[2]
But Cadmus, to atone for the slaughter, served Ares for
an eternal year; and the year was then equivalent to eight years of our reckoning.1
After his servitude Athena procured for him the kingdom, and Zeus gave him to wife
Harmonia, daughter of Aphrodite and Ares. And all the gods quitted the sky, and feasting
in the Cadmea celebrated the marriage with hymns.2 Cadmus gave her a robe and the necklace wrought by
Hephaestus, which some say was given to Cadmus by Hephaestus, but Pherecydes says that it
was given by Europa, who had received it from Zeus.3 And to Cadmus were
born daughters, Autonoe, Ino, Semele, Agave, and a son Polydorus.4 Ino was married to Athamas, Autonoe to Aristaeus, and
Agave to Echion.
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1 The “eternal year” probably refers to the old eight years' cycle, as to which and the period of a homicide's banishment, see the note on Apollod. 2.5.11.
2 As to the marriage of Cadmus and Harmonia, see Pind. P. 3.88(157)ff.; Eur. Ph. 822ff.; Theognis 15-18; Diod. 4.2.1, Diod. 5.48.5, Diod. 5.49.1; Paus. 3.18.12; Paus. 9.12.3; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. p. 101 (Second Vatican Mythographer 78), (who calls the wife Hermiona).
3 According to another account, this golden necklace was bestowed by Aphrodite on Cadmus or on Harmonia. See Diod. 4.65.5; Scholiast on Pind. P. 3.94(167); Scholiast on Eur. Ph. 71. But, according to yet another account, the necklace and robe were both bestowed by Athena. See Diod. 5.49.1. Second Vatican Mythographer 78 (see preceding note) says that the necklace was made by Vulcan (Hephaestus) at the instigation of Minerva (Athena), and that it was bestowed by him on Harmonia at her marriage.
4 Compare Hes. Th. 975-978ff.; Diod. 4.2.1. As to the daughters Semele and Ino, compare Pind. O. 2.22(38)ff.
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