Source Verification: Harmonia
Every claim below is either what a named ancient source attests, in its own line or section, or a point where the sources themselves disagree.
What the Sources Attest
Why did Harmonia marry Cadmus?
The sources give no wish of hers. Apollodorus says Zeus gave her to Cadmus once the hero had served Ares and Athena had secured him the kingdom, so the marriage reads as a settlement between the gods and the founder. Hesiod says only that Cadmus made her his wife. Euripides has Dionysus remind Cadmus that his wife is Ares's daughter, the same god whose serpent Cadmus had killed.
Source: Apollodorus, Library 3.4.2
What did Hephaestus do to Harmonia?
Apollodorus says only that the necklace Cadmus gave Harmonia was made by Hephaestus, or in another version given to Cadmus by him. He calls it neither cursed nor a revenge. The later tale that Hephaestus made it in revenge for the deceit of Ares comes from writers such as Statius, outside the registry works checked here. The deceit it looks back to is the affair of Ares and Aphrodite, which Hephaestus exposes in the Odyssey.
Source: Homer, Odyssey 8.266-366
Whose daughter was Harmonia?
Most sources make her the child of Ares and Aphrodite. Hesiod names Cytherea as the mother, and Apollodorus names Aphrodite and Ares. Diodorus Siculus rejects that account for Samothrace and says she was a sister of Iasion, born to Zeus and Electra. He also says this wedding was the first for which the gods provided the feast.
Source: Hesiod, Theogony 933-937
Where was Harmonia remembered after her death?
Pausanias says the Thebans still pointed out the ruins of her bridal chamber and the spot where the Muses were said to have sung at her wedding. He also reports that at Amathus in Cyprus, in the sanctuary of Adonis and Aphrodite, a necklace was said to be dedicated that was first given to Harmonia, though it was called the necklace of Eriphyle because she took it as a bribe to betray her husband.
Source: Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.41.2
Where Accounts Differ
- Harmonia's parents: Ares and Aphrodite, or Zeus and Electra
- origin and curse of Harmonia's necklace
- Harmonia's parentage differs by source. Hesiod and Apollodorus make her the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite. Diodorus Siculus, in his account of Samothrace, makes her a daughter of Zeus and Electra and rejects the Greek tradition that calls her Ares's child.
- The necklace has several origins. Apollodorus says Cadmus gave it, or Hephaestus gave it to Cadmus, or, according to Pherecydes, Europa gave it after receiving it from Zeus. That it was cursed by Hephaestus is a later tale, found in writers such as Statius and not in Apollodorus.
Sources
- Hesiod, Theogony 933-937
- Hesiod, Theogony 975-978
- Apollodorus, Library 3.4.2
- Apollodorus, Library 3.4.3
- Apollodorus, Library 3.5.4
- Apollodorus, Library 3.6.1-3.6.2
- Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.563-603
- Euripides, Bacchae 1330-1339
- Homer, Odyssey 8.266-366
- Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.12.1-9.12.3
- Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.41.2
- Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica