Dardanus
Son of Zeus, dearest to him of all his mortal-born children. He founded Dardania on the slopes of many-fountained Ida, before sacred Ilios was built in the plain; in Apollodorus he crosses from Samothrace to the mainland of King Teucer.1
Ilus⚖
Dardanus' elder son who died childless; Erichthonius succeeded to the kingdom. Apollodorus' first Ilus — not the later namesake son of Tros who founded Ilium (see reign below). Homer instead compresses the line: Dardanus begat Erichthonius directly.2
Erichthonius
Richest of mortal men: three thousand mares pastured in his marshland, and the North Wind sired wondrous foals on them. In Apollodorus he succeeds ahead of an elder brother Ilus who died childless.3
Tros
King among the Trojans, who gave the land his name. Father of Ilus, Assaracus and Ganymede — when Zeus took Ganymede as cupbearer, he paid Tros in immortal horses.4
Ilus⚖
Founder of Ilion: he followed the dappled cow won as a prize in Phrygia, and the Palladium fell from heaven before his tent as the sign of Zeus. Homer's plain keeps a barrow for Ilus son of Dardanus while the royal roll makes him son of Tros and father of Laomedon; Apollodorus splits the name between a childless Dardanid uncle and the founder of Ilium.5
Laomedon
Cheated Poseidon and Apollo of their wage for walling Troy, then cheated Heracles of the promised mares for saving Hesione — so Heracles came with six ships, sacked Ilion, and shot him down.6
Priam
The one son Heracles spared, born Podarces and ransomed by his sister Hesione — hence Priam, 'the redeemed'. The last king of Troy.7
⁂
the spine ignites as you read · the reign index on the card follows your place · starred rulers link to their codices
HER SKY
a mini-galaxy of 296 dwellers
MYTHS SET HERE
43 tales walk these walls
… and 38 more
ON THE MAP
in Troad
Coordinates: Pleiades gazetteer, CC BY · place 550595