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 (son of Lycaon), by whom he fathered two sons:
Idaeus and
Deimas. 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 Minor. A different account in
Virgil's
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, afterwards renamed as
Italy. This tradition holds that Dardanus was a
Tyrrhenian prince, and that his mother Electra was married to Corythus, king of
Tarquinia. 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 Ilus died before his father. According to
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Zacynthus was the first settler on the island afterwards called
Zacynthus. Dardanus' sons by Chryse, his first wife, were Idaeus and Dimas. Dionysius says (1.61.4) that Dimas and Idaeus founded colonies in Asia Minor. Idaeus gave his name to the Idaean mountains, that is
Mount Ida, where he built a temple to the Mother of the Gods (
Cybele) and instituted mysteries and ceremonies still observed in
Phrygia in Dionysius's time. According to
Dictys Cretensis, his wife was called
Olizone, daughter of Phineus and became the mother of
Erichthonius. In other accounts, the wife of Dardanus was called
Arisbe, daughter of King Teucer of
Crete or King
Macareus of
Lesbos. Dardanus reigned for 64 or 65 years and was succeeded by his son Erichthonius or in some accounts, Ilus. == Cultural depictions ==