Said of troublesome things; for it happened that
Cadmus, the son of Ogygus,[1] fell into evils on account of his daughters.[2] But better to say that 'Ogygian evils' [means] ancient [ones]: for this is what the phrase indicates.[3]
Cf. Appendix Proverbiorum 5.42.
[1] The relationship between
Cadmus and Ogygus is uncertain.
Pausanias 9.5.1 (see Web Address 2 below) suggests that both were connected with
Thebes - Ogygus being the original king, and
Cadmus a later conquerer.
Cadmus is usually said to be the son of Agenor.
[2] Three of
Cadmus' daughters,
Semele, Agave, and Ino, met tragic ends which
Cadmus lived to see;
Cadmus himself, in the most famous account of his latter years, suffers an ambiguous fate that involves being turned into a snake. In a problem-filled passage of
Euripides'
Bacchae (1330-1367, see Web Address 4), the divine son of
Cadmus' daughter,
Dionysus, seems to cast
Cadmus' fate as punishment for failure to recognize his godhood. Possibly any combination of these woes is what is meant by the evils that occur "on account of his daughters".
[3] The adjective Ogygios came to be synonymous with "primeval" or "primordial." See the next lemma (
omega 13) as well as the entry in LSJ (Web Address 1) and
Sophocles, OC 1770 (Web Address 3).
Helma Dik on 4 April 2000@12:11:22.
William Hutton (Modified translation and notes, added link and keyword, raised status) on 19 March 2001@13:01:50.
William Hutton on 19 March 2001@13:02:40.
William Hutton (Augmented note) on 19 March 2001@13:06:38.
David Whitehead (augmented notes and keywords; cosmetics) on 26 February 2003@09:00:01.
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