heads of Parnassos and trod the neighbouring soil of Daulis ⟨...⟩
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Then the oracular hoof of the cow gave way, and she sank to the ground foretelling the city [Thebes] to be. Now that the divine utterance out of the Pythian cave was fulfilled, Cadmos brought the sacred cow beside an altar smoking with incense, and sought for a rill of spring water, that he might cleanse his ministering hands and pour the pure water over the sacrifice; for as yet there were no wineplanted gardens to show the delicate fruit of their ripening crop.
He stayed his feet beside dragonbreeding [δράκων] Dirce [Translator's note: A stream near Thebes.]: and stood amazed when he saw the speckle-back serpent [ὄφις], Ares' child, appear from one side and girdle the spring with snaky coil. The serpent [Ø] scared away the great company who followed Cadmos, biting one under the chest with his flashing jaws, rending another with a stroke of bloody tooth, tearing another's lifesaving liver when he showed fight and laying him dead: a rough mane slipping out of the dank head ran down disorderly over his neck. Another he scared leaping above the man's temples, ran up another's chin irresistible to strike his eye with poison-shooting dew, and darkened the sparkling gleam of the closing orb. One he caught by the foot and held it in his jaws, tearing it with his bite - spat out green foam from his teeth upon the lad's body, and the greenish poison froze the body livid like steel. Another panted under the strokes of the jaws, and the membranes of the brain billowed throbbing out of the head at the poisonous bite, while a stream of matter ran down through the drenched nostrils out of the melting brain.
Then quickly the dragon [δράκων] curled round Cadmos; creeping up his legs, and bound him in dangerous bonds; then raising his body high above him with a mounting lurch of his limbs, darted at the round midnipple of the oxhide shield. The man with his legs enclosed by those slanting rings was exhausted by the heavy weight of the long trailing snake [ἔχιδνα] - a horrible burden! But the wearied bearer still stood upright, until the serpent [Ø] dragged him to the ground and opened his cruel mouth - the monster gaped, and the bloody portal of his raw-ravening throat yawned wide: he turned his head sideways, and with shaking hood curved his neck backwards stretched high over the middle of his coils.
But when Cadmos was nearly exhausted, Athena came near, shaking the aegis-cape with the Gorgon's head and snaky [ἔχιδνα] hair, the forecast of coming victory; and the nation-mustering deity cried aloud to the dumbfounded man -
"Cadmos, helpmate and ally of Zeus Giant-slayer in the battle! Are you afraid when you see only one snake [ὄφις]? In those battles Cronion trusted in you, and brought low Typhon with all that shock of heads, and every one a snake [δράκων]! Tremble no more at the hiss from the creature's teeth. Pallas bids you on! Brazen Ares shall not save his reptile [ἑρπετόν] guardian beside murderous Dirce. But when he is killed, take the creature's horrible teeth, sow the ground all about with the snaky [ὄφις] corn, reap the viperous [ἔχιδνα] harvest of warrior giants, join the battalions of the Earthborn in one common destruction, and leave only five living: let the crop of the Sown [Σπαρτός] sprout up to glorious fruitage for Thebes that shall be." [Translator's note: The Theban aristocracy were called Spartoi from this legend.]
With these words Athena encouraged the discomfited Cadmos, and then she cleft the aery deeps with windswift foot, until she entered the house of Zeus. But Cadmos where he stood on the dry earth lifted a well-rounded boundary-stone of the broad farm-land, a rocky missile! And with a straight cast of the stone smashed the top of the dragon's [δράκων] head; then drawing a whetted knife from his thigh he cut through the monster's [θηρίον] neck. The hood severed from the body lay apart, but the tail still moved, rolling in the dust until it had uncoiled again its familiar rings. There lay the dragon [δράκων] stretched on the ground, dead, and over the corpse furious Ares shouted in heavy anger. By his wrath Cadmos was destined to change his limbs for a curling shape, and to have a strange aspect of dragon's [δράκων] countenance at the ends of the Illyrian country [Translator's note: After a long life he and Harmonia went to Illyria and were changed to serpents (i.e. live for ever as powers of the underworld).].
