TROS
Trōs (Τρώς)
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THE STORY
Homer sets Tros in the lineage Aeneas recites on the battlefield: Erichthonius, richest of mortal men, begat Tros to be king among the Trojans, and from Tros three peerless sons were born — Ilus, Assaracus, and godlike Ganymede, fairest of mortal men, whom the gods caught up to be cupbearer to Zeus. In recompense Zeus gave Tros the best of all horses beneath the dawn and the sun; Anchises secretly put his mares to the stock, and at Troy Diomedes captured horses of that breed from Aeneas himself. 1
In Apollodorus the line passes from Erichthonius and Astyoche, daughter of the river Simoeis, to Tros, who on succeeding to the kingdom called the country Troy after himself. By Callirrhoe, daughter of Scamander, he had a daughter Cleopatra and the sons Ilus, Assaracus, and Ganymede — the boy whom Zeus caught up on an eagle and appointed cupbearer of the gods in heaven. 2
Hyginus loosens Ganymede from his father: his catalogue of the handsomest youths makes the boy a son of Erichthonius, while his list of mortals set among the stars calls him a son of Assaracus — neither agreeing with the fatherhood of Tros in Homer and Apollodorus. 3
Among the offerings at Olympia Pausanias saw images of Zeus and Ganymede standing together, and he retold Homer's story before them: Ganymede carried off by the gods to be wine-bearer to Zeus, and horses given to Tros in exchange for him. 4