Forbidden to return without his sister Europa, Cadmus followed Apollo's cow to Boeotia, slew the dragon of Ares, sowed its teeth to reap the Spartoi, and built the Cadmea — marrying Harmonia in a wedding the gods themselves attended.1
Apollo's cow
When Telephassa died, Cadmus buried her and came to Delphi to inquire about Europa. Apollo told him not to trouble about the girl — Zeus had already borne her to Crete — but to follow a cow marked with a white spot on each flank and found a city wherever she should fall down from weariness. Cadmus journeyed through Phocis until the appointed cow sank down on the site of Thebes.2
The dragon of Ares
The cow sank down on the site of Thebes. When Cadmus sent his men to draw water from the spring of Ares for a sacrifice, the spring's guardian — a great dragon — killed them. Cadmus slew the serpent in vengeance, and Athena counselled him to sow its teeth in the furrows of the field.3
The Spartoi
Armed men sprang from the earth — the Spartoi, the Sown Men. Cadmus threw a stone among them, and in their confusion they fought until only five survived: Echion, Udaeus, Chthonius, Hyperenor, and Pelorus. These became the ancestors of the Theban nobility; Echion wed Cadmus' daughter Agave and begot Pentheus.4
Harmonia's wedding
Cadmus served Ares eight years to atone for the dragon's slaughter, and when his servitude ended Athena secured the kingdom for him. Zeus gave him Harmonia, daughter of Ares and Aphrodite, and all the gods left Olympus for the wedding in the Cadmea, bringing the necklace and the robe that would one day ruin their descendants.5
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How the centuries saw it
Cadmus Killing the Dragon
Francesco Zuccarelli, c. 1740
Zuccarelli's Arcadian kill: Cadmus spears Ares' serpent at the spring — Ovid's bloody prelude to the sowing that will found Thebes.
Cadmus Sowing the Dragon's Teeth
Workshop of Peter Paul Rubens (after Jacob Jordaens), c. 1636
Rijksmuseum panel: Cadmus, guided by Minerva, watches the Spartoi rise from the furrows and turn on one another — the prodigy that seeds Thebes.
Two Followers of Cadmus Devoured by a Dragon
Cornelis van Haarlem, 1588
Haarlem Mannerist canvas: the Ismenian dragon tears Cadmus' companions while the founder fights on — the price paid before the teeth are sown.
Cadmus and Harmonia
Evelyn De Morgan, 1877
De Morgan's Pre-Raphaelite close: Cadmus and Harmonia become entwined serpents — the Theban founder ending as the dragon he once slew.