CAD 



lie wa3 driven from ll\o llirono of Thebes by his grandfon 

 Pciithtus ; and that having commanded the Enclielae who 

 were at war with the lUyrians, he fubdutd the latter, and 

 fiirrendertd the gowrnnient to his fon Illyrius, who was 

 born afttr his retreat to this country. To Cadmus, Greece 

 ii fuppofcd ti> liave been indebted for the firll introdudllon 

 of letters ; which are faid to have been of Phoenician origin, 

 and 1") in nun;ber. Four otturs were afterwards adilcd by 

 Palamedcs, and fonr by Simonides. He is alfo faid to have 

 been the tiril who eftablillud fchools, and who tauglit the 

 Ciicclans trade and navigation ; and the ep:thct Cadmtan, 

 given to brafs, is afcribed to him. bccaufe he was the in- 

 ventor of it, and bccaufe he firft introduced the ufe of it 

 into thofe parts. Wherever he came he alfo introduced 

 the rchgion of his country, whicli confifted in the worfhip 

 of D;oMuUis, and in the rites denominated by the later 

 Greeks the Dionullaca. They fecm to have been much 

 the fame with the Cabiritic mylleries, which Cadmus is faid 

 to have eftabliflied in Samothracia. 



Tiie arrival of Cadmus in Greece is placed by Dr. Blair 

 about 149 J years B. C. and his death, at the age of 112 

 years, is faid to have happened in the year 1432 B.C. The 

 arrival of Cadmus, and the foundation of Thebes, are dated in 

 the Arundelian marbles the 64th year of the Attic xra, 1519 

 B. C. But Sir Ilaac Newton, and thofe who adopt his chrono- 

 logy, allow Cadmus to have flourillied but 1045 years be- 

 fore the Chri'.lian a;ra. Sir Ifaac imagines, that the emi- 

 gration of the Phcenicians and Syrians was occalioned by 

 the conqucfts of David. " Thefe people," fays he, (Chron. 

 p. i;.) "fleeing from Zidon and from David, came, under 

 the condticl of Cadmus, and other captains, into Afia Minor, 

 Crete, Greece, and Lybia, and introduced letters, mufic, 

 poetry, metals ami their fabrication, and other arts, fciences, 

 and cudoms of the Phccnicians. This happened about 

 140 years before the Trojan war. It was about the i6th 

 ■year of David's reign that Cadmus fled from Zidon. At 

 his firft coming into Greece, he failed to Rhodes, and 

 thence to Samothrace, an ifland near Thrace, on the north 

 lide of Lemnos, and there married Harmonia, the fiftcr of 

 J.ifius and Dard?.nu3, which gave occafion to the Samo- 

 thracian myfteries." 



Bochart has, with great ingenuity and learning, attempt- 

 ed to folve the enigmas, under which the hiftory of Cadmus 

 is reprefented. He fuppofes, that Cadmus was a fugitive 

 Canaanite, who fled from the face of Jofhua ; and that he 

 was fo called from being a Cadmonite, which is a family 

 nientiimed by Mofes. Gen. xv.9. Thefe Cadmonites were 

 the fame with the Hivites, and were called Cadmanim, or 

 Eaftcrlings, bccaufe they inhabited mount Hermon, the 

 moft eaftern part of Canaan ; and Bochart fuppofes, that 

 Harmonia derived her name from that of this mountain. 

 The fable of Cadmus and Harmonia being transformed into 

 fcrpents he afcribes to their having retained the common 

 name of Hivites, which in the Syriac fignifies ferpejits. 

