希腊罗马神话卡德摩斯 (Cadmus).ppt

Cadmus;Cadmus was a Phoenician prince,the 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. Cadmus founded the Greek city of Thebes, the acropolis of which was originally named Cadmeia in his honour.;Founder of Thebes;Intending to sacrifice the cow to Athena, Cadmus sent some of his companions to the nearby Castalian Spring, for water. They were slain by the springs guardian water-dragon, which was in turn destroyed by Cadmus, the duty of a culture hero of the new order.;By the instructions of Athena, he sowed the dragons teeth in the ground, from which there sprang a race of fierce armed men, called the Spartoí (sown). By throwing a stone among them, Cadmus caused them to fall upon one another until only five survived, who assisted him to build the Cadmeia or citadel of Thebes, and became the founders of the noblest families of that city.;The wedding with Harmonia;At the wedding, whether celebrated at Samothrace or at Thebes, all the gods were present; Harmonia received as bridal gifts a peplos worked by Athena and a necklace made by Hephaestus. This necklace, commonly referred to as the Necklace of Harmonia, brought misfortune to all who possessed it. Notwithstanding the divinely ordained nature of his marriage and his kingdom, Cadmus lived to regret both: his family was overtaken by grievous misfortunes, and his city by civil unrest. Cadmus finally abdicated in favor of his grandson Pentheus, and went with Harmonia to Illyria, to fight on the side of the Encheleans. Later, as king, he founded the city of Lychnidos and Bouthoe.;Nevertheless, Cadmus was deeply troubled by the ill-fortune which clung to him as a result of his having killed the sacred dragon, and one day he remarked that if the gods were so enamoured of the life of a serpent, he might as well w