THE FOUNDING OF THEBES
The historical Thebes was the leading city of Boeotia, on the low ridge that separates the two chief plains of Boeotia; its citadel was called the Cadmeia, preserving the name of Cadmus, legendary founder of the city. Cadmus was son of Agenor, king of Tyre, and brother of Europa. Agenor sent him to find Europa, whose abduction from Tyre is one of several myths in which a woman was taken against her will from Asia to Europe or viceversa.
Herodotus narrates these legends at the beginning of his history in order to underline the difference between mythology and history. In these myths the opposition of the Greek and Asiatic worlds, which came to a historical climax in the Persian Wars of 494-479 B.C., began when Phoenician traders kidnapped the Argive princess Io and took her to Egypt. The Greeks (whom Herodotus calls "Cretans") in return seized the Phoenician princess Europa and took her to Crete. The pattern was then reversed: the Greeks took Medea from Colchis and in return the Trojan Alexander (Paris) took Helen from Sparta. Herodotus explained that the Persians, reasoning from these myths, believed that Europe and Asia were permanently divided and hostile. As a historian he was skeptical about these tales, for he could not vouch for their truth, whereas he could report things of which he had knowledge: "About these things I am not going to come and say that they happened in this way or in another, but the man who I myself know was the beginner of unjust works against the Greeks, this man I will point out and advance with my story ... " (1.5). So for the Greek historian of the Persian Wars the distinction between myth and history was evident.
EUROPA
The story of Europa is the first in which the Asiatic figure makes her way to the Greek world. In the usual version of the myth (which is different from the skeptical account of Herodotus) Zeus, disguised as a bull, took her to Crete. In Crete Europa became the mother of Minos by Zeus.
CADMUS, FOUNDER OF THEBES
Meanwhile Cadmus, Europa's brother, set out to find her and came to Delphi, where he asked the oracle for advice. Apollo told him not to worry about Europa any more but to follow a certain cow until she lay down out of veariness and there to found a city. Cadmus found the cow in Phocis (the district of Greece in which Delphi is situated), and she led him to Boeotia, where he founded his city, Cadmeia, later called Thebes.
As for the divinely sent cow, it was Cadmus' duty to sacrifice her; to perform the ceremony, he needed water, which he sent his companions to draw from the nearby spring sacred to Ares. A serpent, a child of Ares, guarded the spring; it killed most of Cadmus' men, and in return was itself killed by Cadmus. Ovid relates that Cadmus then heard a voice saying: "Why, son of Agenor, do you look at the dead serpent? You too will be looked at as a serpent." Thus the final episode in the life of Cadmus was prophesied.
Athena, to whom Cadmus had been sacrificing the cow, now advised Cadmus to take the serpent's teeth and sow them; from the ground sprang up armed men, who fought and killed each other until only five were left. From these five survivors, who were called Spartoi (i.e., "sown men"), descended the noble families of Thebes.
Now Cadmus had to appease Ares for the death of the serpent; he therefore became his slave for a year (which was the equivalent of eight of our years). At the end of this time he was freed and given Harmonia, daughter of Ares and Aphrodite, as his wife. The marriage was celebrated on the Cadmeia, and all the gods came as guests. Cadmus and Harmonia had four daughtersóIno, Semele, Autonoe, and Agave.
Cadmus and Harmonia were thought to have
reigned a long time, civilizing their people and introducing knowledge
of writing. At the end of their lives, they both were turned into great
harmless serpents. They were worshiped by their descendants, and
their departure from Cadmeia was not the outcome of any misdeed or grief,
but a symbol of their change from mortal to heroic or divine status.