i'm a research nerd. i love doing research on just about anything. this is why i have a masters degree in library science.

one of my now-known-but-formerly-secret hobbies is doing genealogy research on my family ancestry. it seems that i, like many others, am related to some famous folks. however, since hardly any of the research i've gathered has been from original source materials (library speak that means it's all come from other people's research), there's a good chance that all of this is just lies. but they still make an interesting (to me & mine) story.

IN THE BEGINNING

Greece was originally populated by many Hellenic tribes. From this assortment of tribes, came my ancestors.

1449 BC

Dardanus is my first ancestor found in records that are considered somewhat believable although maybe not exactly accurate. He has been described as the son of both Zeus (and Electra) and as the son of Blascon, a descendent of Japeth, son of Noah. I won’t go further into the ancestry of these two sets of parents, you can pick your preferred mythology and take it from there if you like.

Dardanus fled over a quarrel (haven't found out any details of this quarrel yet) from Arcadia, Greece across the sea to Samothrace, Greece. When that island was visited by a flood, he crossed over to the Troad, a region surrounding Troy in Asia Minor - although at this time it wasn't called Troad and the city wasn't known as Troy. Being hospitably received by Teucer (ruler of Phrygia), he married Teucer's daughter Bateia, who bore him two sons, Ilus and Erichthonius. They moved to the slope of Mount Ida and founded the city of Dardania. Ilus became the second King of Dardania but he died childless so his younger brother Erichthonius succeeded him as King.

1374 BC

Erichthonius married Astyoche, who has been called the daughter of the river god Simoeis. She bore him a son named Tros. Erichthonius was said to be the richest ruler in the world at that time because he owned 3000 mares.

1314 BC

Tros succeeded his father to the throne. He gave his name to the land (Troad) and it’s people (Trojans). Tros married Callirrhoe and fathered Ilus, Assarcacus and Ganymede (who later became the cupbearer in Olympus for Zeus).

The Dardanian people then divided into two separate groups between Ilus and Assaracus.

1260 BC

Assaracus succeeded his father and continued to rule at Dardania, near Mount Ida, while Ilus chose to move closer to the sea. Ilus (aka Illo) founded the city that he named Ilium, after himself. Ilium was, however, often called Troy, after his father. The two brothers began to rule two separate houses in two different cities.

On the Trojan line, Ilus, the king of Troy, married Eurydice, and became the father Laomedon. As it was said before, his daughter Themiste married his nephew, Capys (of the Dardanian line). His son Laomedon succeeded Ilus.

1277 BC

Laomedon became king of Ilium (Troy), after his father's death.

The new king married Strymo, Placia or Leucippe. Whichever woman he married, he was the father of Podarces (Priam) and many other sons. He had at least one daughter, Hesione. His son Tithonus was abducted by Eos, goddess of dawn, and taken to Ethiopia or Syria.

Laomedon was known for his arrogance and his impiety, and who refused to honors his promises.

Poseidon and Apollo, possibly punished for rebelling against Zeus, had to work for one year for a mortal. The two gods disguised as builders, was hired to work alongside with a mortal, Aeacus, son of Zeus and Aegina, (father of Peleus and Telamon), to build the walls of Troy. Poseidon and Apollo wanted the vine of gold as payment for their work. Laomedon agreed.

After the gods finished building the wall, Laomedon refused to pay their wages for their services. Apollo caused the plague within the city, while Poseidon send a sea-monster to ravage the Trojan countryside.

The seers told Laomedon, that land would be spare, if the king sacrifice his daughter to the sea-monster. Chaining his daughter, Hesione, to a rock and waited for monster to arrive.

Heracles, who was performing the ninth labour (fetching the girdle of Hippolyte), stopped at Troy. Learning what was about to happen, Heracles wanted Laomedon's immortal horses in exchange for rescuing his daughter. Laomedon agreed. After killing the monster, again Laomedon refused to pay. Heracles angry at the Trojan king betrayal on his promise, planned to return with an army, after he finished performing the twelve labours.

Heracles raised an army in Tiryns, and the Argonaut hero, Telamon of Salamis, son of Aeacus, joined the hero. After capturing the city, Laomedon was killed, along with many of his sons, and Heracles gave Heisone to Telamon as concubine.

