User:Paul August/Sarpedon (Trojan War hero)

Sarpedon (Trojan War hero)

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There were various sites in Asia Minor which were associated with Sarpedon.

There was a heroon (shrine) of Sarpedon in Xanthos, in Lycia, perhaps associated with a supposed tomb there.

In the Iliad, after Sarpedon dies in battle at Troy, his body is returned to Lycia for burial.

There was also a temple and oracle of Apollo Sarpedonios and Artemis Sarpedonia at Seleuceia in Cilicia. According to Tertullian there was a shrine and oracle of Sarpedon in the Troad. There is evidence to suggest that Sarpedon was the subject of pre-Homeric non-Greek worship.

To Do

Look at Fowler: [1]

Look at Bryce p.27 etc.

Look at Unwin, pp. 66f.

Look ay Keen, [2]

Sources

Ancient

Aeschylus

Carians or Europa

fr. 99

[My father unwittingly facilitated my abduction by welcoming Zeus’s treacherous agent (?)] and <providing (?)> for the bull a rich grazing meadow as a guest-gift. Such was the theft that Zeus succeeded in committing at the expense of my aged father, without moving from his place and without any toil. Well then, I shall tell the long tale of the past in a few words. I, a mortal woman, united with a god, gave up the honour of virginity, and was joined to a partner in parenthood; three times I endured a woman’s pains in childbirth,1and my fertile field did not complain nor refuse to bear to the end the noble seed of the Father. I began with the greatest of my offspring, giving birth to Minos . . .

[Secondly I bore] Rhadamanthys, who is the immortal one among my children; but the life he has is not seen by my [p. 115] eyes,2 and absence brings no joy to loved ones. The third child I bore was the one over whom I am now storm-tossed with anxiety, Sarpedon—anxiety lest an enemy spear-point3 may have pierced him. The story is that <spear-wielding men (?),> the best in all Greece, have come <to fertile Asia (?)>,4 men outstanding in martial strength, and boast that they will storm and sack the city of the Trojans. <My son has gone there at the head of his troops to keep the hostile army of the Argives out of Troy;> I fear that against them he may go berserk with his spear and both do and suffer the greatest possible harm.5 My hope is slender, and it rests on the razor’s edge whether I may strike a rock and lose everything.

Appian

The Civil Wars 4.10.78

[78] Soon afterwards the remainder made a fresh sally about midday, and as the besiegers withdrew again, they burned all the machines. As the gates were left open for them on account of the former calamity, about 2000 Romans broke in with them. While others were pushing in at the entrance the portcullis suddenly fell upon them, either by the design of the Xanthians or the accidental breaking of the ropes, so that some of the Romans who were forcing their way in were crushed and the others found their retreat cut off, as they could not raise the portcullis without the hoisting apparatus. Pelted by missiles hurled upon them by the Xanthians from the roofs in the narrow streets, they forced their way with difficulty till they came to the forum, which was near by, and there they overcame the forces which were at close quarters with them, but, being under a heavy volley of arrows and having themselves neither bows nor javelins, they took refuge in the temple of Sarpedon to avoid being surrounded. The Romans who were outside the walls were excited and anxious for those inside, and tried every means [to effect an entrance], Brutus meantime darting hither and thither, but they were not able to break the portcullis, which was protected with iron, nor could they procure ladders or towers since their own had been burned. Nevertheless some of them made extemporized ladders, and others pushed trunks of trees against the walls to serve in place of ladders. Still others fastened iron hooks to ropes and hurled them up to the walls, and whenever one of them caught fast they climbed up.

Apollodorus

3.1.1

Zeus loved her [Europa], and turning himself into a tame bull, he mounted her on his back and conveyed her through the sea to Crete.⁴ There Zeus bedded with her, and she bore Minos, Sarpedon, and Rhadamanthys;⁵ but according to Homer, Sarpedon was a son of Zeus by Laodamia, daughter of Bellerophon.⁶

⁵ Compare Scholiast on Hom. Il. xii.292; Hyginus, Fab. 178.

⁶ Hom. Il. 2.198ff.

3.1.2

Now Asterius, prince of the Cretans, married Europa and brought up her children.⁹ But when they were grown up, they quarrelled with each other; for they loved a boy called Miletus, son of Apollo by Aria, daughter of Cleochus.¹⁰ As the boy was more friendly to Sarpedon, Minos went to war and had the better of it, and the others fled. Miletus landed in Caria and there founded a city which he called Miletus after himself; and Sarpedon allied himself with Cilix, who was at war with the Lycians, and having stipulated for a share of the country, he became king of Lycia.¹¹ And Zeus granted him to live for three generations. But some say that they loved Atymnius, the son of Zeus and Cassiepea, and that it was about him that they quarrelled.

