Book Five of the Series  ·  Now Available

The Dragon's Teeth

A Tale of Cadmus and the Founding of Thebes

Cadmus killed a dragon, sowed its teeth into the earth, and watched soldiers grow from the ground. He built a city from them. He taught the Greeks their letters. He married a goddess. Then the gods came for everything he had made, one piece at a time, until there was nothing left. This is how Thebes began.

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The Dragon's Teeth: A Tale of Cadmus and the Founding of Thebes — Greek mythology literary fiction by George Alexander Vela
✦   ✦   ✦ The Complete Series

Five Myths. Five Truths.

Retellings of the Greek myths that remember what the legends chose to forget — told in a voice that is always present, never neutral, and rarely kind to the poets who came before.

The Fall from Heaven: The Myth of Bellerophon and Pegasus — Greek mythology literary fiction by George Alexander Vela Book I The Fall from Heaven
Hercules and the Cradle of Thunder — Greek mythology literary fiction by George Alexander Vela Book II Hercules and the Cradle of Thunder
The Hound of Troy: The Vengeance of Hecuba — Greek mythology literary fiction by George Alexander Vela Book III The Hound of Troy
The Amazon's End: The Tragedy of Penthesilea — Greek mythology literary fiction by George Alexander Vela Book IV The Amazon's End
The Dragon's Teeth: A Tale of Cadmus and the Founding of Thebes — Greek mythology literary fiction by George Alexander Vela Book V The Dragon's Teeth
About the Author

George Alexander Vela

"The myths remember the gods. I am more interested in the people who had to live beside them."

George Alexander Vela writes literary fiction rooted in Greek mythology — not retellings in the conventional sense, but interrogations. His five-book series asks what the ancient poets chose to emphasise, what they chose to forget, and whose perspective was considered worth preserving. The answers are rarely comfortable. Take Bellerophon, who tamed Pegasus and killed the Chimera — but the myth everyone forgets is what came after.

The series draws on Euripides, Homer, Apollodorus, and Quintus of Smyrna, filtered through a narrator who is present, opinionated, and constitutionally unable to let a legend pass without noting the gap between the story and what actually happened — or what the people in it were probably feeling at the time. Read more in essays on mythology exploring these gaps — what the ancient poets chose to forget and why.

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Latest Essays

From the Mythology Notes

Short essays on the Greek myths — what the ancient sources actually say, and what the legends quietly forget.

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Video Essays on Mythology

Deep dives into the myths and the gaps between legend and truth. Exploring the stories the ancient poets told—and what they left out.

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From the Mythology Notes

New books, behind-the-scenes notes on the research and mythology, and the occasional dispatch from wherever the series goes next. No noise. Infrequent and worth reading.

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