But that was ordained for long after. Now he gathered the fruit of death inside a helmet of bronze, the grim harvest of the creature's jaws. Then he drew upon the land the humped plow of Pallas from her holy place in those parts, and plowed a battle-breeding furrow in the bright earth, and sowed long lines of the poison-casting teeth. There grew out the self-delivered crop of giants: one shot up with head high, shaking the top of a mailcoated breast; one with jutting head stretched a horrid shoulder over the opening earth; another bent forward above ground as far as the midnipple, one again rose on the ground half-finished and lifted a soil-grown shield; another shook a nodding plume before him and showed not yet his chest; while still creeping up slowly from his mother's flanks he showed fight against fearless Cadmos, clad in the armour he was born in. O what a great miracle! Eileithyia armed him whom the mother had not yet spawned! And there was one who cast his brother-spear [Translator's note: Because he and the spear were born together.], fumbling and half visible; one who lightly drew the whole body into the light, but left his toes unfinished sticking in the ground.
Cadmos for all that did not neglect Athena's injunction. He reaped the stubble of giants springing up ever anew. One he struck with windswift spear over the breast, hit one on the broad neck by the collarbone shearing the bones of the hairy throat: another he tore with hurtling stone while he showed as far as the belly. The blood of the dreadful giants flowed in rivers; Ares slipt in the gore staining his limbs with crimson, and Victory's robe was reddened with purple drops while she stood beside the battle. Another showed fight, and Cadmos ran his sword through his cognate shield of oxhide, into the hip-joint and out at the small of his back. The slaughter stayed not: as the giants were cut and smitten with the sword, a deadly spout of bloody dew bubbled up.
Then by the wise counsel of Pallas he lifted a stone high above the giants' heads; and they drunken with gory lust for Enyo, went wild with warlike fury and destroyed each other with the steel their cousin [Translator's note: Like cognate shield and brother spear.], and found burial in the dust. One fought with another: with ruddy gore the surface of the shield was drenched and spotted and darkened, as a giant died; the crop of that field was shorn by the brother-murdering blade of an earthgrown knife.
„
| Author: |
Work/Anthology: |
Verse/Fragment: |
Translator(s): |
Collection & Publisher: |
| Nonnus of Panopolis (c. late 300s-400s AD) |
Dionysiaca |
● IV: 311-320
● IV: 348-463 |
William Henry Denham Rouse |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 344) © Harvard
University Press, 1940 |
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“
As soon as Cadmos had reaped the snaky [ὄφις] crop of toothplanted battles, and shorn the stubble of the giants, pouring the bloodlibation to Ares as the firstling feast of harvestslaughter, he cleansed his body in dragonbreeding [δράκων] Dirce, and sacrificed the Delphian cow on the godbuilt altar as a fair offering for Pallas. As the first rite in the sacrifice, he sprinkled the two horns on both sides with barley-grains; he drew out and bared the falchion knife which hung at his thigh alongside by an Assyrian strap, and cut the top hairs of the longhorned head with the hilted blade.
„
“
The fragrant smoke of Assyrian incense scattered curling through the air. The sacrifice ended, there was a feast: and Cadmos took and held out and served to each an equal portion of choice food. The rows of banqueters at the round table soon had enough and wanted no more. The dragon's [δράκων] death was not the end of the labours of Cadmos; but after the Serpent [Ἕρπετόν?], and after the savage tribes of giants, he fought the champions of the Ectenes and the Aonian people, reaping a barbarian harvest of Ares, and fell on the neighbouring Temmicans [Translator's note: Earlier inhabitants of Boeotia.]: when he called for soldiers, a motley swarm of neighbours came to his help. To both armies alike Strife joined Enyo and brought forth Tumult: when they met in battle bows were bent, spears hurtled, helmets shook, shots whizzed, oxhides rattled struck on the bossy round with chunks like millstones. The blood of the fallen ran in streams; many a man fell headlong half-dead on the fruitful earth, and rolled in the dust. Then the army of his adversaries bowed suppliant before Cadmos, and he conflict ceased. After the bloody whirl of battle Cadmos laid the foundation of Thebes yet unfortified.
