Editing Cadmus (section)

=== Origins of Cadmus and his myth ===
The question of Cadmus's eastern origin have been debated for a long time in modern scholarship.<ref>{{harvnb|Harrison|2019|p=91}}</ref>

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| image1    = Skyphos, relief, Kadmos, from Tanagra, 2nd c BC, AM of Thebes, 201068.jpg
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| caption1  =  Ancient Greek second-century BC skyphos depicting the founding of Thebes by Cadmus, [[Archaeological Museum of Thebes]].
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| caption2  = Illustration of the relief on the Cadmus skyphos; the Spartoi, Ares, Athena, Cadmus and the cow are shown.
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[[Homer]] mentions Cadmus only once, but he had already referred to the inhabitants of [[Thebes, Greece|Thebes]] with the name "Cadmeans". [[Aeschylus]] and [[Sophocles]], in particular, repeatedly mention the "city of Cadmus" and "Cadmeans", relating Thebes with Cadmus. Also [[Euripides]] linked Thebes with Cadmus, but he was one of the earliest authors and the only tragedian to mention "Cadmus the [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyrian]]".<ref>{{harvnb|Harrison |2019|pp=90–91}}</ref> [[Herodotus]] refers to Cadmus the Tyrian, and he was the first to mention Cadmus's 'Phoenician' origins,<ref name="Shavit 2001 294">{{harvnb|Shavit|2001|p=294}}</ref> but he certainly was not the initiator of this transformation, as his ''Histories'' provides evidence that the myth was already widespread.<ref>{{harvnb|Harrison |2019|p=91}}</ref> Since Herodotus Cadmus has been commonly described as a prince of [[Phoenicia]].<ref name="Colavito" /> According to [[Diodorus Siculus]] (1st century BC), Cadmus had [[Thebes, Greece|Theban]] origins.<ref name="Shavit 2001 294"/>

Modern historian Albert Schachter has suggested that Cadmus was a [[Fiction|fictitious hero]] named after the Thebean [[acropolis]] and was made 'Phoenician' due to the influence of immigrants from the [[Eastern world|East]] to [[Boeotia]].<ref>{{harvnb|Schachter|2016|pp=29}}</ref><ref name="Shavit 2001 294"/> According to [[M. L. West]] the myth of Cadmus and Harmonia at Thebes originated from 9th or 8th century BC Phoenician residents in the city.<ref name="Shavit 2001 294"/> According to Jason Colavito, although modern scholars have debated on whether the myth came from Phoenicia, there is evidence that the core of Cadmus's myth originated in Near Eastern stories of the battle between a hero and a dragon. The myth of Cadmus the Phoenician was not a literal reinterpretation of an original Phoenician myth, although being probably inspired by one, rather it was the Greeks' interpretation of the Phoenician civilization and the benefits they acquired from it, specifically the alphabet.<ref name="Colavito" /> According to archaeologist [[John Boardman (art historian)|John Boardman]], the "Phoenicians" who came with Cadmus, were not "Phoenicians", but rather Greeks who had lived in the [[Near East]] for a while and had returned to teach what they had learned there, including the alphabet.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Boardman |first=John |date=1957 |title=Early Euboean Pottery and History |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/annual-of-the-british-school-at-athens/article/abs/early-euboean-pottery-and-history/FE85A9C1BFC1A66CE9E08CC0BC09B015 |journal=Annual of the British School at Athens |language=en |volume=52 |pages=1–29 |doi=10.1017/S0068245400012867 |s2cid=162393980 |issn=2045-2403}}</ref>{{Sfn|Schachter|2016|p=35}}

Given the absence of a Phoenician colony in Thebes, several hypotheses arguing against Cadmus's eastern origin have been proposed by modern scholars:

;Mycenaean hypothesis
According to historian [[Frederick M. Ahl]], scholarly suggestions{{Refn|e.g. [[Martin P. Nilsson]]'s<ref name=":2">M. P. Nilsson, ''The Mycenaean Origin of Greek Mythology'' (Berkeley: University of California Press. 1932), p. 126</ref>)|group=note}} that Cadmus was a [[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean]] must be taken into account against Cadmus' Phoenician origin, as for him it is becoming harder and harder to reconcile literary and archaeological evidence, not to mention epigraphical difficulties.<ref>{{harvnb|Ahl|1967|p=193}}</ref> Ahl rather suggest that "Cadmus was a Mycenaean, and the writing he brought to Thebes was [[Linear B]], which may have been known to Greek-speaking peoples then or later as ''φοινικήια γράμματα''."<ref>{{harvnb|Ahl|1967|p=194}}</ref>

;Cretan hypothesis
[[Henry Hall (Egyptologist)|Henry Hall]] set forth an hypothesis, arguing that Cadmus and the Cadmeians came from [[Crete]].<ref name="Ahl 1967 192">{{harvnb|Ahl|1967|p=192}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hall |first=H. R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LvAMAAAAIAAJ |title=Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology |date=1909 |publisher=Society of Biblical Archaeology |volume=31 |pages=282 |language=en |chapter=The Discoveries in Crete and Their Relation to the History of Egypt and Palestine}}</ref> There are a number of difficulties involved in this hypothesis, however, notably the assertion that Mycenaean society resulted from the triumph of the Minoan civilization over the mainland one.<ref name="Ahl 1967 192"/><ref>Matz, Friedrich (1962) ''Minoan civilization: Maturity and Zenith''. Cambridge University Press. p. 45</ref><ref name=":2" />

;Argive hypothesis
Cadmus was used as an identification figure by the [[Argos, Peloponnese|Argives]], representing an intriguing example of mythical requisition in relation to the wars between Argos and Thebes. According to the Argive legend, Cadmus's father Agenor was descended from the Argive princess [[Io (mythology)|Io]]. In this light, Cadmus becomes an Argive and Thebes his "home away from home", which is connected with the emergence of hybrid identities during the period of the Great Colonization.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Renger |first=Almut-Barbara |date=2014-05-27 |title=Tracing the Line of Europa: Migration, Genealogy, and the Power of Holy Origins in Ancient Greek Narrative Knowledge and Cultural Memory |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/02757206.2013.832240 |journal=History and Anthropology |volume=25 |issue=3 |pages=356–374 |doi=10.1080/02757206.2013.832240 |issn=0275-7206 |s2cid=161789417}} p. 368.</ref>