Ancient authors In ancient times, authors generally saw the Dardanians as descendants of
Dardanus. According to Homer, Dardanus is a son of
Zeus.
Hesiod and, later,
Pseudo-Apollodorus expand on this, stating that
Dardanus, alongside
Iasion, are sons of Zeus and
Electra.
Diodorus Siculus agrees with this story, also asserting that Dardanus was born in
Samothrace.
Lycophron alleged that Dardanus escaped from Samothrace to the Troad during the flood in
Deucalion's time.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus and
Marcus Terentius Varro stated that Dardanus was a king of
Arcadia,
Peloponnese,
Greece and that his descendants, the Dardanians, were therefore
Greeks.
Modern authors In the modern era, the ethnic affinities of the Dardanoi and the nature of their language remain a mystery. Possible
Phrygian and/or
Mycenaean connections have been proposed. Archaeological finds from the Troad dating back to the
Chalcolithic period show striking affinity to archaeological finds known from the same era in
Muntenia and
Moldavia, and there are other traces which suggest close ties between the Troad and the Carpatho-Balkan region of
Europe. Archaeologists in fact have stated that the styles of certain ceramic objects and bone figurines show that these objects were brought into the Troad by Carpatho-Danubian colonists; for example, certain ceramic objects have been shown to have
Cucuteni origins. Egyptian records from the
Battle of Qadesh refer to
Hittite allies known as
Drdny, likely referring to the Dardanoi. According to
Walter Leaf (1915): Meanwhile, according to Manousos Kambouris (2023): ==Variations of the name==