4/11 Kadmos, the Dragon-Slayer

Story

what is the story of King Danaos with his 50 daughters?

• King Danaos has 50 beautiful daughters

• unfortunately, from some mysterious deal between the king and the brother, the 50 daughters have to engage and marry the 50 loud and obnoxious cousins

• as the wedding day comes closer, the daughters and the king dread it

• the night before the wedding, the king gives them each a special and secret wedding gift: a knife

• he tells them that as soon as the cousins bring them to their bedroom the night of the wedding, stab them with the knife

• 49 daughters went through with this plan except 1 who found the cousin cute and sweet

• the other 49 became murderers of their husbands and suffered unique punishments in their afterlife → condemned forever to use pots with holes to bring water from the well to their homes

Foundation Figures

who are the foundation figures?

• Danaos (Argos → a Greek city that was seen as a cradle of Greek culture)

  • Daniads (the 50 daughters)

  • main-stream Greek myth

• Europa (Crete)

• Kadmos (Thebes)

Foundation Figures: Thebes

what is the ‘Theban Cycle?” what are the origin stories? why are there two?

• “Theban Cycle” are the stories about the descendants of Kadmos

• two origin stories

  • story 1 → Amphion and Zethus were twins who were exposed at birth. when they grew up, Zethus used his super strength to lay the foundational stones of Thebes. Amphion was able to play the lyre, and with the power of music, was able to raise the stones to build the walls of Thebes

  • story 2 → Kadmos

• unclear why there are 2 stories, but maybe because story 2 had a heroic pattern that was similar to other hero figure stories during later periods

Kadmos and the dragon

what was Kadmos’ goal? what did the oracle say? what did he do?

• his sister, Europa, was seduced by a magical bull and the swimming bull took her to Crete. anguished, he looks all over the Greek world for her

• he goes to the Delphi oracle to ask where he can find his sister. the oracle said he will never find his sister, but he needs to “follow the cow”

• he buys the cow and somehow spirited by the gods, it always wanders and never stops

• once it lays down, it is in cowland

• Kadmos gets fresh waster in order to perform the sacrificial ceremony of the cow to create a new civilization, but a dragon is guarding the springs

Kadmos and the dragon

what is a dragon?

• Drakon

  • draco → naturally big snake

• both refer to a mythological big snake with wings, and is either fire-breathing or spits poison

• guardians of objects or places

Kadmos and the dragon

who is the dragon? how does the fight play out?

• “dragon of Ares”

  • unclear if it is sacred to Ares or a child of Ares

• Kadmos throws rocks at the dragon of Ares, which bounce of the scaly skin

• then, Kadmos throws a spear and it somehow killed it

Kadmos and the dragon

what happens after the battle with the dragon?

• Athena appears and has a test for Kadmos?

• her test is to plant the teeth of the dragon in the ground

• ‘Earthborn men,’ which are skeletons, were summoned from the ground

• Kadmos throws rocks until the Earthborn men are confused and start fighting each other

• survivors become the founding fathers of Thebes

• service to Ares (mythic gap)

  • Ares appears, saying Kadmos had killed his dragon

  • Kadmos is forced to serve Ares for 8 years to purify his guilt for killing his dragon

  • Ares was so happy at the end of the 8 years that he gave Kadmos a daughter, Harmonia, in marriage

The necklace of Harmonia

who are Harmonia’s parents? why will this lead to something bad?

• Ares and Aphrodite were sleeping around when she was married to Hephaestus

• Aphrodite is pregnant and their daughter is Harmonia

  • her name means to join together, which is very ironic because she would become symbolic of death and destruction

• wedding gift for Harmonia and Kadmos is a necklace made by Hephaestus

  • but because that is the daughter of his cheating wife, he puts a curse on it

The necklace of Harmonia

what is the curse? what does it do?

• the curse was never specified

• it was passed down among the women of Thebes

• as soon as they put it on, horrible things happen to them

• it was safekept in Delphi, and then it was destroyed in a massive fire

The necklace of Harmonia

what is the myth of Eriphyle?

• Oedipus’ sons go into a horrible civil war

• there is a soldier with a gift of prophecy and sees into the future that this civil war will be disastrous with each side completely destroying each other

• thus, he refuses to fight

• however, he had an earlier promise with his wife that if there is a dispute, the wife will decide it

• the leader secretly goes to the wife, Eriphyle, and lures her with the necklace

• with the necklace, she tells her husband to go to war

The Later Life of Kadmos

what is he known for?

• foundations of Thebes

• introduction of writing to Greece (Kadmos is a ‘culture hero’)

The Later Life of Kadmos

what does he do in his old age?

• Him and Harmonia return back to the East

• they undergo metamorphosis where they are both transformed into snakes

  • unclear why

    • could be because Ares is still angry at them… but didn’t the 8 years of service make Ares satisfied?

    • maybe irony that the dragon-slaying hero becomes a dragon, but does not explain anything

    • most likely because of the necklace