⁹ Compare Scholiast on Hom. Il. 12.292; Diod. 4.60.3 （who calls the king Asterius）. On the place of Asterion or Asterius in Cretan mythology, see A. B. Cook, Zeus, i.543ff.

¹⁰ With the following legend of the foundation of Miletus compare Ant. Lib. 30; Paus. 7.2.5; Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.186.

¹¹ Compare Hdt. 1.173; Diod. 5.79.3; Strab. 12.8.5; Paus. 7.3.7. Sarpedon was worshipped as a hero in Lycia. See Dittenberger, Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones Selectae 552 vol. ii. p. 231.

E.3.35

[Trojan allies:] of the Lycians, Sarpedon, son of Zeus, and Glaucus, son of Hippolochus.

E.4.6

But when Achilles saw the ship of Protesilaus burning, he sent out Patroclus with the Myrmidons, after arming him with his own arms and giving him the horses. Seeing him the Trojans thought that he was Achilles and turned to flee. And having chased them within the wall, he killed many, amongst them Sarpedon, son of Zeus, and was himself killed by Hector, after being first wounded by Euphorbus.

Catalogue of Women

fr. 89 Most (= 140 MW = Schol. D Hom. Il. 12.397)

89 (140 MW) Schol. D in Hom. Il. 12.397 (p. 418 van Thiel²); cf. Schol. T in Hom. Il. 12.292 (III p. 359.49 Erbse cum apparatu)

Zeus saw Phoenix’s daughter Europa plucking flowers together with maidens in a meadow, and he was seized by desire for her. He came down and changed himself into a bull whose breath was saffron scented. Deceiving Europa in this way he let her mount him, and carrying her across the sea to Crete he mingled with her. Then he gave her as wife to Asterion, the king of the Cretans. She became [p. 175] pregnant and bore three children, Minos, Sarpedon, and Rhadamanthys. The story is in Hesiod and Bacchylides.

fr. 90 Most (= 141 MW; 56 H) P. Oxy. 1358 fr. 1 col. I; 6–13: P. Reinach 77)

90 (141 MW; 56 H) P. Oxy. 1358 fr. 1 col. I; 6–13: P. Reinach 77

90 Oxyrhynchus papyrus; 6–13: Reinach papyrus

] she crossed the salty water

from her homeland to Crete,] overpowered by Zeus’ wiles.

With her] the father [mingled in love] and he gave her a gift,

a golden necklace, which] Hephaestus, glorious craftsman,

[5] himself had made] with expert

a beautiful ornament,] bringing it to his father; and he

received the gift

[7] and gave it himself to the daughter] of illustrious Phoenix.

fr. 90 Most (continued)

[8] ] to long-ankled Europa he was going to [

] the father of men and of gods

[10] ] from beside the beautiful-haired maiden.

She bore sons] to Cronus’ very strong son

] commanders of many men,

sovereign Minos] and just Rhadamanthys

[14] and godly Sarpedon,] excellent and strong.

[15] To them their own honors] the counselor Zeus shared out

mightily he ruled [broad Lycia

] well situated cities

] and much honor stays with him

] to the greathearted shepherd of the people.

[20] For to live for three generations] of speech-endowed human beings

he granted him, for] counselor Zeus loved him

] and he chose a great host

] allies for the Trojans.

These Sarpedon led,] experienced in [chilling] war.

[25] ] manifesting [ill-boding] omens

Zeus] who knows eternal counsels.

] throwing around

] it was a prodigy from Zeus.

] of man-killer Hector

[30] he established evils.

] to the Argives;

] [

Clementine Recognitions

10.21

[Jupiter's adultries:] Hippodamia, the daughter of Bellerophon, of whom Sarpedon;

10.22

Europa, the daughter of Phœnix, changed into a bull, of whom were born Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Sarpedon;

Dictys Cretensis

2.11

Meanwhile the Lycian Sarpedon, the son of Xanthus and Laodamia, in answer to the summons which frequent messengers had made for Priam, had led a huge army to Troy. Having noticed from afar that our great armada was landing, he realized the situation and, alerting his forces, rushed to prevent our debarking. Soon afterwards the sons of Priam learned what was happening and, taking up arms, ran to the aid of Sarpedon. Thus we were fiercely attacked in every way. At first we could neither debark without being killed nor arm ourselves, the general confusion causing our every action to flounder. Finally, however, some, in spite of the terrible pressure, were able to arm and, banding together, fiercely counter-attacked. In this battle Protesilaus, whose ship had been first to land, fell among those who were fighting up front, struck by Aeneas' weapon. Also two sons of Priam were killed. In fact, no one on either side completely escaped without injury.

