Dragon-teeth Men 
 
Dragon-teeth men were armed warriors, who sprang out of the earth, after they were sowed the teeth of a dragon in the soil. They would immediately attack anyone in their presence.

One way to defeat them was to make them fight one another. A hero could hurl rocks at them, so they would face and attack one another.

 

Cadmus came to face-to-face against them, when he was looking for a new home in Boeotia. Cadmus killed a dragon that guarded a spring, sacred to Ares. Athena advised Cadmus how to defeat dragon-teeth men. Only five of the dragon-teeth men survived.

These became Cadmus most loyal supporters when he founded the city of Thebes. They were known as the Sparti, which means "Sown-Men". Some of them married into Cadmus' royal families. The five original Sparti were named: Echion, Chthonius, Hyperenor, Pelorus and Udaeüs or Udaeus.

Echion had married Agave, Cadmus' daughter, and became the father of Pentheus.

Chthonius was the father of Nycteus and Lycus, both sons became regent of Thebes, after Pentheus' death. Chthonius' granddaughter, Nycteis, had married Polydorus, son of Cadmus. While Chthonius's other granddaughter, Antiope was the mother of the twins Amphion and Zethus, co-rulers of Thebes. Both Nycteis and Antiope were Nycteus' daughters.

And Udaeüs was the ancestor of the blind Theban seer, Teiresias.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jason, the hero of the Argonautica, also faced these dragon teeth warriors, as one of the tasks set by Aeëtes (Aeetes), the king of Colchis. Medea, Aeëtes' own daughter, helped Jason defeated them with the same strategy: making them fights one another.
   Related Information 
Name 
Sparti, Spartoi - "Sown Men".

 
Related Articles 
Cadmus, Jason, Medea.

Argonauts, House of Thebes, Colchis.