Thebes
placeThebes was the great city of Boeotia, founded by Cadmus who sowed dragon teeth, and the setting for the tragedies of Oedipus, Antigone, and the Seven Against Thebes.
The Myth
Cadmus of Phoenicia, seeking his sister Europa, was directed by the Delphic oracle to follow a cow and build a city where it lay down. He killed a dragon sacred to Ares, sowed its teeth, and from the earth sprang armed warriors — the Spartoi, ancestors of Theban nobility. Thebes became the birthplace of Dionysus and Heracles. Its greatest tragedy was the house of Laius: despite all precautions, Oedipus killed his father and married his mother, and the resulting curse destroyed his entire family across three generations.
Parents
Founded by Cadmus
Children
N/A
Symbols
Fun Fact
Cadmus, founder of Thebes, was credited by the Greeks with introducing the alphabet to Greece — the Phoenician letters that became Greek.