Heracles allowed Hesione to ransomed one captive. Hesione ransomed her youngest brother Podarces, offering her veil as ransom. Podarces became king of Troy, and changed his name to Priam, which means "Ransom". Priam was also Troy's last king.

Priam’s first wife was Arisbe, daughter of Merops, king of Percote. They had a son, Aesacus, who was a gifted seer. Priam soon married Hecuba, daughter of Dymas. With Hecuba, he became father of Hector, Paris, Cassandra, Helenus, Deiphobus, and many other children (some say as many as fifty, by some other women as well as Hecuba).

Before Paris was born, Hecuba had a vision, and the seer interpreted that vision, saying that Paris would one-day causes the destruction of Troy. Priam had his second son by Hecuba, exposed in the wild.

During his early reign, Priam was ally of Mygdonians and fought against the Amazons. The Amazons later became his ally, when he purified Penthesileia for killing her sister in hunting trip. Penthesileia led the Amazons in the last year of the Trojan War, where she was killed at the hands of Achilles.

Years later, Paris returned to Troy and was recognized. His parents had forgotten the warning by the seer and welcomed him home.

When three goddesses asked Paris to judge and award the golden apple to the fairest goddess, he awarded the apple to goddess of love, Aphrodite. Aphrodite promised him the fairest woman in the world, Helen of Sparta. This would result in the outbreak of war between the Greeks and the Trojans.

Priam would have return Helen, when Greek embassy demanded the return of Helen to her husband Menelaüs (Menelaus). But Paris prevailed upon his father to refuse. As a result the war lasted for ten years and all but one son would die in the war.

1183 BC

Priam’s son, Helenus (aka Heleno), also a seer, would survive the war. Hecuba and all of her daughters became enslaved. Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, would kill the aged king (Priam) on the last day of the war (1183BC).

As a seer, Helenus knew that Troy was doomed. Helenus failed to dissuade Paris from sailing to Sparta to fetch Helen. Helenus seemed to be a good fighter, during the war. His role in the Iliad, however, was minor.

According to the Little Iliad and Sophocles' Philoctetes, Odysseus captured Helenus, before Paris' death. It was Helenus who told the Greeks of the requirements of winning the war, such as Neoptolemus and Philoctetes with the bow of Heracles was needed at Troy, the bones of Pelops need to be relocated and stealing the Palladium from the altar of Athena.

In Apollodorus' Epitome, Helenus was captured after Paris' death. It was Calchas who foretold that the Greeks needed to fetch Philoctetes and the bow of Heracles. See Philoctetes about Odysseus and one of his companions fetching the bow of Heracles.

Once Philoctetes rejoined the Greeks, healed of his wound, Philoctetes killed or mortally wounded Paris with his deadly arrow.

When Paris died, Helenus and his other brother Deiphoubus contend with one another for the hand of Helen in marriage. When Deiphobus won and married Helen, Helenus left Troy for Mount Ida.
Odysseus captured Helenus to reveal how Troy may be capture. Helenus was easy to persuade, and told the Greeks they Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles must come and fight at Troy. Also that the bones of Pelops had to be brought to Troy. Helenus also told them that Troy could fall unless the Palladium was taken out of the altar of Athena.

When Troy fell, Neoptolemus received Helenus as slave. Andromache, the widow of Hector and sister-in-law of Helenus, became Neoptolemus' concubine. Helenus knew that the most of the Greek fleet would be destroyed after the Lesser Ajax had raped his sister Cassandra, at Athena's temple. Helenus advised to Neoptolemus to go home by land than sea.

Neoptolemus safely reached his father's home, where he met his grandfather (Peleus) for the first time. Rather than taking over the kingdom from Peleus, at Helenus' suggestion, Neoptolemus went to Epeirus to find his own kingdom.

Helenus lived with Neoptolemus and Andromache, acting more like a close adviser than a slave. When Neoptolemus decided to marry Hermione, the daughter of Menelaus and Helen, the hero set Helenus and Andromache free, where Helenus was allowed to find his own kingdom in Epeirus. When Hermione and her lover, Orestes, murdered Neoptolemus, Helenus took care of Neoptolemus' sons.

In Virgil's Aeneid, Helenus met Aeneas and his followers, who were looking for a new home. Helenus revealed to Aeneas that his new home would be in Central Italy.


i'll add more of this story as i come up with it......