Sarpedon

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Sarpedon

In Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the Ancient Greece concerning their List of Greek mythological figures#Immortals and Greek hero cult, Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices....
, Sarpedon (Greek

Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
: Sa?p?d??; gen.: Sa?p?d????) referred to at least three different people.

first Sarpedon was a son of Zeus

Zeus

Zeus in Greek mythology is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus and the god of the sky father and List of thunder gods. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull , and oak....
and Europa, and brother to Minos

Minos

In Greek mythology, Minos was a mythical king of Crete, son of Zeus and Europa . After his death, Minos became a judge of the dead in Greek Underworld....
and Rhadamanthys. He was raised by King Asterion

Asterion

In Greek mythology, Asterion denotes two sacred kings of Crete. The first Asterion or Asterius , son of Neleus and Chloris by the Greeks called "king" of Crete, was the consort of Europa and stepfather of her sons by Zeus, who had to assume the form of the Bull to accomplish his role....
and then banished by Minos

Minos

In Greek mythology, Minos was a mythical king of Crete, son of Zeus and Europa . After his death, Minos became a judge of the dead in Greek Underworld....
, and sought refuge with his uncle, King Cilix

Cilix

In Greek mythology, Cilix was a son of Agenor and brother of Cadmus and Europa . His father was either Agenor or Phoenix , son of Agenor.Zeus saw Europa gathering flowers and immediately fell in love with her....
. Sarpedon conquered the Milyans, and ruled over them; his kingdom was named Lycia

Lycia

Lycus

Lycus or Lykos...
, son of Pandion II

Pandion II

In Greek mythology, Pandion II was son and heir of Cecrops II, King of Athens. and his wife Metiadusa. He was exiled from Athens, Greece by the sons of his uncle Metion who sought to put Metion on the throne....
.

In another version, Minos, Sarpedon and Rhadamanthus quarreled over a beautiful boy they were all in love with, by the name of Miletus

Miletus (mythology)

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In Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek language

Son of Zeus and Europa

The first Sarpedon was a son of Zeus

Zeus

Minos

Asterion

Minos

Cilix

Lycia

Lycus

Lycus or Lykos...
, son of Pandion II

Pandion II

Miletus (mythology)

According to some accounts, Miletus was a boy loved by all three sons of Europa ?Minos, Rhadamanthus and Sarpedon. The brothers fought over him and Minos won the battle....
, son of Apollo and Areia. The youth however preferred Sarpedon, so Minos in revenge went to war and conquered the whole island. Sarpedon and his lover escaped to Lycia, where Miletus founded the city that bore his name. Other mythographers claimed that the beloved youth's name was Atymnios, and that he was the son of Zeus and Cassiopeia.

Bernard Sergent claims that the story is a late invention in that the theme of competition for a beloved youth is not in keeping with the Cretan pederastic tradition, and there is no record of this Miletus prior to the second century BCE.

Son of Zeus and Laodamia

The second Sarpedon was a son of Zeus

Zeus

Laodamia

In Greek mythology, Laodamia referred to two different women:#Laodamia was the mother of Sarpedon by Zeus, and a daughter of Bellerophon.#The wife of Protesilaus and daughter of Acastus and Astydameia....
, daughter of Bellerophon

Bellérophon

Bell?rophon is an opera with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully and a libretto by Thomas Corneille and Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle first performed at the Palais Royal, Paris on 31 January 1679....
, and also a Lycian

Lycia

Lycia was a region in Anatolia in what are now the Provinces of Turkey of Antalya Province and Mugla Province on the southern coast of Turkey. It was a federation of ancient cities in the region and later a Roman province of the Roman Empire....
King. Sarpedon became king when his uncles withdrew their claim to Lycia. He fought on the side of the Trojans, with his cousin Glaukos, during the Trojan War

Trojan War

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy stole Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta....
becoming one of Troy

Troy

Troy is a legendary city and center of the Trojan War, as described in the Epic Cycle, and especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer....
's greatest allies and heroes.

He scolded Hector

Hector

In Greek mythology, Hector , or Hektor, is a Troy prince and one of the greatest fighters in the Trojan War. He is the son of Priam and Hecuba, descendant of Dardanus, who lived under Mount Ida, and of Tros, the founder of Troy....
in the Iliad
ILiad

The iLiad is an electronic handheld device, or e-book device, which can be used for document reading and editing. Like the Sony Reader or Amazon Kindle, the iLiad makes use of an electronic paper display....
claiming that he left all the hard fighting to the allies of Troy and not to the Trojans themselves and made the point to say that the Lycians had no reason to fight the Greeks

Greeks

The Greeks , also known as Hellenes, are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions, who can also be found in Greek diaspora communities around the world....
, or no real reason to hate them, but because he was a faithful ally to Troy he would do so and fight his best anyway. When the Trojans attacked the newly built wall by the Greeks, Sarpedon led his division (Which also included Glaukos and Asteropaios

