Cadmus

Cadmus, i, m., = Kadmos.

I.

Son of the Phœnician king Agenor, brother of Europa, husband of Harmonia, father of Polydorus, Ino, Semele, Autonoë, and Agave; founder of the Cadmea, the citadel of the Bœotian Thebes, Cic. Tusc. 1, 12, 28; id. N. D. 3. 19, 48; Ov. M. 3, 14 sq.; id. F. 1, 490; id. P. 4, 10, 55; the inventor of alphabetic writing, Plin. 7, 56, 57, § 192 sqq. (hence letters are called Cadmi filiolae atricolores, Aus. Ep. 29;

and Cadmi nigellae filiae,

id. ib. 21 ). He and his wife. Harmonia were at last changed into serpents, Ov. M. 4, 572 sq.; Hor. A. P. 187; cf. Hyg. Fab. 6; 148; 179;

274.—Hence, Cadmi soror,

i. e. Europa, Ov. P. 4, 10, 55.—

B.

Derivv.

1.

Cadmēus, a, um, adj., = Kadmeios, of or pertaining to Cadmus, Cadmean:

Thebae,

Prop. 1, 7, 1:

juventus, i. e. Thebana,

Theban, Stat. Th. 8, 601:

Dirce (because in the neighborhood of Thebes),

Luc. 3, 175:

mater,

i. e. Agave, the mother of Pentheus, Sen. Oedip. 1005: cistae, i. e. of Bacchus (because Bacchus was the grandson of Cadmus by Semele), id. Herc. Oet. 595:

Tyros (because Cadmus came from Phœnicia),

Prop. 3 (4), 13, 7.—Also Carthaginian:

gens, stirps, manus = Carthaginiensis,

Sil. 1, 6; 1, 106; 17, 582.—

b.

Subst.: Cadmēa, ae, f. (sc. arx), the citadel of Thebes founded by Cadmus, Nep. Pelop. 1, 2; id. Epam. 10, 3.—

2.

Cadmēĭus, a, um, adj., Cadmean:

genitrix,

i. e. Agave, Stat. Th. 4, 565: seges, i. e. the armed men that sprang from the dragon ' s teeth sown by Cadmus, Val. Fl. 7, 282:

heros,

i. e. the Theban, Polynices, Stat. Th. 3, 366; so,

Haemon,

id. 8, 458 and 520.—

3.

Cadmēïs, ĭdis, f. adj. (acc. Cadmeidem and Cadmeida, Neue, Formenl. 1, 211; 1, 305; voc. Cadmei, ib. 1, 293), = Kadmêïs, of Cadmus, Cadmean:

domus,

Ov. M. 4, 545:

arx,

id. ib. 6, 217:

matres,

i. e. Theban women, id. ib. 9, 304.—

b.

Subst., a female descendant of Cadmus; so of Semele, Ov. M. 3, 287; of Ino, id. F. 6, 553.— Plur. Cadmeïdes, the daughters of Cadmus, Agave, Ino, and Autonoë, Sen. Herc. Fur. 758.—

II.

An historian of Miletus, said to have been the earliest prose writer, Plin. 5, 29, 31, § 112; 7, 56, 57, § 205.—

III.

A bloodthirsty executioner in the time of Horace, Hor. S. 1, 6, 39; Schol. Crucq.—

IV.

A mountain in Caria, Plin. 5, 29, 31, § 118.