Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Cadmus.
The gallery
Cadmus Killing the Dragon
Francesco Zuccarelli, c. 1740
Oil landscape by Francesco Zuccarelli in which Cadmus, the Phoenician founder of Thebes, spears the sacred serpent of Ares at the spring of Dirce. The verdant Arcadian setting softens Ovid's bloody prelude to the sowing of the dragon's teeth — the act that will raise the Spartoi and give Thebes its earth-born nobility.
Cadmus Sowing the Dragon's Teeth (Cadmus and Minerva)
Workshop of Peter Paul Rubens (after Jacob Jordaens), c. 1636
Oil on panel in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (SK-A-4051), produced in the orbit of Rubens's Antwerp workshop after a Jordaens composition. Cadmus, guided by Minerva, watches the Sown Men rise from the furrows and turn their weapons on one another — the prodigy that founds Thebes after the dragon's death.
Two Followers of Cadmus Devoured by a Dragon
Cornelis van Haarlem, 1588
Haarlem Mannerist canvas now in the National Gallery, London: the dragon of the Ismenian spring tears Cadmus' companions limb from limb while the future founder of Thebes fights on in the distance. Van Haarlem turns Ovid's opening catastrophe into a study of writhing anatomy — the price Cadmus pays before he can sow the serpent's teeth.
Cadmus and Harmonia
Evelyn De Morgan, 1877
Pre-Raphaelite oil by Evelyn De Morgan showing Cadmus and his bride Harmonia in their final metamorphosis: the Theban founder and the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite, weary of mortal grief, become entwined serpents. The painting fixes the Ovidian close of Cadmus' long career — from dragon-slayer to dragon himself.
In play
Greek alphabet
Tradition credits Cadmus with bringing Phoenician letters to Greece — the Theban founder as the mythic courier of the alphabet Europe still writes with.
Cadmean victory
A Cadmean victory is one that ruins the winner — English kept the Theban founder's name for triumphs as costly as defeat.