Sarpedon. In Greek mythology, Sarpedon, was a son of Zeus, who fought on the side of Troy in the Trojan War. Although in the Iliad, he was the son of Zeus and Laodamia, the daughter of Bellerophon, in the later standard tradition, he was the son of Zeus and Europa, and the brother of Minos and Rhadamanthus, while in other accounts the Sarpedon who fought at Troy was the grandson of the Sarpedon who was the brother of Minos. There was a temple of Sarpedon in Xanthos, in Lycia, perhaps associated with a supposed burial site there. 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, although Tertuliian might have been confusing this for the oracle in Cilicia. There is evidence to suggest that Sarpedon was the subject of pre-Homeric non-Greek worship. There were three separate traditions concerning the genealogy of Sarpedon the brother of Minos, and Sarpedon the Trojan War hero. In Homer's Iliad, Zeus had two sons by Europa, Minos and Rhadamanthus.While Sarpedon, a Trojan ally from Lycia, was the son of Zeus and Laodamia, the daughter of Bellerophon and the Lycian princess Philonoe, with no apparent connection to Crete. However, in the standard classical tradition Sarpedon was instead the Cretan son of Zeus and Europa, and the brother of Minos. According to scholia to Iliad book 12, citing Hesiod and Bacchylides, Europa bore Zeus three sons on Crete, Minos, Sarpedon, and Rhadamanthus. A fragment of the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women, mentions Europa's children by Zeus, and while only the name Rhadamanthus is preserved, there is sufficient room for the names Minos and Sarpedon, and the rest of the fragment appears to involve Sarpedon's exploits at Troy. A fragment of Aeschylus' Carians also has Sarpedon as the third son, after Minos and Rhadamanthus, of Zeus and Europa. In the fragment, Sarpedon is off fighting at Troy, while Europa waits anxiously for word of his fate. This same geneaology appears in the Euripidean Rhesus. Having a Trojan War hero also be the brother of Minos, involves a genealogical difficulty, since Minos lived three generations before the Trojan War. In some accounts, Zeus granted his son Sarpedon the gift of long life. Such a gift is already suggested by the Hesiodic Catalogue fragment, and Apollodorus, perhaps drawing on the Catalogue, says that Zeus allowed his son Sarpedon to live for three generations. However, by other accounts, the Sarpedon who was the brother of Minos, and the Sarpedon who fought at Troy were different. Diodorus Siculus says that, according to Cretan myth, the Sarpedon who was the son of Zeus and Europa, and the brother with the brother of Minos and Rhadamanthus, had a son Euandrus who married Deidameia, the daughter of Bellerophon, and by her was the father of the Sarpedon who fought at Troy. In Dictys Cretensis, Sarpedon is the son Xanthus and Laodamia, while inthe Clementine Recognitions he is the son of Zeus and Hippodamia. Sarpedon and his brothers Minos and Rhadamanthus, were adopted by the Cretan king Asterion or Asterius.According to the scholia to Iliad book 12 when Zeus brought Europa to Crete, he gave her as wife to Asterion, the king of Crete, while the mythographers Diodorus Siculus and Apollodorus tells us that Europa married Asterius, who adopted her three sons Minos, Sarpedon and Rhadamanthus. When they grew up, Sarpedon and Minos fought, Minos won, and Sarpedon was forced to flee his native Crete for Asia Minor, eventually ending up in Lycia. As Herodotus tells us, Sarpedon and Minos fought for the Cretan throne, and Minos prevailed, driving out Sarpedon and his supporters, who fled to a place controlled by the Milyans, that would later be called Lycia, after Lycus, the son of Pandion II, the legendary king of Athens. However, in another version of the story reported by Apollodorus, Minos fought Sarpedon over the love of the boy Miletus. Again Minos was victorious, and Sarpedon fled, this time to join Europa's brother Cilix, who was at war with the Lycians. Cilix won the war, and Sarpedon became king of the Lycians. According to the fourth-century BC historian Ephorus, this Sarpedon was said to be the founder of the Carian city of Miletus. As mentioned above, in the standard tradition, this Sarpedon was a leader of a Lycian contingent which fought alongside the Trojans in the Trojan War. Although according to Diodorus Siculus, this Sarpedon instead had a son Euandrus who was the father of the Sarpedon who fought at Troy. Sarpedon fought on the side of the Trojans, with his cousin Glaucus, during the Trojan War, becoming one of Troy's greatest allies and heroes.