page_title: Cadmus
section_title: Samothrace
hierarchical_section_title: Cadmus / Wanderings / Samothrace
caption_attribution_description: English: Cadmus fighting the dragon. Side A of a red-figured calix-krater found in Sant'Agata de' Goti (Campania), ca. 350–340 BC. From Paestum. Français&#160;: Cadmos combattant le dragon. Face A d'un cratère en calice à figures rouges trouvé à Sant'Agata de' Goti (Campanie), v. 350-340 av. J.-C. Provenance&#160;: Paestum.
context_page_description: In Greek mythology, Cadmus, was the founder and first king of Thebes. Cadmus was the first Greek hero and, alongside Perseus and Bellerophon, the greatest hero and slayer of monsters before the days of Heracles. Commonly stated to be a Phoenician prince, son of king Agenor and queen Telephassa of Tyre and the brother of Phoenix, Cilix and Europa, he was originally sent by his royal parents to seek out and escort his sister Europa back to Tyre after she was abducted from the shores of Phoenicia by Zeus. In early accounts, Cadmus and Europa were instead the children of Phoenix. Cadmus founded the Greek city of Thebes, the acropolis of which was originally named Cadmeia in his honour.
  "His native country is commonly stated to have been Phoenicia, as in Apollodorus; but he is sometimes called a Tyrian [from Tyre], and sometimes a Sidonian [from Sidon]. Others regarded Cadmus as a native of Thebes in Egypt, and his parentage is modified accordingly; for he is also called a son of Antiope, the daughter of Belus, or of Argiope, the daughter of Neilus."
context_section_description: After his sister Europa had been carried off by Zeus from the shores of Phoenicia, Cadmus was sent out by his father to find her, and enjoined not to return without her. Unsuccessful in his search—or unwilling to go against Zeus—he came to Samothrace, the island sacred to the "Great Gods" or the Kabeiroi, whose mysteries would be celebrated also at Thebes.
  Cadmus did not journey alone to Samothrace; he appeared with his mother Telephassa in the company of his nephew (or brother) Thasus, son of Cilix, who gave his name to the island of Thasos nearby. An identically composed trio had other names at Samothrace, according to Diodorus Siculus: Electra and her two sons, Dardanos and Eetion or Iasion. There was a fourth figure, Electra's daughter, Harmonia, whom Cadmus took away as a bride, as Zeus had abducted Europa.
  The wedding was the first celebrated on Earth to which the gods brought gifts, according to Diodorus and dined with Cadmus and his bride.
caption: Cadmus fighting the dragon. Painting from a krater in the Louvre Museum.
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