This image is of Cadmus fighting a dragon who was guarding the sacred spring of Ismenos. The tale that this image belongs to is about Cadmus , when his sister was kidnapped and Cadmus was chosen to find her.After looking in Greece and not being able to find her. He then went to see the Oracle about what to do. She told cadmus that he was supposed to start a city, and that to find where to start building it, by following a cow as far as it could walk before it laid down to rest. After the journey, with the cow lying down cadmus sacrificed the cow . In order to make the sacrifice he needed water from a close by spring. What he didn’t know was that there was a dragon that guarded it. He ended up killing it , after it killed all of his men. This image is on a Krater and is red figure pottery from the 4th century BC.It currently resides in the Louvre in Paris. The krater shows Cadmus throwing stones at the dragon guarding the stream, and two women standing on either side.
