Dragon's Teeth, by Nathaniel Hawthorne | Summary of The Dragon's Teeth
Europa and her older brothers are playing in the flowers. Then the boys go off to chase a butterfly. Alone, Europe spies a beautiful white bull when her older brothers are already some distance off. Since the bull invites her to sit on its back, Europa decides it would be a good way to travel to her brothers in style. The bull obliges and the children laugh, but then the bull takes off to the shore and the older children last see their sister clutching the bull horn in the middle of the sea.
When the boys come home running and crying, their father, King Agenor, orders them to find their sister and never to return until they have Europa. The queen, Telephassa, joins the boys and a friend in their quest.
The band goes off exchanging their labor for word of their sister. When they grow up, they start to split up. The boys set up homes and communities grew around them, with them as kings because of the presence of royal blood already in their veins. Soon only Cadmus and Telephassa are left, but Telephassa is worn out. When she is about to die, she tells Cadmus to head to the oracle at Delphi.
Arriving at Delphi, Cadmus makes inquiry. The response he receives is to stop looking for his sister. Instead, he should follow the cow and make his home where the cow lies down. Oracles are notoriously difficult to understand, so Cadmus doubts the words -- besides they had only been whispered on the wind, but then he sees a brindled cow. He follows the cow but can never quite reach her. The cow leads Cadmus along an exhausting path, but in time, people join him, alleviating his loneliness. They all pledge to follow the cow, which they do, and then eventually, the cow lies down on a fertile plain. His companions plan to settle with him, but first they go off for water. Cadmus hears a disturbance. He rushes to his companions' aid and sees a great dragon who has consumed all his followers.
The dragon rushes at Cadmus and Cadmus rushes right back, sword in hand, past the fierce teeth into the mouth of the beast from which vantage spot he slashes away, killing the dragon. A voice tells him to take the dragon teeth, which he does. He then plants half of them. They spring up as fully-armed soldiers. The voice orders Cadmus to throw a stone in the midst of the armed men, so Cadmus tosses one that strikes one of the men. The soldiers then fight amongst themselves. When only 5 men remain, the voice instructs Cadmus to have them sheathe their swords. They do so, follow Cadmus, and swear to obey him. Although these, the sown men, want to fight, they agree to Cadmus' orders to build him a city. They call him king.
He sees a woman in the distance whom he hopes is his sister, but the voice tells him it's not, it's Harmonia, who is the daughter of the sky and is recompense for the loss of Europa. Harmonia and he produce many children whom the five sown men help raise.
