Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Hyperenor.
The gallery
Cadmus Sows the Dragon's Teeth Which Turn into Armed Men
Hendrik Goltzius, 1615
In this engraving from Hendrik Goltzius's series illustrating Ovid's Metamorphoses, Cadmus strides across a furrowed field broadcasting the slain dragon's teeth, while behind him fully armed warriors heave themselves out of the soil, helmeted and brandishing spears. These autochthonous fighters are the Spartoi, the 'Sown Men' of Thebes; once risen they fell upon one another until only five survived — Echion, Udaeus, Chthonius, Pelorus, and Hyperenor — to become Cadmus' founding comrades. Hyperenor is one of the indistinguishable mailed figures emerging from the earth in the middle ground. The print is held by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (M.83.119.7).
Cadmus Sowing the Dragon's Teeth
Workshop of Peter Paul Rubens, c. 1636–1700
This oil on panel from the workshop of Peter Paul Rubens, now in the Rijksmuseum (SK-A-4051), shows Cadmus scattering the dragon's teeth as a crop of armed men erupts violently from the ground. The Sown Men (Spartoi) rise mid-combat, already turning their weapons against each other in the fratricidal struggle from which only five — among them Hyperenor — would emerge to help found Thebes. The dramatic baroque tangle of rising bodies captures the moment of their birth and immediate strife; Hyperenor is among the anonymous warriors springing up from the furrows.
Cadmus Sowing the Dragon's Teeth
Maxfield Parrish, 1908
Painted by the American illustrator Maxfield Parrish for an edition of Nathaniel Hawthorne's retellings of Greek myth, this luminous scene depicts Cadmus sowing the teeth of the dragon he has slain, with armored warriors materialising from the bright, stylised landscape behind him. The springing fighters are the Theban Spartoi, the earthborn 'Sown Men' who battled one another until five survived — Echion, Udaeus, Chthonius, Pelorus, and Hyperenor. Hyperenor stands among the emerging armed figures, one of the autochthonous warriors born from the soil to become an ancestor of the Theban people.