CADMUS OF

See also:

• MILETUS (mod. Palatia)

MILETUS  , according to some ancient authorities the oldest of the logographi (q.v.) . Modern scholars, who accept this view, assign him to about 550 B.C.; others regard him as purely mythical . A confused notice in Suidas mentions three persons of the name: the first, the inventor of the alphabet; the second, the son of Pandion, " according to some " the first prose writer, a little later than Orpheus, author of a history of the Foundation of Miletus and of Ionia generally, in four books; the third, the son of Archelaus, of later date, author of a history of Attica in fourteen books, and of some poems of an erotic character . As Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Judicium de Thucydide, c . 23) distinctly states that the work current in his time under the name of Cadmus was a forgery, it is most probable that the two first are identical with the Phoenician Cadmus, who, as the reputed inventor of letters, was subsequently trans-formed into the Milesian and the author of an historical work . In this connexion it should be observed that the old Milesian nobles traced their descent back to the Phoenician or one of his companions . The text of the notice of the third Cadmus of Miletus in Suidas is unsatisfactory; and it is uncertain whether he is to be explained in the same way, or whether he was an historical personage, of whom all further record is lost . See C . W . Muller, Frag . Hist . Graec. ii .

2-4; and 0 .

Crusius in Roscher's Lexikon der Mythologie (article " Kadmos," 90, 91) .