Cadmus
Previous fabula: Athamas (Fabula 5). This page is Fabula 6 only. Latin and English are given paragraph by paragraph, so each paragraph can be checked against the other. Further fabulae are added as they are finished; see the Hyginus index.
1
Cadmus Agenoris et Argiopes filius, ira Martis quod draconem fontis Castalii custodem occiderat suorum prole interempta, cum Harmonia Veneris et Martis filia uxore sua in Illyriae regionibus in dracones sunt conuersi.
Cadmus, son of Agenor and Argiope, and Harmonia, daughter of Venus and Mars, his wife, were turned into dragons in the lands of Illyria, through the anger of Mars, because he had killed the dragon that guarded the Castalian spring, and after the offspring of his own had been destroyed.
Notes
- Sunt conuersi is plural: Cadmus and Harmonia were turned into dragons, both of them, not Cadmus alone with Harmonia accompanying him.
- The sentence keeps its two items separate: ira Martis, quod draconem ... occiderat is the cause of the punishment, and suorum prole interempta is a separate ablative absolute. Suorum prole is literally “the offspring of his own”, and is not narrowed to “his offspring”; the Latin names no offspring, and none are named in the translation.
- Fontis Castalii is kept as supplied: the Castalian spring. Castalia is at Delphi, while Cadmus's dragon is usually the Theban (Ismenian) one; this is probably Hyginus's own oddity rather than a corruption, so the text is not corrected.
- Argiopes: Packhum gives A<rg>iopes, with rg marked as supplied. The draft keeps Argiopes as in the other online text, flagged here rather than silently adopted.
- Edition check, still open: this Latin text has not yet been checked against a printed critical edition; the Packhum online text agrees with the text used here on Castalii, on the plural conuersi, and on the Argiopes supplement.
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