Diodorus Siculus

4.60.2

Tectamus, the son of Dorus, the son of Hellen, the son of Deucalion, sailed to Crete with Aeolians and Pelasgians and became king of the island, and marrying the daughter of Cretheus he begat Asteirus. And during the time when he was king in Crete Zeus, as they say, carried off Europê from Phoenicia, and carrying her across to Crete upon the back of a bull, he lay with her there and begat three sons, Minos, Rhadamanthys, and Sarpedon.

4.60.3

After this Asterius, the king of Crete, took Europê to wife; and since he was without children by her he adopted the sons of Zeus and left them at his death to succeed to the kingdom.

5.78.1

Many generations after the birth of the gods, the Cretans go on to say, not a few heroes were to be found in Crete, the most renowned of whom were Minos and Rhadamanthys and Sarpedon. These men, their myth states, were born of Zeus and Europê, the daughter of Agenor, who, men say, was brought across to Crete upon the back of a bull by the design of the gods.

5.79.3

The third brother, Sarpedon, we are told, crossed over into Asia with an army and subdued the regions [p. 315] about Lycia. Euandrus, his son, succeeded him in the kingship in Lycia, and marrying Deïdameia, the daughter of Bellerophon, he begat that Sarpedon who took part in the expedition against Troy,⁵¹ although some writers have called him a son of Zeus.

32.10.2

It would be a mistake to omit the strange occurrence that took place before the death of Alexander, even though it is a thing so marvellous that it will not, perhaps, be credited. A short while before the time of our present narrative, as King Alexander was consulting an oracle in Cilicia (where^{47 [At Seleuceia]} there is said to be a sanctuary of Apollo Sarpedonius),

Euripides ?

Rhesus

29

or to Europa’s scion, the leader of the Lycian warriors?²

² Sarpedon, son of Zeus and Europa.

Sophocles

Eurypylus

fr. 210.70–81 LLoyd-Jones

“Ah, my son, I betrayed you, though I had in you the last and greatest hope of salvation for the Phrygians. Though you were not our guest for long, you will leave the memory of many sorrows for ever to . . .; neither Memnon nor Sarpedon caused so many sorrows, though they were foremost among spearmen . . .”

Herodotus

1.173.1–3

[1] Such are their ways. The Lycians were from Crete in ancient times (for in the past none that lived on Crete were Greek).

[2] Now there was a dispute in Crete about the royal power between Sarpedon and Minos, sons of Europa; Minos prevailed in this dispute and drove out Sarpedon and his partisans; who, after being driven out, came to the Milyan land in Asia. What is now possessed by the Lycians was in the past Milyan, and the Milyans were then called Solymi.

[3] For a while Sarpedon ruled them, and the people were called Termilae, which was the name that they had brought with them and that is still given to the Lycians by their neighbors; but after Lycus son of Pandion came from Athens—banished as well by his brother, Aegeus—to join Sarpedon in the land of the Termilae, they came in time to be called Lycians after Lycus.

7.58

His navy sailed out of the Hellespont and travelled along the land, going across from the land army. [2] The ships sailed westwards, laying their course for the headland of Sarpedon, where Xerxes had ordered them to go and wait for him;

Homer

Iliad

2.876–877

And Sarpedon and peerless Glaucus were captains of the Lycians from afar out of Lycia, from the eddying Xanthus.

6.191–199

But when the king now knew that he was the valiant offspring of a god, he kept him there, and offered him his own daughter, and gave to him the half of all his kingly honour; moreover the Lycians meted out for him a demesne pre-eminent above all, [195] a fair tract of orchard and of plough-land, to possess it. And the lady bare to wise-hearted Bellerophon three children, Isander and Hippolochus and Laodameia. With Laodameia lay Zeus the counsellor, and she bare godlike Sarpedon, the warrior harnessed in bronze.

