The fall of the House of Cadmus - Iseult Gillespie

356,214 views ・ 2024-07-11

TED-Ed


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When Cadmus walked the earth,
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just a few generations separated him from his divine ancestors.
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From atop Mount Olympus, they scrutinized and meddled with mortals like himself.
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Cadmus was a skilled warrior and heir to the Phoenician throne.
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But he wouldn't stay in the gods' favor for long.
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First, Zeus coveted Cadmus' sister, Europa.
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So, he snuck into the palace garden in the form of a bull and stole her away.
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Their father tasked Cadmus and his men with the impossible duty
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of bringing Europa back.
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Cadmus journeyed to the sacred Oracle of Delphi to plead for help,
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where he was told to find and follow a sacred, wild cow.
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At the spot where the cow rested, he was to found a new city.
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Cadmus and his men did as the oracle said,
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then ventured into the nearby forest for supplies.
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But a giant serpent soon appeared.
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It choked some of Cadmus' men and blasted others with venom.
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Cadmus leapt into action, hurled his javelin,
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and pinned the snake to a tree.
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Without knowing it, he had just slain Ares', the god of war's, precious serpent—
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and sealed tragedy into his own fate along with it.
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Suddenly, a disembodied voice boomed:
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"You too shall be a serpent to be gazed on."
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Taking pity on the prince,
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the goddess Athena instructed Cadmus to till the earth
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using the serpent's teeth.
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As he nestled its fangs into the soil,
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a band of warriors sprouted from the ground.
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Together, they built the magnificent city of Thebes.
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And eventually, Cadmus fell in love with Harmonia,
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daughter of Ares and Aphrodite, and the two married.
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As years passed, and his city and family grew,
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hope that all strife might be forgotten between Cadmus and the gods
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glimmered briefly.
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But, soon enough, his family's luck began souring once more.
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Tragedy struck when Cadmus' grandson, Actaeon,
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was tracking a stag in the forest with his hunting hounds.
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The young man unwittingly infringed on the sacred grove of Artemis,
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goddess of the hunt, as she was bathing.
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Artemis punished Actaeon, transforming him into a skittish stag.
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And in this form Actaeon's own hounds could no longer distinguish him
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from the object of the hunt— and they went in for the kill.
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Then, Zeus visited again—
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this time taking advantage of Semele, one of Cadmus' four daughters.
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When Zeus' wife Hera learned that he'd been unfaithful yet again
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and that Semele was pregnant,
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she tricked Zeus into revealing himself to Semele in his divine form.
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But even the feeblest of his thunderstorms was too much for a mortal to witness,
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and Semele perished.
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Zeus managed to save their unborn child, who grew into Dionysus, god of wine.
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His wild, revelrous rituals drew devoted followers.
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But they eventually got out of hand.
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On one occasion, two of Cadmus' four daughters,
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Agave and Autonoë— Dionysus' own aunts—
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had a hallucinatory fit and killed Agave's own son,
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believing he was a lion.
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Next, Hera targeted the family again.
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Alongside the Furies, the goddesses of vengeance,
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she cursed Cadmus' fourth daughter, Ino,
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with an intolerable madness that drove her into the sea.
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Besieged by bad luck and overcome with grief,
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Cadmus and Harmonia wandered the wilderness.
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They considered the many tragic turns their lives had taken—
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which Cadmus traced back to the time he killed the serpent.
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Realizing that the animal could have been sacred
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and that his act might have incited the unabating wrath of the gods,
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Cadmus prayed to recompense his error.
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Suddenly, he felt his body change and he embraced Harmonia.
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The two melted to the ground and shed their human skins,
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until finally, two snakes were left coiled in the field.
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Cadmus' debt was at last repaid—
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to the snake he slayed in a desperate moment,
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and to the gods, who guarded their grudges
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and dispensed of their punishments liberally.
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