The Dragon's Teeth
A Tale of Cadmus and the Founding of Thebes
Cadmus killed a dragon, sowed its teeth into the earth, and from that blood-soaked field built Thebes. But this is not where his story begins — it begins with his search for his sister Europa, stolen by a god, and the oracle's riddle that sent him to find a sacred spring guarded by a dragon instead.
He taught the Greeks their letters. He married a goddess and was given, as a wedding gift, a necklace that would eventually destroy every woman in his family. He watched his daughters unmade one by one — by gods, by their own sons, by the machinery of divine attention that ruins everything it touches.
His grandson tore himself apart on a mountainside. His city endured and became a place where terrible things happened in perpetuity. This is what it costs to found something.
The Dragon's Teeth is a literary retelling of the founding myth of Thebes: precise, unsentimental, and quietly devastating. The fifth book in the Myths of the Ancient World series. Reads as a complete standalone.
"He built the city. He taught them to write. The gods made sure he lived long enough to watch it all come apart."