14.321–322

[Zeus:] " ... nor of the daughter of far-famed Phoenix [Europa], that bare me Minos and godlike Rhadamanthys; ...

16.659–683

Then the valiant Lycians likewise abode not, but were driven in rout [660] one and all, when they saw their king smitten to the heart, lying in the gathering of the dead; for many had fallen above him, when the son of Cronos strained taut the cords of the fierce conflict. But from the shoulders of Sarpedon they stripped his shining harness of bronze, [665] and this the valiant son of Menoetius gave to his comrades to bear to the hollow ships. And then unto Apollo spake Zeus, the cloud-gatherer: “Up now, dear Phoebus, go cleanse from Sarpedon the dark blood, when thou hast taken him forth from out the range of darts, and thereafter bear thou him far away, and bathe him in the streams of the river, [670] and anoint him with ambrosia, and clothe him about with immortal raiment, and give him to swift conveyers to bear with them, even to the twin brethren, Sleep and Death, who shall set him speedily in the rich land of wide Lycia. There shall his brethren and his kinsfolk give him burial [675] with mound and pillar; for this is the due of tne dead.” So spake he, nor was Apollo disobedient to his father's bidding, but went down from the hills of Ida into the dread din of battle. Forthwith then he lifted up goodly Sarpedon forth from out the range of darts, and when he had borne him far away, bathed him in the streams of the river, [680] and anointed him with ambrosia, and clothed him about with immortal raiment, and gave him to swift conveyers to bear with them, even to the twin brethren, Sleep and Death, who set him speedily in the rich land of wide Lycia.

Hyginus

Fabulae

178

Europa

Europa was the daughter of Argiope and Agenor and lived in Sidon. Jupiter turned himself into a bull, transported her from Sidon to Crete, and fathered by her Minos, Sarpedon, and Rhadamanthus.

Pausanias

7.3.7

The Erythraeans say that they came originally from Crete with Erythrus the son of Rhadamanthus, and that this Erythrus was the founder of their city. Along with the Cretans there dwelt in the city Lycians, Carians and Pamphylians; Lycians because of their kinship with the Cretans, as they came of old from Crete, having fled along with Sarpedon;

Strabo

14.676 =? cited by Edwards, Hainsworth, and Richardson, p. 372

12.8.5

Not only the Carians, who in earlier times were islanders, but also the Leleges, as they say, became mainlanders with the aid of the Cretans, who founded, among other places, Miletus, having taken Sarpedon from the Cretan Miletus as founder; and they settled the Termilae in the country which is now called Lycia; and they say that these settlers were brought from Crete by Sarpedon, a brother of Minos and Rhadamanthus, and that he gave the name Termilae to the people who were formerly called Milyae, as Herodotus¹ says, and were in still earlier times called Solymi, but that when Lycus the son of Pandion went over there he named the people Lycians after himself. Now this account represents the Solymi and the Lycians as the same people, but the poet makes a distinction between them. At any rate, Bellerophontes set out from Lycia and

“fought with the glorious Solymi.”²

And likewise his son Peisander³

“was slain when fighting the Solymi”⁴

by Ares, as he says. And he also speaks of Sarpedon as a native of Lycia.⁵

¹ 173; 7.92.

² Hom. Il. 6.184

³ "Isander" is the spelling of the name in the Iliad.

⁴ Hom. Il. 6.204

⁵ Hom. Il. 6.199

14.1.6

Ephorus says: Miletus was first founded and fortified above the sea by the Cretans, where the Miletus of olden times is now situated, being settled by Sarpedon, who brought colonists from the Cretan Miletus and named the city after that Miletus, the place formerly being in the possession of the Leleges; but later Neleus and his followers fortified the present city.

14.3.10

Now the poet makes the Solymi different from the Lycians, for when Bellerophon was sent by the king of the Lycians to the second struggle,“he fought with the glorious Solymi."⁸ But others, who assert that the Lycians were in earlier times called Solymi, but in later times were called Termilae9 from the Termilae who came there from Crete with Sarpedon, and after this were called Lycians, from Lycius the son of Pandion, who, after having been banished from his homeland, was admitted by Sarpedon as a partner in his empire, are not in agreement with Homer. Better is the opinion of those who assert that by "Solymi" the poet means the people who are now called the Milyae, of whom I have already spoken."10

14.5.4

Then one comes to Holmi, where the present Seleuceians formerly lived; but when Seleuceia on the Calycadnus was founded, they migrated there; for immediately on doubling the shore, which forms a promontory called Sarpedon, one comes to the outlet of the Calycadnus.