„
| Author: |
Work/Anthology: |
Verse/Fragment: |
Translator(s): |
Collection & Publisher: |
| Nonnus of Panopolis (c. late 300s-400s AD) |
Dionysiaca |
● V: 3-11
● V: 29-50 |
William Henry Denham Rouse |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 344) © Harvard
University Press, 1940 |
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“
At the horns of the altar Cadmos Agenorides made one common sacrifice to Zeus and the Hadryads, female and male together, sheep and horned bull, where stood the grove of Zeus full of mountain trees; he lit the fire on the altar to do pleasure to the gods, and did sacrifice to both. When the flame was kindled, the rich savour was spread abroad with the smoke in fragrant rings. When the bull was slaughtered, a jet of bloody dew spouted straight up of itself ⟨...⟩ A serpent [δράκων] crept with its coils, surrounding the throat of Cadmos like a garland, twining and trailing a crooked swollen collar about it in a lacing circle but doing no harm - the gentle creature crept round his head like a trailing chaplet, and his tongue licked his chin all over dribbling the friendly poison from open mouth, quite harmless; a female snake [ὄφις] girdled the temples of Harmonia like a wreath of clusters in her yellow hair. Then Cronion [Zeus] turned the bodies of both snakes [ὄφις] into stone, because Harmonia and Cadmos were destined to change their appearance and to assume the form of stone snakes [ὄφις], at the mouth of the snakebreeding [δράκων] Illyrian gulf.
„
| Author: |
Work/Anthology: |
Verse/Fragment: |
Translator(s): |
Collection & Publisher: |
| Nonnus of Panopolis (c. late 300s-400s AD) |
Dionysiaca |
● XLIV: 98-118 |
William Henry Denham Rouse |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 356) © Harvard
University Press, 1940 |
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“
Over the Illyrian country to the land of the Western sea he [Dionysos] sped, and banished Harmonia with Cadmos her agemate, both wanderers, for whom creeping Time had in store a change into the shape of snaky [ὄφις] stone [Translator's note: At the end of their lives, Zeus transformed Cadmos and Harmonia into stone serpents, and placed them in Elysium.].
„
| Author: |
Work/Anthology: |
Verse/Fragment: |
Translator(s): |
Collection & Publisher: |
| Nonnus of Panopolis (c. late 300s-400s AD) |
Dionysiaca |
● XLVI: 364-367 |
William Henry Denham Rouse |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 356) © Harvard
University Press, 1940 |
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“
Here the robe of Jupiter first shows its ruddy gleam; Sidonian purple [murex] twice boiled in the cauldron coloured the silken threads, and the deep-dyed red showed not only the sheen of purple, for the gleam of lightning was intermingled, and a blaze came from the stiff' threads where the purple was weighted with a broken levin-shaft.
„
| Author: |
Work/Anthology: |
Verse/Fragment: |
Translator(s): |
Collection & Publisher: |
Gaius Sollius Modestus Apollinaris Sidonius
(c. 430-485 AD) |
Poems |
● XV. Epithalamium,
127-131 |
William Blair Anderson |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 296) © Harvard
University Press, 1936 |
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“
You shall not have a meal set for you on jewelled tables, nor shall Assyrian purple [murex] provide your dining-couch.
„
| Author: |
Work/Anthology: |
Verse/Fragment: |
Translator(s): |
Collection & Publisher: |
Gaius Sollius Modestus Apollinaris Sidonius
(c. 430-485 AD) |
Poems |
● XVII. To Ommatius, Senator, 5-6 |
William Blair Anderson |
Loeb Classical Library
(LCL 296) © Harvard
University Press, 1936 |
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