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he founded the great Cadmeia there. He also recalled Teiresias, who was a philosopher of the Boeotians, who had dogmatized that all things move by chance and that the world is without providence, and who for these reasons had been exiled to the temple of Daphnaean Apollo. They tell the myth of this Teiresias that, having seen Pallas bathing, he was immediately changed into the nature of a woman, and that he was meddling with her about how a woman conceives with a man, and how the one nature of the blood is divided into bones and veins and flesh and the other parts, and a living infant is born, and being unable to comprehend the wisdom of the creator, he slipped into the doctrine of chance; for which reason, they said in jest, he was changed into the nature of a woman. This Cadmus, the king of Boeotia, having given his daughter Agave 1.43 to Echion as a wife, sends her to Chios. Therefore, from her is born a prudent and intelligent man, Pentheus; to whom Cadmus later ceded the administration of the kingdom, as he himself spent his life with Teiresias on Mount Cithaeron. And Semele, Polymedon the son of Aetherion having married her, being of the race of Zeus, from Semele he begets a seven-month infant, because the mother died from extraordinary lightning and thunder. This infant Cadmus sent to the land of Nysia to be raised, who was also named Nyseius. But they tell the myth that Zeus kept him in his own lap for a second month, because, having been miscarried before the appointed time, he received a portion of life from the god. But others, as he performed certain mystical and wondrous things from solar prayers and as he was an expert in viticulture, both deified him and renamed him Dionysus, as being of the race of Zeus. They say he went to Persia, and displayed to them certain visions of wondrous deeds and wars. After these things he comes against Pentheus with a heavy multitude, and he called the men *skirtoi* because they leap and bound, and the women Bacchantes. And usurping the kingdom of the Boeotians, he engages in battle with Pentheus and overcomes him, but he is released from his bonds by Agave, the mother of Pentheus, as she was the aunt of Dionysus. After these things, having laid an ambush, he kills Pentheus. And since the Boeotians did not accept him as king, he goes to Delphi and dying is buried. After Cadmus, Nycteus reigned over Boeotia. His daughter 1.44 Antiope, being a priestess of the Sun, Theoboios the son of Braton, descended from the race of Zeus, and brother of Nycteus, having had intercourse with her, begets twins, Amphion and