14.5.19

In Cilicia is also the temple and oracle of the Sarpedonian Artemis; and the oracles are delivered by persons who are divinely inspired.

Tertullian

De Aninma

46.11

The whole world is full of oracles of this description: there are the oracles of Amphiaraus at Oropus, of Amphilochus at Mallus, of Sarpedon in the Troad, of Trophonius in Bœotia, of Mopsus in Cilicia, of Hermione in Macedon, of Pasiphäe in Laconia. Then, again, there are others, which with their original foundations, rites, and historians, together with the entire literature of dreams, Hermippus of Berytus in five portly volumes will give you all the account of, even to satiety.

Modern

Bryce

p. 27

Sarpedon was held in high esteem at Xanthos, with which he appears to have had special links. His heroon at Xanthos is mentioned by several ancient authors,³⁵ a city deme was named after him, as at Tlos,³⁶ and he figures in the Xanthos stele inscription (TL 44 b 46).³⁷

³⁵ E.g. Appian, bell. civ. 4.78-79. For other references, see Zwicker, 1923, 41. 1-18.

³⁶ Referred to in TAM II 264.2 and @65.1. Sarpedon also appears as a personal name, both at Xanthos (e.g. TAM II 359.2) and at Tlos (e.g. TAM II 639.5).

³⁷ The Lycian form of the name is Zrppudeine. Tritsch has also suggested to me that the seated male figure on the north side of the Harpy tomb at Xanthos is intended to represent Sarpedon.

Gantz

p. 210

The Iliad says only that she [Europa] bore to him [Zeus] Minos and Rhadamanthys (Il 14.321-22), but a fragment of the Ehoiai (mostly holes) confirms some details of the abduction, and a scholion to a passage in Iliad 12 relates a version that it claims is from Hesiod and Bakchylides. In this latter account, Zeus sees Europa in a meadow ... (ΣAb Il 12.292 = Hes fr 140 MW = Bak fr 10 SM). The children are Minos, Rhadamanthys, and Sarpedon; Europa herself is given over to Asterion, the king of Krete, as a wife. The Ehoiai fragment begins with the crossing of the sea, after Europa has been deceived by Zeus, and proceeds to describe some gift made by Hephaistos and presented by Zeus to Europa (Hes fr. 141 MW). ... The passage goes on to recount her children; only Rhadamanthys is preserved, but there is more than enough room fro Minos and Sarpedon, and the remainder of the fragment appears to deal with Sarpedon's role at Troy.

p. 211

On another point, Aischylos is in solid agreement with the Ehoiai/Bakchylides version, namely in holding (contrary to the Iliad) that Sarpedon is the son of Europa. In the Iliad, as we have seen, Europa bears only two children, Minos and Rhadamanthys, and Sarpedon is the son (in quite a detailed genealogy) of Zeus and Laodameia, daughter of Bellerophontes.

p. 316

To conclude this chapter, there are the children of Bellerophontes as Glaucon names them in Iliad 6. These are three, ... Laodameia, who bears Sarpedon to Zeus ... We have of course seen that in the Ehoiai and Aischylos Sarpedon is the son of Zeus and Europa, and thus not descended from Bellerphontes at all.

p. 610

with a limited number of Trojans themselves playing any substantial role other than to be killed, and of the allies only Sarpedon and Glaukos, leaderds of the Skamandrian Lykians, distinguishing themselves at all.

p. 614

After notable successes he [Patroclus] comes face to face with Sarpedon, and here Zeus makes his famous suggestion to Hera that he might avert fate and save his son. Hera expresses appropriate alarm ...

Grimal

s.v. Sarpedon 2, p. 412

He settled in the region of Miletus in Lycia. He became king there, and was sometimes credited with the foundation of Miletus (so, likewise, was the young Miletus, who had fled with him).

Hard

p. 337

Zeus abducts Europa to Crete and fathers three sons by her

In the earliest surviving account of the abduction of EUROPA, as ascribed to Hesiod (i.e. the author of the Catalogue) and Bacchylides, Zeus fell in love with her when he saw her gathering flowers ...²

Zeus fathered three important sons by Europa in her new homeland, Minos, Rhadamanthys and Sarpedon. ... When the time came to take leave of her, he arranged for her to marry ASTERIOS (or Asterion), king of Crete, who adopted her divinely begotten sons and fathered no children by her. According to Diodorus, this Asterios was a son of ...⁵

Minos, ...

