Dardanus

In Greek mythology, Dardanus (Greek: Δάρδανος, English translation: "burned up", from the verb δαρδάπτω (dardapto) to wear, to slay, to burn up)^[1] was a son of Zeus and Electra, daughter of Atlas, and founder of the city of Dardania on Mount Ida in the Troad.

Dionysius of Halicarnassus (1.61–62) states that Dardanus' original home was in Arcadia where Dardanus and his elder brother Iasus (elsewhere more commonly called Iasion) reigned as kings following Atlas. Dardanus married Chryse daughter of Pallas by whom he fathered two sons: Idaeus and Dymas. When a great flood occurred, the survivors, who were living on mountains that had now become islands, split into two groups: one group remained and took Deimas as king while the other sailed away, eventually settling in the island of Samothrace. There Iasus (Iasion) was slain by Zeus for lying with Demeter. Dardanus and his people found the land poor and so most of them set sail for Asia.

However another account by Virgil in his Aeneid (3.163f), has Aeneas in a dream learn from his ancestral Penates that "Dardanus and Father Iasius" and the Penates themselves originally came from Hesperia which was afterward renamed as Italy. This tradition holds that Dardanus was a Tyrrhenian prince, and that his mother Electra was married to Corythus, king of Tarquinia (Aeneid 7.195-242; 8. 596 ss. ; 9. 10; Servio, ad Vergilium, Aeneidos, 9.10).

Other accounts make no mention of Arcadia or Hesperia, though they sometimes mention a flood and speak of Dardanus sailing on a hide-raft (as part of the flood story?) from Samothrace to the Troad near Abydos. All accounts agree that Dardanus came to the Troad from Samothrace and was there welcomed by King Teucer and that Dardanus married Batea the daughter of Teucer. (Dionysius mentions that Dardanus' first wife Chryse had died.) Dardanus received land on Mount Ida from his father-in-law. There Dardanus founded the city of Dardania.

Dardanus' children by Batea were Ilus, Erichthonius and Idaea. According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus (1.50.3), Dardanus also had a son named Zacynthus by Bataea and this Zacynthus was the first settler on the island afterwards called Zacynthus. Dionysius also says (1.61.4) that Dardanus's son Idaeus gave his name to the Idaean mountains, that is Mount Ida, where Idaeus built a temple to the Mother of the Gods (that is to Cybele) and instituted mysteries and ceremonies still observed in Phrygia in Dionysius's time. There are operas on the subject of Dardanus by Jean-Philippe Rameau (1739), Carl Stamitz (1770) and Antonio Sacchini (1784).

One last claim identifies Dardanus with a biblical Darda who is said to be a son of Zerah. The subject is debatable due to Zerah's name being similar to that of Zeus's and his wife, Hera. According to the Old Testament, Zerah was Pharez's twin brother, the former had his whereabouts unknown whereas the former bore Juda, founder of the tribe that bears same name.

Family Tree

References