Zethus, whom by the command of his brother they expose near Mount Cithaeron. But a certain farmer named Ordion, being childless, took them up and raised them. And while Antiope was being guarded by Dirce in order to be punished for her transgression, since a war had stirred in the land of the Argives, with Lycus lingering there, Dirce coaxingly asked Nycteus to release Antiope. But he instead ordered that she be tied to a wild bull and die, as one who had profaned her virginity. But hearing this, Zethus and Amphion, and having learned from the one who raised them that this Antiope was their mother, together with many country-folk they burst in and kill the soldiers, but they tie Dirce to the bull and slay her. And coming into Boeotia with their mother Antiope, since Nycteus was dead, the musicians Zethus and Amphion rule the Boeotians for many years. And they found a great city in the name of their father, which they also named Thebes of Theoboios. Euripides, indeed, following the custom of the poets, mythologizing, says that Zeus, having been changed into a Satyr, violated Antiope; from whom came Amphion and Zethus the musicians. This, they say, he said as Theoboios was brought down from Picus, who is also Zeus, by a metempsychotic transference; for this is what the name *satyr* signifies according to the Boeotian 1.45 tongue, to pass into another, humbler body. After these musicians, those from their race
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μεγάλην τὴν Καδμείαν ἐκεῖ κτίζει. ὃς καὶ τὸν Τειρεσίαν Βοιωτῶν ὄντα φιλό σοφον, τὸν αὐτομάτως φέρεσθαι τὰ πάντα καὶ ἀπρονόητον εἶναι τὸν κόσμον δογματίσαντα καὶ εἰς τὸ τοῦ ∆αφναίου Ἀπόλλωνος ἱερὸν διὰ ταῦτα ἐξόριστον γενόμενον, ἀνεκαλέσατο. τοῦτον τὸν Τειρε σίαν μυθολογοῦσιν, ὡς ἑωρακότα Παλλάδα λουομένην, εἰς γυναι κὸς αὐτίκα μεταβληθῆναι φύσιν, καὶ πολυπραγμονεῖν αὐτῇ πῶς γυνὴ μετὰ ἀνδρὸς συλλαμβάνει, καὶ πῶς ἡ μία φύσις τοῦ αἵματος εἰς ὀστᾶ καὶ φλέβας καὶ σάρκας καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ μερίζεται, καὶ βρέ φος ζῳογονούμενον τίκτεται, καὶ τοῦ δημιουργοῦ τὴν σοφίαν μὴ δυνηθέντα καταλαβεῖν εἰς αὐτοματισμὸν ἐξολισθῆσαι· διὸ καὶ παίζοντες αὐτὸν εἰς γυναικῶν φύσιν ἔφρασαν μεταβληθῆναι. οὗτος ὁ Κάδμος ὁ τῆς Βοιωτίας βασιλεὺς Ἀγαύην τὴν αὐτοῦ θυγατέρα 1.43 Ἐχίονι δοὺς γυναῖκα εἰς Χίον ἀποστέλλει. γεννᾶται οὖν ἐξ αὐτῆς ἀνὴρ φρόνιμος καὶ συνετὸς ὁ Πενθεύς· ᾧ καὶ τὴν διοίκησιν τῆς βασιλείας ὕστερον παρεχώρησε Κάδμος, ὡς αὐτοῦ μετὰ Τειρεσίου ἐπὶ τὸ Κιθαιρώνειον ὄρος τὸν βίον διατελέσαντος. τὴν δὲ Σεμέ λην Πολυμήδων ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ Αἰθερίωνος γήμας, ἐκ τοῦ γένους ὢν τοῦ ∆ιός, ἀπὸ Σεμέλης ἑπταμηνιαῖον