In the Theban mythic-historical sequence preserved by classical mythographers, Polydorus is one of the children born to Cadmus and Harmonia. Sources such as Apollodorus list him among their sons and daughters and place him in the sequence of Theban rulers: he succeeds earlier kings (in some synopses his reign follows the troubled reign of Pentheus) and is the father of Labdacus, thereby forming the immediate dynastic link to Laius and the later Theban tragedies. The tradition presents him as a human member of the Cadmean household whose genealogical position explains subsequent regencies and successions (for example the interventions of Nycteus and Lycus when heirs are minors) rather than as a divine or magical founder figure (Apollodorus; Pausanias; modern summaries).
Classical sources and the provided summaries supply no physical or iconographic description of Polydorus. He is treated in surviving texts as a named genealogical person and king in lists and narrative summaries rather than as a described physical presence; thus extant accounts represent him through lineage and office (son of Cadmus and Harmonia, husband of Nycteis, father of Labdacus) rather than through bodily features or attributes (Apollodorus; Pausanias; modern summary).
No supernatural powers or distinctive magical abilities are attributed to Polydorus in the sources cited. His role is political and genealogical: he marries Nycteis (daughter of Nycteus), fathers Labdacus, and occupies a place in the Theban king-list after earlier generations such as Pentheus and before his son Labdacus. Where later narratives describe regency or usurpation, Polydorus’ absence (by death or removal from power) explains why figures like Nycteus and Lycus administer Thebes on behalf of underage heirs—his importance is structural within dynastic history rather than active or miraculous (Apollodorus; Pausanias; modern summary).
Cadmus
Cadmus is a legendary Phoenician prince and culture-hero in Greek myth, credited with founding Thebes, slaying a local dragon/guardian, marrying Harmonia, and—by some ancient sources—bringing a Phoenician script to Greece.
Harmonia
Harmonia is the ancient Greek goddess who personifies harmony, concord, and the principle of fitting or joining that underwrites civic and cosmic order. She appears in myth chiefly as the wife of Cadmus, mother of important Theban figures, and as the legendary source or eponym of a famed cursed heirloom (the Necklace or peplos) whose misfortunes affect later generations.
Lycus
Lycus (Ancient Greek: Λύκος, lit. 'wolf') is not a single supernatural being but an ancient Greek personal name and toponym applied to multiple mythological human figures (notably regents and rulers in Theban cycles) and to several rivers across the classical world. The extant sources present Lycus primarily as mortal mythic actors or as geographic names rather than as an independent class of spirit or creature.
Amphion
Amphion is a figure (or set of figures sharing a name) in Greek myth best known as the son of Zeus and Antiope, twin brother of Zethus, husband of Niobe, and famed in some traditions for using music to raise the walls of Thebes. The name also appears for several minor mythic characters (an Argonaut, an Achaean at Troy, a centaur), indicating multiple onomastic uses in the Greek corpus.
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- [1]Polydorus (son of Cadmus) — Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 'Polydorus (son of Cadmus)' (summary)wiki
- [2]Apollodorus, The Library (summary references to Cadmus' children and king-lists). Apollodorus, summary as provided in research notes (Source 3)literary
- [3]Pausanias, Description of Greece — summaries of Theban topography and king-list. Pausanias, Description of Greece (summarized in research notes; Source 2 and 4)literary