Literature: Ovid's Metamorphosis, Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus
Claim to Fame: Double foundation myth
Founding Myth I
Cadmus, in a desperate search for his abducted sister Europa, consults the oracle at Delphi who ignores his requests and commands him to follow a cow and build a city at that location. Cadmus abandons his search for his sister, and follows a cow to a spring occupied by Ares' serpent, where it the cow is sacrificed. The site becomes the citadel "Cadmeia", the acropolis of a new city.Athena advises him to slay the serpent as well, then sow its teeth, of which spartoi ("armed men") spring from the ground and battle each other. The five surviving become the five head families that become the nobility of Thebes.
In penance for slaying the serpent, Cadmus serves as slave to Ares for one year, for which he is rewarded with the hand of Harmonia (daughter of Ares and Aphrodite). All gods attend the wedding, whereby Harmonia receives a necklace fashioned by Hephaestus as a bridal gift. They have two daughters, Semele (mother of Dionysus) and Agave (mother of Pentheus), and live out their days until they are transformed into serpents in death.
Founding Myth II
Antiope is raped by Zeus, and bears twin sons Amphion and Zethus who are abandoned on Mt. Cithaeron and raised by a shepard. The boys grow old and talented, Amphion a musician ("dreamer") and Zethus a shepard ("pragmatist"), then return to Cadmeia to avenge their mother and gain rule. Amphion's music assembles surrounding stones into the walls of the city with 7 gates, while Zethus renames the city after his wife Thebe (except the acropolis, forever known as Cadmeia).The Theban Saga then continues into the rule of Oedipus.