γεννᾷ βρέφος διὰ τὸ ὑπὸ ἀστραπῶν καὶ βροντῶν ἐξαισίων τὴν μητέρα ἀποθανεῖν. τοῦτο τὸ βρέφος εἰς Νυσίαν τὴν χώραν ὁ Κάδμος ἐκτραφῆναι ἔπεμψεν, ὃ καὶ Νύσειον ὠνομάσθη. μυθολογοῦσι δὲ ὅτι τοῦτο ὁ Ζεὺς ἐν τῷ ἰδίῳ κόλπῳ ἐπὶ δευτέρῳ μηνὶ ἐφύλασσε, διότι μέρος ζωῆς ἔσχε πρὸς τοῦ θεοῦ παρὰ τὸν ὡρισμένον χρόνον ἐκτρωθείς. ἄλλοι δὲ τοῦτον ὡς ἐξ ἡλιακῶν εὐχῶν μυστικά τινα καὶ θαυμαστὰ δρῶντα καὶ ὡς περὶ ἀμπελικὴν γεωργίαν ἐκτιθέμενον ἀπεθέωσάν τε καὶ ∆ιόνυσον μετεκάλεσαν, ὡς ἐκ γένους ὄντα ∆ιός. τοῦτον εἰς Πέρ σας φασὶν ἀπελθεῖν, καὶ φαντασίας τινὰς θαυμασίων ἔργων καὶ πολέμων ἐν αὐτοῖς ἐπιδείξασθαι. μετὰ ταῦτα ἐπὶ Πενθέα σὺν ὄχλῳ βαρεῖ ἔρχεται, καὶ τοὺς μὲν ἄνδρας σκιρτοὺς ἐκάλεσε διὰ τὸ ἅλλεσθαι καὶ πηδᾶν, τὰς δὲ γυναῖκας βάκχας. τήν τε τῶν Βοιωτῶν βασιλείαν σφετεριζόμενος μετὰ Πενθέως πόλεμον συμ βαλὼν χειροῦται, ὑπὸ δὲ Ἀγαύης τῆς Πενθέως μητρὸς ὡς θείας οὔσης ∆ιονύσου λυτροῦται τῶν δεσμῶν. μετὰ ταῦτα ἐνεδρεύσας ἀποκτείνει Πενθέα. τῶν δὲ Βοιωτῶν αὐτὸν βασιλέα μὴ παρα δεχομένων εἰς ∆ελφοὺς ἀπέρχεται καὶ θανὼν θάπτεται. μετὰ Κάδμον ἐβασίλευσε τῆς Βοιωτίας Νυκτεύς. τούτου τὴν θυγατέρα 1.44 Ἀντιόπην, ἱέρειαν οὖσαν τοῦ Ἡλίου, Θεόβοιος ὁ υἱὸς Βράτωνος, ἐκ τοῦ γένους τοῦ ∆ιὸς καταγόμενος, ἀδελφὸς δὲ τοῦ Νυκτέως, μιγεὶς γεννᾷ δίδυμα, Ἀμφίωνά τε καὶ Ζῆθον, οὓς τῇ κελεύσει τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ ῥίπτουσι πλησίον τοῦ Κιθαιρωνείου ὄρους. Ὀρδίων δέ τις γεωργὸς ἄπαις ὢν ἀνελάβετο καὶ ἀνεθρέψατο αὐτά. τῆς δὲ Ἀντιόπης παρὰ τῇ ∆ίρκῃ φυλαττομένης ἐπὶ τὸ τιμωρηθῆναι διὰ τὸ παρανομῆσαι, ἐπεὶ πόλεμος ἐν τῇ Ἀργείων ἐκινήθη χώρᾳ, τοῦ Λύκου χρονίζοντος ἐκεῖσε, ἡ ∆ίρκη τὸν Νυκτέα θωπευτικῶς ἠρώτα ἀπολῦσαι Ἀντιόπην. ὁ δὲ μᾶλλον προσέταξε ταύρῳ ἀγρίῳ ταύτην προσδεθῆναι καὶ ἀποθανεῖν, ὡς τὴν παρθενίαν βεβηλώ σασαν. ἀκούσαντες δὲ τοῦτο Ζῆθος καὶ Ἀμφίων, καὶ παρὰ τοῦ ἀναθρεψαμένου τούτους μαθόντες ὡς αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ μήτηρ αὐτῶν Ἀντιόπη, ἅμα πλείοσιν ἀγροίκοις ἐπεισπεσόντες τοὺς μὲν στρα τιώτας κατακτείνουσι, ∆ίρκην δὲ τῷ ταύρῳ προσδεσμοῦσι καὶ φονεύουσι. σὺν τῇ μητρὶ δὲ Ἀντιόπῃ εἰς τὴν Βοιωτίαν ἐλθόντες, ἐπεὶ ὁ Νυκτεὺς τέθνηκεν, οἱ μουσικοὶ Ζῆθος καὶ Ἀμφίων τῶν Βοιωτῶν ἔτη πολλὰ βασιλεύουσι. κτίζουσι δὲ πόλιν μεγάλην εἰς ὄνομα τοῦ πατέρος, ἣν καὶ Θεοβοίου Θήβας ὠνόμασαν. ὁ μὲν Εὐριπίδης τῷ ἔθει τῶν ποιητῶν μυθολογῶν τὸν ∆ία φησὶν εἰς Σάτυρον μεταβληθέντα τὴν Ἀντιόπην φθεῖραι; ἐξ ἧς Ἀμφίων καὶ Ζῆθος οἱ μουσικοί. τοῦτο δέ, φασίν, εἶπεν ὡς καταχθέντος Θεο βοίου ἐκ τοῦ Πίκου τοῦ καὶ Ζηνὸς κατὰ μετεμψυχώσεως μετάστα σιν· τοῦτο γὰρ σημαίνει τὸ σάτυρος ὄνομα κατὰ τὴν τῶν Βοιω 1.45 τῶν γλῶσσαν, τὸ εἰς ἄλλο σῶμα χωρήσειν εὐτελέστερον. μετὰ τούτους τοὺς μουσικοὺς οἱ ἐκ τοῦ γένους αὐτῶν