Cad´mus

son of Agenor, king of Phœnicia, and Telepha a, or Agriope, was ordered by his father to go in quest of his sister Europa, whom Jupiter had carried away. His search proving fruitle , he consulted the oracle of Apollo, and was told to build a city where he saw a heifer stop in the gra , and call the country around Bœotia. He found the heifer, as indicated by the oracle. Requiring water, he sent his companions to fetch some from a neighboring grove. The water was guarded by a dragon, who devoured those who were sent for it, and Cadmus, tired of waiting, went himself to the place. He attacked the dragon and killed it, sowing its teeth in the ground, on which a number of armed men rose out of the earth. Cadmus threw a stone amongst them, and they at once began fighting, and all were killed except five, who a isted him in building the city. Cadmus introduced the use of letters in Greece—the alphabet, as introduced by him, consisting of sixteen letters.