After the death of their adoptive father MINOS and Sarpedon fought for the throne, and Minos gained the upper hand, driing Sarpedon and his followers into exile.⁶ Or in another account, the two brothers fell out with one another because both of thm fell in love with the same boy, Miletos, son of Apollo; and Minos was so angry when Miletos showed a preference for Sarpedon that he expelled the two of them from the [cont.] the island.

p. 349

THE BROTHERS AND DESCENDANTS OF MINOS

Sarpedon and Miletos in Asia Minor

Before ...

Lycia ... partly because the Lycians commanded by Sarpedon and Claukos are presented in the Iliad as the most significant foreign allies of the Trojan, ... In the Iliad, as oppossed to the standard later tradition, the Sarpedon who fought at Troy is neither a brother of Minos nor even of Cretan descent, but a son of Zeus by Laodameia, the daughter of Bellerphon⁶⁸ (who had married a Lycian princess ...); and correspondingly, when Homer has occasion to refer to the love affair between Europa and Zeus elsewhere in the poem, he names Minos and Rhadamanthys alone as offspring of their liaison.⁶⁹

p. 350

The Homeric account of Sarpedon's origins is displaced in the later tradition by the familiar account that makes him a son of Zeus and Europa from Crete. This genealogy first appears in the Hesiodic Catalogue and Herodotus' Histories.⁷³ ... Chronological difficulties are raised, however, if Homer's Sarpedon is classed as a son of Minos, since this would mean that he must have been born two generations before the Trojan War (see p. 337). The Hesiodic Catalogue resolved the problem by suggesting that Zeus granted him the exceptional priviledge of living for longer than an ordinary mortal (probably for three generations as is stated by Apollodorus, although there is a gap in the Hesiodic fragment at the relevant point).⁷⁴ Some later authors preferred to reconcile this later genealogy by positing that there were two Sarpedons, the one who was born to Europa in Crete and a grandson of the same name who commanded the Lycians at Troy; in that case, the Cretan fathered a son in Lycia called Euandros, who married Deidameia, daughter of Bellerphon, and fathered the Homeric Sarpedon by her.⁷⁵

Although the surviving fragments of the Hesiodic Catalogue fail to explain why Sarpedon should have left his native Crete, Herodotus explains his departure by a power-struggle in which he was expelled by the victorious Minos. According to Herodotus the followers of Sarpedon who helped him establish himself in Asia Minor were known as the Termiloi (apparently a name that the Lycians applied to themselves), but the people of the kingdom subsequently came to call themselves Lycians ...

Janko

p. 371

Sarpedon has been buit up as a powerful and sympathetic figure. He slew Haerakles' Rhodian son ... (5.628ff., 12.307ff.); ...

p. 372

Sarpedon's background suggests that he was once a non-Greek god (cf. H. E. Zwicker, ...). His name was borrowed into Greek as ... Demes were named after him at Tlos and Xanthos (Brice, loc. cit.); his cult at Xanthos no doubt centred on his supposed tomb (Appian, Bell. Civ. 4.78, with Nagy in ...). A cilician hill named after him had a shrine of Apollo Sarpedonios and Artemis Sarpedonia with an oracle (Strabo 14.676, Diodorus 32.10.2); Hermippus of Berytus reports a dream-oracle of his in the Troad (Tertullian, De Anima 46.11). Hills, headlands and islands were linked to him, as with Apollo (cf. HyAp 30-44): the Gorgons' isle was called 'Sarpedon' (Cypria frag. 32 B = 26 D., cf. Stesichorus frag. 183), as was a windy headland in Thrace (Simonides frag. 534, Pherecydes FGH 3 F 145, Aesch. Suppl. 869ff., Hdt. 7.58, Ap. Rhod. 1.211ff. with schol.), where a brute named Sarpedon lived until Herakles slew him ('Apollodorus' 2.5.9; Tlepolemos is Herekles' son).

Renberg

p. 530

Tertuliian included "Sarpedon in the Troad" in a list of oracles functioning through dream-divination that included both known and unknown sites, but there is no other source indicating a cult site devoted to the Trojan War hero in this area.¹⁹ It is, of course, possible that Sarpedon did have a shrine there, but since he had an apparently prominent oracle on the other side of Asia Minor, at Seleukia in Cilicia, it is also possible that Tertullian associated the wrong site with the oracle.²⁰ This oracle of Sarpedon, divinized as Apollo Sarpedonios, is known from both Diodorus and Zosimus as well as the anonymous fifth-century Life of Thekla, the Holy Apsotle and Martyr of Christ, and Her Miacles.²¹

p. 331

p. 532

Rose

s.v. Sarpedon, p. 952

Sarpedon, in mythology, commander of the Lycian contigent of Priam's allies (Iliad 2. 876). He takes a prominent part ...

