Hyperenor was one of the Spartoi, the "sown men" who sprang fully armed from the dragon's teeth Cadmus planted, and one of the five who survived their mutual slaughter to become the founding stock of Thebes.1
When Cadmus slew the serpent that guarded the spring of Ares and sowed its teeth in the ground, armed men rose up out of the earth — the Spartoi, the "sown." They fell at once upon one another, some in a chance brawl and some striking down kinsmen they did not recognize, until the newborn host had thinned to a handful.2
Five of the earthborn warriors outlived the slaughter, and Hyperenor was among them — Apollodorus names them Echion, Udaeus, Chthonius, Hyperenor, and Pelorus, and Hyginus the same five as Chthonius, Udaeus, Hyperenor, Pelorus, and Echion. These survivors became Cadmus' comrades and the ancestral nobility of the city he founded.3
Pausanias, recounting Theban power after Cadmus, ranks the Spartoi next in might and names Chthonius, Hyperenor, Pelorus, and Udaeus among them — singling out Echion alone, whom Cadmus honored for his valor by giving him his daughter in marriage. Beyond his place among the five, Hyperenor keeps no deeds of his own in the record.4
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the spine ignites as you read · hover a bond on the card — every mention of them lights in the story
