The Boy Who Never Was

The bones start to come back to life

“Im still befuddled by the idea that dry bones can come back to life, Master,” the Boy Who Never Was remarked to the Yeti one morning.

The Yeti hesitated for a moment and then replied: “You are reaching for something that has troubled mankind since the earliest known historical times. I am, of course, talking about the invention of writing as a means of recording thoughts. It has been speculated that a brave man named Cadmus came up with the process.

“Cadmus of Phoenicia studied the ancient languages like Egyptian, Cuneiform, Hebrew, and Sanskrit,” the Yeti continued. “He distilled the alphabet down to sixteen consonants and then he added a few vowels to them and thus he formed the basis for the subsequent Greek letters. It took a long time for this type of writing to catch on. Eventually the Romans organized them into their lettering system.

“There have been many recognized and unrecognized smart people across time but very few can compare to Cadmus of Tyre. He was the son of King Agenor and Queen Telephassa, the Phoenician rulers of that place. He had two other brothers named Phoenix and Cilix as well as one sister named Europa. Phoenix lent his name to the people of Phoenicia, Cylix lent his name to the people of Cilicia, and Europa gave her name to the continent of Europe. Surpassing all of them, though, their brother Cadmus invented an entire alphabet that was to change the western world.”

“Is it the story of how dry bones came back to life?” asked the youth, uncertainly.

“Indeed so,” replied the Yeti. “The tale starts out when Europa came of age and she attracted the attention of the king of the gods, Zeus. He didn’t dare to approach her, though, because she might become frightened. So one day, as Europa and her attendants were washing clothes by the seashore, Zeus disguised himself as a snow white bull. Her maids were frightened but Europa was not. She lavished garlands of flowers around the bull’s neck and clapped her hands happily. Soon, Europa felt comfortable enough to climb unto the gentle bull’s back. At first, the bull just walked about with Europa, but suddenly, she jumped into the sea, with Europa clinging onto his neck for dear life.”

“What was Cadmus to do, Master?” the youth prodded, impelled by suspense.

“Being a smart man,” the Yeti went on, “He went over to the temple of Delphi to seek the advice of the Oracle there. She told him: ‘As soon as you leave this temple, you will see a cow. Follow it and on the place where it lays down, slay it and sacrifice if to the deathless gods. When you do, you will learn where your sister is and what happened to your brothers. Following the Oracle’s advice, Cadmus learned that Europa was now Queen of Crete, as the consort of Zeus and that, in due time, she would become the mother of three judges of the underworld. They were to be named Mino, Rhadamanthus and Sarpedon. Cadmus also learned that he needed to slay the dragon and pull out all of its teeth. If you did as the Oracle commanded, he would have the answer to his missing brothers. But first he would have to take the dragon’s many teeth and sow them like seed and soon he would have a legion of men to do his bidding.”

“I think that I am getting close to finding out the answer that I was seeking,” said the Boy Who Never Was, as soon as he realized that Cadmus was going to take the dry dragon’s bones and use them for a good purpose.