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HARMONIA

Volume 11 · 130 words · 1842 Edition

in fabulous history, the wife of Cadmus, was, according to some, daughter of Jupiter and Electra, but according to others, of Mars and Venus. Her marriage was a remarkable event in Grecian fable, and rivalled in magnificence those of Perseus, Pirithous, and Peleus. The gods honoured it with their presence, and from them she received a magnificent robe (peplum) and necklace, the workmanship of Vulcan. But these divine gifts afterwards proved the cause of many catastrophes. (See Alcmeon, Eryphyle.) Harmonia had four daughters, Semele, Ino, Agave, and Autonoë, and a son Polydorus. When every species of calamity overwhelmed the race of Cadmus at Thebes, she attended her husband to Epirus, and was changed into a serpent. (Apollodor. iii. 4, 5; Diodor. Sic. iv. 66, v. 49; Eustath.; Dionys. Peri. 391.)