1493 B. C.] Forty-nine years before the period in which Joshua divided the lands of Canaan, a Tyrian Chief (i. e. a Cadmus) left Tyrus and Sidon (apparently with a colony) and founded Thebes in Greece. He is known in classic history as Cadmus, and has the reputation of introducing into his new territory of Thebes, the ciphers of his country, and from which were formed the letters of the ancient Grecian alphabet,—the language in which Homer subsequently depicted the deeds of Greeks and Trojans.
That the Theban Cadmus was a Tyrian, and not a Sidonian, is established by Euripides;—as, also, the worship of Apollo, and the Sacred Virgins. The Poet has made a singular local error, as will be seen in the second line about to be quoted,—for though the Isle of Tyrus was inhabited in the time of Euripides, it was not at the period contemplated by his Tragedy. It is true that the Isle (previous to Alexander) was "sea-girt," but it is evidently intended by the Poet to have reference to the Island-Capital, and therefore an anachronism. The following translation from the original Greek, will prove Cadmus to have been a Tyrian.
VIRGIN CHORUS.
Bounding o'er the Tyrian flood
From Phœnicia's sea-girt Isle,—
* * * * * * * * * *
Cull'd from Tyre, its brightest grace,
Worthy of the god, I came
To Agenor's high-born race,
Glorying, Cadmus, in thy name."