At all events there was an historical cult of him in Lycia, with which the Homeric story of his burial is presumably connected; his hero shrine is mentioned by schol. Il. 16. 673. The wide distribution of place-names formed from his name (see Immisch in Roscher's Lexocon iv. 393 ff.) suggests that his worship is old and famous, which well may have drawn Homer's attention to him.

Smith

s.v. Sarpedon 2

2. A son of Zeus by Laodameia, or according to others of Evander by Deidameia, and a brother of Clarus and Themon. (Hom. Il. 6.199; Apollod. 3.1.1; Diod. 5.79; Verg. A. 10.125.) He was a Lycian prince, and a grandson of No. 1. In the Trojan war he was an ally of the Trojans, and distinguished himself by his valour. (Hom. Il. 2.876, 5.479, &c., 629, &c., 12.292, &c., 397, 16.550, &c., 17.152, &c.; comp. Philostr. Her. 14; Ov. Met. 13.255.) He was slain at Troy by Patroclus. (Il. 16.480, &c.) Apollo, by the command of Zeus, cleaned Sarpedon's body from blood and dust, anointed it with ambrosia, and wrapped it up in an ambrosian garment. Sleep and Death then carried it into Lycia, to be honourably buried. (Il. 16.667, &c. ; comp. Verg. A. 1.100.) Eustathius (Eustath. ad Hom. p. 894) gives the following tradition to account for Sarpedon being king of the Lycians, since Glaucus, being the son of Hippolochus, and grandson of Bellerophontes, ought to have been king: when the two brothers Isandrus and Hippolochus were disputing about the government, it was proposed that they should shoot through a ring placed on the breast of a child, and Laodameia, the sister of the two rivals, gave up her own son Sarpedon for this purpose, who was thereupon honoured by his uncles with the kingdom, to show their gratitude to their sister for her generosity. This Sarpedon is sometimes confounded with No. 1, as in Eurip. Rhes. 29, comp. Eustath. ad Hom. pp. 369, 636, &c. There was a sanctuary of Sarpedon (probably the one we are here speaking of) at Xanthus in Lycia. (Appian, App. BC 4.78.)

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Europa, who in most accounts is a Phoenician by birth and a sister of Cadmus, was abducted by Zeus in the form of a bull (or, in this play, by a bull sent by Zeus [fr. 99.1–2]) and taken to Crete, where she gave birth to Minos and Rhadamanthys; in some accounts, including the one followed in this play, she also has a third son, Sarpedon, destined to be killed at Troy (so Hesiod frr. 140, 141). In this play Europa, who must now be elderly, is evidently living in Caria—which, as Strabo (14.3.3) complains, the dramatist seems to have identified or confused with Sarpedon’s homeland of Lycia; Minos is dead (implied by fr. 99.12), Rhadamanthys though immortal has departed from earth, and she is anxious about the welfare of Sarpedon. There can be little doubt that the play culminated in the arrival of news of Sarpedon’s death, followed probably by the return [cont.]

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home of his body, conveyed from Troy by the divine powers Sleep and Death (cf. Iliad 16.453–7, 666–683).

West (see below) has put forward the attractive hypothesis That Carians was the first play of a trilogy which also Included Memnon and The Weighing of Souls (qq.v.), and the daring one that of these three plays only Memnon was by Aeschylus, the others having been written (or completed, or revised) by his son Euphorion, whom West regards (rightly, I believe) as the author of Prometheus Bound and Unbound.

Recent studies:M. L. West, “Iliad and Aethiopis on stage: Aeschylus and son”, CQ 50 (2000) 338–352, esp. 347–350; A. G. Keen, “Lycians in the Kares of Aeschylus”, in F. McHardy et al. ed. Lost Dramas of Classical Athens (Exeter, 2005) 63–82; W. S. Barrett, “A detail of tragic usage: the application to persons of verbal nouns in -ma”, in Greek Lyric, Tragedy, and Textual Criticism (Oxford, 2007) 351–367, at 355–57.