Welcome to our walk through on Greek mythology. Read the chapters and learn more about this island and it's beginnings.

Kadmos

Son of Agenor, king of Phoenicia and Telephassa and brother of Phoenix, Kilix and Europa. When Zeus, in the form of a bull abducted Europa, Agenor sent his sons to find her, Going their seperate ways, Kadmos went to Greece where, after many wanderings, he arrived at Delphi.There he was told that he should stop his search and follow a cow instead.When it stopped, he should found a city and live there. Thus he founded Thebes and decided to sacrifice the cow to Athena. However when he sent his friends to bring water from the spring they were terrified by the monstrous snake guarding it.Kadmos crushed the snake, which was the offspring of the god Ares. Athena advised him to scatter the teeth of the snake and these sprouted producing the Spartans, an armed race which was totally destroyed in intermecine strife, with the exception of five individuals who became the founders of Kadmeia.

To achieve his atonement, Zeus sent Kadmos to serve Ares. Having served Ares Kadmos became king of Thebes and married the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite, Harmonia.All of the gods were present and gave the couple rich gifts. Kadmos gave his bride a necklace wrought by Hephaestos and the Graces wove a shimmering robe for her. They produced five children, Semele, Ino, Agaue, Autonoe and Polydoros. Semele became mother of a god, Dionysos, but she was unlucky. After she had managed to give birth and through the intervention of Hera she was burned to death by the brilliance of Zeus, when she demanded that he appear before her in all his glory. Ino became the second wife of the king Athamas of Orchomenos and produced Lesrchos and Melikertes, but because she had feed the new- born Dionysos, Hera instilled such madness in both her and her husband that they killed their own children. Agaue became queen of Thebes after marring one of the Spartans Echion.

As she had said bad things about Semele, Dionysos took his revenge by making her a maenad and caused her to kill her son Pentheus. Autonoe married Aristaios, son of Apollo. They produced Aktaeon, the wonderful hunter and companion of Artemis who set her dogs to tear him limb from limb when he desired to see her naked. Lastly Polydoros became king of Thebes when his parents went to Illyria. With his wife Nykteida he had a son, Labdakos. who became the head of the other great family of Boeotia, the Labdakids. Kadmos and Harmonia reached their old age as rulers in Illyria. He could never forget that he had slayed the divine snake, and so he asked the gods to transform both he and his wife into benevolent snakes.

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