previous next


Cadmus was usually placed three generations earlier than Melampus; he was the grandfather of Dionysus. Perhaps it was this which determined H.'s choice of legend; he wished to make the introduction of the new rite into Greece coincide in time with the birth of the god. Cadmus, as Stein says, was said to be (iv. 147 nn.) a Phoenician, not an Egyptian; but H. obviously thinks Cadmus must have known the rites of Egypt, as it was a neighbour of Tyre; so (c. 116. 1, 2) he proves that Homer knew Paris had been in Egypt, because he mentions his visit to Sidon.

καλεομένην: cf. Thuc. i. 12. 3 for the Greek tradition that Boeotia did not receive its name till sixty years after the fall of Troy, i.e. long after the time of Cadmus.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: