1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sarpedōn

SARPEDŌN, in Greek legend, son of Zeus and Laodameia, Lycian prince and hero of the Trojan war. He fought on the side of the Trojans, and after greatly distinguishing himself by his bravery, was slain by Patroclus. A terrible struggle took place for the possession of his body, until Apollo rescued it from the Greeks, and by the command of Zeus washed and cleansed it, anointed it with ambrosia, and handed it over to Sleep and Death, by whom it was conveyed for burial to Lycia, where a sanctuary (Sarpedoneum) was erected in honour of the fallen hero. Virgil (Aen. i. 100) knows nothing of the removal of the body to Lycia. In later tradition, Sarpedon was the son of Zeus and Europa and the brother of Minos. Having been expelled from Crete by the latter, he and his comrades sailed for Asia, where he finally became king of Lycia. Euripides (Rhesus, 29) confuses the two Sarpedons.

See Homer, Iliad, v. 479, xii. 292, xvi. 419–683; Apollodorus iii. 1, 2; Appian, Bell. civ. iv. 78; Herodotus i. 173, with Rawlinson's notes.