 He explains the reft of the fable, concerning the teeth of 

 the dragon, whicfc were fown, and the armed men which 

 fprung from them, upoTi the fame principle. The learned 

 Bryant (Anal. Anc. Mythol. vol. ii. 158.) diflents from 

 Bochart in a varitty of particulars. Indeed, he controverts 

 tlie exirtence of fuch a pcrfon as Cadmus, and fuggefts feve- 

 ral objeftions againft the account given by Herodotus and 

 others of the Cadmians having brought letters from Phceni- 

 cia into Greece. See Letters. The rites of Bacchus, 

 he fays, could not have been brought by Cadmus into 

 Greece, if Bacchus was his defcendant, or the fon of his 

 daughter Semele. It is faid, that Cadmus was a Phceni- 

 cian ; but Diodorus Siculus (lib.i. p. 20.) fpeaks of him as 



CAD 



an Egyptian, and a native of Thebais. Pherecydes Synn 

 alfo reprefents him as an Egyptian ; and by others he is faid 

 to have been the fon of Antiope, the daughter of Belus, and 

 confequently of Babylonifti extraftion. It was from the 

 fame part of the world that the myfteries, in which Cadmus 

 was fo well fl<illed, were imported ; and here it was, that he 

 was taught hieroglyphics, and the other charafters, which 

 are afcribed to him. Thefe arts he carried firft to the coaft 

 of Sidon and Syria ; and from thence he is fuppofcd to have 

 brought them into Greece. Mr. Bryant having ftated the ori- 

 gin and country of Cadmus, proceedstofliewthattheacconnts 

 which are given of him by Herodotus, Diodorus, Strabo, 

 and Paufanias, are infufficient to prove the reality of fuch an 

 adventurer. It is not credible, he fays, that a perfon fliould 

 fo often rove upon the feas amid fuch a variety of nations, 

 and refide among them at his pleafure ; much lefs that he 

 fliould build temples, found cities, and introduce his religion 

 wherever he lifted ; and that he fhould do all this in the 

 courfe of his tranlient vifits to different places. " Is it credi- 

 ble, that any perfon could have penetrated into the various 

 regions, whither he is fuppofed to have gone ? to have 

 founded colonies in Phoenicia, Cyprus, Rhodes, Thera, 

 Thauis, Anaphe, Samothracia ? to have twice vifited the 

 Hellefpcnt i' to have worked the mines in the Pangsan 

 mountains, and in other places ? to have made fettlements 

 in Eubcea, Attica, Bosotia, and lUyria ? and, above all, to 

 have had fuch territories in Afric ? He is reprefented as 

 heir to the kingdom of Egypt : this he quitted, and ob- 

 tained a kingdom in Phoenicia. He leaves this too ; and 

 after much wandering arrives in Greece ; where he founds 

 feveral cities, and reigns 62 years. After this, hard to con- 

 ceive I he is made king in lUyria. He muft alfo have reigned 

 in Afric ; and his dominions feem to have been confiderable, 

 as he founded an hundred cities. He is reprefented as a 

 king in Armenia ; and had there too no fmall territory. 

 Sure, kingdoms in thofe times muft have been very cheap, 

 if they were fo eafily attainable. But the whole is certainly 

 a miftake ; at leaft, in refpefl to Cadmus. No perfon could 

 pofTiblv have effefted what is attributed to him. They were 

 not the achievements of one pcrlon, nor ot one age. And 

 place Cadmus at any given aera, and arrange his hiftory, as 

 may appear moft plaulible ; yet there will arife numberlefs 

 inconfiftencies from the coimexions he muft have in refpeft 

 to time, place, and people ; fuch as no art nor difpofitioii 

 can remedy." 



Should it be aflced, if there were no fuch man as Cadmus, 

 what did the ancients allude to under this charafter, and 

 what is the true purport of thefe hiftorits ? The anfwer 

 of Bryant is, that the travels of Cadmus, like the expedi- 

 tions of Perfeus, Sefoftris, and Ofiris, relate to colonies, 

 which at different times went abroad, and were diftinguifhed 

 by this title. Cadmus, he fays, was one of the names of 

 Ofiris, the chief deity of Egypt. Both Europa and Har- 

 monia are of the like nature. They were titles of the deity; 

 but affumed by colonies, who went out and fettled under 

 thefe denominations. Cadmus was one of thofe deities. He 

 was the fame as Hermes of Egypt, called alfo Toth, Athoth, 

 and Canathoth; and was fuppofed to have been the inventor 

 of letters. He was fometimes ftiled Cadmilus, another 

 name for Hermes ; under which he was worfliipped in Sa- 

 mothracia and Hctruria. Lycophron (v. 219.) fpeakintr of 

 the prophet Pruhs in Lefbjs, tells U3, that he was the fon of 

 Cadmus, and of the race of Atlas. And he was the perfon 

 who was fuppofed to give information to the Greeks, when 

 they were upon their expedition to Troy. Harmonia, the 

 wife of Cadmus, who has been efteemed a mere woman, 

 feems to have been an cmolem of nature, and the foftering 

 7 niirfe 



