Kadmos
Grc: Κάδμος - En: Cadmus
Kadmos was a Tyrian prince, who set out on an expedition to rescue his sister, Europa, after she was kidnapped by marauders from Hellas. He never found them, probably because she had actually been taken to Krete, and so he was not able to return to Tyre.
Kadmos acquired secrets of the gods at Samothrace and took them with him. This was also where he met and married a woman named Harmonia, who claimed to be a daughter of Ares and Aphrodite, in possession of a magic necklace given to her that made her practically immortal. While consulting the oracle at Delphi, Kadmos was instructed to find and follow a cow with a curious moon-shaped marking on its side. The cow would lead Kadmos and his companions to a spring, where he would slay a dragon and sowed its teeth into the ground. This was the spot where the oracle said Kadmos should found new kingdom.
The moon-cow, once located, led Kadmos on a meandering journey through the Boiotian wilderness until, at the headland spring of the Ismenian River, the cow was snatched and eaten by an enormous dragon. Kadmos slayed the dragon, sowed the teeth, and reaped a crop of soldiers, the Spartoi, who became the first residents of his new city, which he named Thebai after the famed Aegyptian city.
Kadmos and Harmonia went into exile with their son, Illyrius, who founded the kingdoms of Illyria on the eastern coast of Italy. Illyria was conquered by Rome in the Illyrian Wars that ended in 168 BCE. After death, Kadmos and Harmonia were turned into snakes.
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