Echion

Overview

Echion is one of the Spartoi, the warriors said to have sprung from the dragon's teeth sown by Cadmus at Thebes. He becomes an ancestor of the Theban royal house through his marriage to Agave.

Generation

Heroic Age

Notes

Echion belongs to the foundation mythology of Thebes and is one of the Spartoi, the 'Sown Men'.

After Cadmus kills the dragon associated with the site of Thebes, he is instructed to sow some of the creature's teeth in the earth. Armed warriors spring from the ground.

The newly born warriors turn against one another. Only a small number survive, and Echion is traditionally counted among them.

The surviving Spartoi become important ancestors within Theban society and mythology.

Echion marries Agave, daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia. Their son is Pentheus, the king whose resistance to Dionysus becomes the centre of one of the most famous Theban tragedies.

This makes Echion a bridge between the foundation of Thebes and the later story of Dionysus and Pentheus.

Although Echion himself has relatively little independent narrative, his position in the genealogy of Thebes connects two major mythological episodes: the dragon's teeth of Cadmus and the destruction of Pentheus.