Kadmus was a brave Phoenician prince and the brother of Europa, who was taken away by Zeus in the form of a bull. Sent by his father to find her, Kadmus searched far and wide but couldn’t find her. On the advice of the Oracle of Delphi, he gave up the search and followed a sacred cow, building a city where it lay down—this city would become Thebes.

To make a sacrifice, Kadmus needed water from a spring guarded by a fierce dragon. He fought and killed the dragon, and on the goddess Athena's advice, he sowed the dragon's teeth into the ground. From the soil sprang up fully armed warriors, called the Spartoi. They fought each other until only five remained, who became the noble families of Thebes.

Kadmus is remembered as a hero who introduced the alphabet to Greece and laid the foundations of a great city—though his life was also touched by sorrow and strange fates, as often happens in myth.