Asteropaios

In the Iliad, Asteropaios was the leader of the Trojan-allied Paionians along with fellow warrior Pyraechmes. Asteropaios was the son of Pelagon, who was the son of the river god Axios and the mortal woman Periboia, daughter of Akessamenos ....
) to the forefront of the battle and caused Ajax and Teucer

Teucer

In Greek mythology Teucer, also Teucrus or Teucris , was the son of King Telamon of Salamis Island and his second wife Hesione, daughter of King Laomedon of Troy....
to shift their attention from Hector's attack, to that of Sarpedon's forces. He personally held up the battlements and was the first to enter the Greek encampment. This attack allowed Hector to break through the Greek wall. It was during this action that Sarpedon delivered a noblesse oblige

Noblesse oblige

In French language, "noblesse oblige" means, literally, "nobility obligates".According to the , the Dictionnaire de l?Acad?mie fran?aise defines it thus:...
speech to Glaukos (12.310-28), stating that they had been the most honoured kings, therefore they must now fight the most to repay that honour and prove themselves and repay their loyal subjects. Charging into battle he told Glaukos that together they would go on to glory; if successful it would be their own if not it would add to the glory of whoever stopped them.

When Patroclus

Patroclus

In Greek mythology, as recorded in the Iliad by Homer, Patroclus, or Patroklos , son of Menoetius , was Achilles? beloved comrade and, according to some , his lover....
entered the battle in the armour of Achilles

Achilles

In Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greeks hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad, which takes for its theme ; the Wrath of Achilles....
, Sarpedon met him in combat. Zeus debated on whether to spare his son's life even though he was fated to die by the hand of Patroclus. He would have done so had Hera

Hera

In the Twelve Olympians of classical Greek Mythology, Hera or Here was the wife and older sister of Zeus. Her chief function was as goddess of women and marriage....
not reminded him that other gods' sons were fighting and dying and other gods' sons were fated to die as well, if Zeus should spare his son of his fate another god may do the same, therefore Zeus let Sarpedon die while fighting Patroclus, but not before killing the only mortal horse of Achilles. During their fight Zeus sent a shower of bloody raindrops over the Trojans' heads expressing the grief for the impending death of his son.

When Sarpedon fell, mortally wounded, he called on Glaukos to rescue his body and arms. Patroclus withdrew the spear from Sarpedon that he embedded in him, and as it left Sarpedon's body his spirit went with it. A violent struggle then ensued over the body of the fallen king. The Greeks succeeded in gaining his armour (which was later given as a prize in the funeral games for Patroclus), but Zeus had Apollo rescue the corpse. Apollo took the corpse and cleaned it, then delivered it to Slumber and Death who took it back to Lycia for funeral honours.

One account holds that the first and second Sarpedon are both the same man, and that Zeus granted Sarpedon an extraordinary long life that had to end at the Trojan War. However, the favored account is that Sarpedon, brother of Minos, and Sarpedon, who fought at Troy, were two different men that lived generations apart. A genealogical link is provided between the two Sarpedons, through Laodamia. Laodamia is said to have married Evander, son of the first Sarpedon, and to have presented Evander with a son named Sarpedon (in reality her son by Zeus).

See: Iliad
ILiad

The iLiad is an electronic handheld device, or e-book device, which can be used for document reading and editing. Like the Sony Reader or Amazon Kindle, the iLiad makes use of an electronic paper display....
books: II, IV, XII, XVI.

There is also an asteroid

Asteroid

Asteroids, sometimes called minor planets or planetoids, are small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun, smaller than planets but larger than meteoroids....
named after the Trojan hero.

Son of Poseidon

A third Sarpedon was a Thracian son of Poseidon

Poseidon

In Greek mythology, Poseidon was the god of the sea and, as "Earth-Shaker," of earthquakes. The name of the god Nethuns in Etruscan mythology was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon....
, and brother to Poltys

Poltys

Poltys is a mythical king and eponym of the Thracian city of Poltyobria , featured in Apollodorus's account of the story of the hero Heracles . Poltys and his brother Sarpedon are given as sons of the sea-god Poseidon....
, King of Aenus

Aenus (Thrace)

Aenus , modern Enez in Turkey, was an ancient city on the southeastern coast of Thrace. Formerly called Poltyobria , it was located near the mouth of the Maritsa, not far from the Melas Gulf , which is formed by the Thracian Chersonesus to the east....
. Unlike the other two Sarpedons, this Thracian Sarpedon was not a hero, but an insolent individual who was killed by Heracles

Heracles

In Greek mythology, Heracles or Herakles meaning "glory of Hera", or "Glorious through Hera" Alcides or Alcaeus " was a hero, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus....
.

Sarpedon

Son of Zeus and Europa

Son of Zeus and Laodamia

Son of Poseidon

See also