|
In Greek mythology, Cadmus ; ''Kadmos''), was the founder and first king of Thebes.〔Alden, John B. (1883) ''The Greek Anthology'', pp. 160–162.〕 Initially a Phoenician prince, son of king Agenor and queen Telephassa of Tyre and the brother of Phoenix, Cilix and Europa. He was originally sent by his royal parents to seek out and escort his sister Europa back to Tyre after she was abducted from the shores of Phoenicia by Zeus.〔A modern application of genealogy would make him the paternal grandfather of Dionysus, through his daughter by Harmonia, Semele. Plutarch once admitted that he would rather be assisted by Lamprias, his own grandfather, than by Dionysus' grandfather, i.e. Cadmus. (''Symposiacs, Book IX, (question II )'')〕 Cadmus founded the Greek city of Thebes, the acropolis of which was originally named ''Cadmeia'' in his honour. Cadmus was credited by the ancient Greeks (Herodotus〔Herodotus, ''Histories'', (Book V, 58 ).〕 is an example) with introducing the original Alphabet or Phoenician alphabet—Φοινίκων γράμματα ''Phoinikōn grammata'', "Phoenician letters"—to the Greeks, who adapted it to form their Greek alphabet. Herodotus estimates that Cadmus lived sixteen hundred years before his time, or around 2000 BC.〔Herodotus. ''Histories'', (Book II, 2.145.4 ).〕 Herodotus had seen and described the Cadmean writing in the temple of Apollo at Thebes engraved on certain tripods. He estimated those tripods to date back to the time of Laius the great-grandson of Cadmus.〔 Herodotus. Histories, (Book V.59.1 )〕 On one of the tripods there was this inscription in Cadmean writing, which, as he attested, resembled Ionian letters: (''"Amphitryon dedicated me (forget ) the spoils of (battle of ) Teleboae."''). Though later Greeks like Herodotus dated Cadmus's role in the founding myth of Thebes to well before the Trojan War (or, in modern terms, during the Aegean Bronze Age), this chronology conflicts with most of what is now known or thought to be known about the origins and spread of both the Phoenician and Greek alphabets. While a Phoenician origin for the Greek alphabet is certain, the earliest Greek inscriptions match Phoenician letter forms from the late 9th or 8th centuries BC—and, in any case, the Phoenician alphabet properly speaking was not developed until around 1050 BC (or after the Bronze Age collapse). The Homeric picture of the Mycenaean age betrays extremely little awareness of writing, possibly reflecting the loss during the Dark Age of the earlier Linear B script. Indeed the only Homeric reference to writing〔There are several examples of written letters, such as in Nestor's narrative concerning Bellerophon and the "Bellerophontic letter", another description of a letter presumably sent to Palamedes from Priam but in fact written by Odysseus (Hyginus. ''Fabulae'', (105 )), as well as the letters described by Plutarch in Parallel Lives, Theseus, which were presented to Ariadne presumably sent from Theseus. Plutarch goes on to describe how Theseus erected a pillar on the Isthmus of Corinth, which bears an inscription of two lines.〕 was in the phrase "γράμματα λυγρά", ''grámmata lygrá'', literally "uneducated", when referring to the Bellerophontic letter. Linear B tablets have been found in abundance at Thebes, which might lead one to speculate that the legend of Cadmus as bringer of the alphabet could reflect earlier traditions about the origins of Linear B writing in Greece (as Frederick Ahl speculated in 1967〔F.M. Ahl. "Cadmus and the Palm-Leaf Tablets." ''American Journal of Philology'' 88.2, Apr. 1967, pp. 188-94.〕). But such a suggestion, however attractive, is by no means a certain conclusion in light of currently available evidence. The connection between the name of Cadmus and the historical origins of either the Linear B script or the later Phoenician alphabet, if any, remains elusive. However, in modern day Lebanon, Cadmus is still revered and celebrated as the 'carrier of the letter' to the world. According to Greek myth, Cadmus's descendants ruled at Thebes on and off for several generations, including the time of the Trojan War. ==Etymology== Cadmus' name is of uncertain etymology.〔LSJ entry (Κάδμος )〕 It has been connected to Semitic ''qdm'' "the east" and Greek ''kekasmai'' (< *''kekadmai'') "to shine". Robert Beekes rejects these derivations and considers it Pre-Greek.〔R. S. P. Beekes, ''Etymological Dictionary of Greek'', Brill, 2009, p. 614.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cadmus」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|