A Cadmean victory

Explanation

different writers explain this proverb in different ways. They apply it to a victory bringing no profit: some, because Eteocles and Polynices both perished in their single combat; others, because the Cadmeans, having defeated the Argives who marched with Adrastus, paid full penalty to the Argives' descendants; others, because Oedipus, solving the Sphinx's riddle and conquering her, unwittingly married his own mother, then blinded himself, so that the victory profited him nothing; others again, that Cadmus, wishing to spread the Phoenician letters among the Greeks, killed Linus, who was likewise displaying his own letters, but was driven from the country by the citizens. Because, then, the victory was of no profit to him, this proverb is said.