§1.61.1ὅτι δὲ καὶ τὸ τῶν Τρώων ἔθνος Ἑλληνικὸν ἐν τοῖς μάλιστα ἦν ἐκ Πελοποννήσου ποτὲ ὡρμημένον, εἴρηται μὲν καὶ ἄλλοις τισὶ πάλαι, λεχθήσεται δὲ καὶ πρὸς ἐμοῦ διʼ ὀλίγων.
That the Trojan race too was of Greek origin, having once sprung from the Peloponnesus in the highest degree, has indeed been said by some others long ago, and shall be related also by me in brief.
ἔχει δὲ ὁ λόγος περὶ αὐτῶν ὧδε·
The story about them is as follows.
Ἄτλας γίνεται βασιλεὺς πρῶτος ἐν τῇ καλουμένῃ νῦν Ἀρκαδίᾳ, ᾤκει δὲ περὶ τὸ λεγόμενον Καυκώνιον ὄρος.
Atlas became the first king in the region now called Arcadia, and lived around the mountain called Caucon.
τούτῳ θυγατέρες ἦσαν ἑπτὰ αἱ νῦν ἐν οὐρανῷ κατηστερίσθαι λεγόμεναι Πλειάδες ἐπίκλησιν, ὧν μίαν μὲν Ἠλέκτραν Ζεὺς γαμεῖ καὶ §1.61.2γεννᾷ παῖδας ἐξ αὐτῆς Ἴασον καὶ Δάρδανον.
He had seven daughters, who are now said to have been placed among the stars in heaven under the name of the Pleiades, of whom Zeus married one, Electra, and begot children by her, Iasus and Dardanus.
Ἴασος μὲν οὖν ἠίθεος μένει, Δάρδανος δὲ ἄγεται γυναῖκα Χρύσην Πάλλαντος θυγατέρα, ἐξ ἧς αὐτῷ γίνονται παῖδες Ἰδαῖος καὶ Δείμας.
Iasus, indeed, remained unmarried, but Dardanus took to wife Chryse, the daughter of Pallas, by whom he had sons Idaeus and Deimas.
οὗτοι τέως μὲν ἐν Ἀρκαδίᾳ παραλαβόντες τὴν Ἄτλαντος δυναστείαν ἐβασίλευον, ἔπειτα κατακλυσμοῦ γενομένου μεγάλου περὶ τὴν Ἀρκαδίαν τὰ μὲν πεδία ἐξελιμνώθη καὶ πολλοῦ χρόνου γεωργεῖσθαι ἀδύνατα ἦν, οἱ δὲ ἄνθρωποι ʽᾤκουν γὰρ ἀνὰ τὰ ὄρη γλίσχρως ποριζόμενοι τὰς τροφάσʼ συμφρονήσαντες ὡς οὐχ ἱκανὴ βόσκειν ἔσται πάντας ἡ περιοῦσα γῆ νέμονται σφᾶς αὐτοὺς διχῇ·
These for a time ruled in Arcadia, having succeeded to the dominion of Atlas; but afterwards, a great deluge occurring around Arcadia, the plains were flooded and for a long time remained impossible to cultivate, while the people (for they lived among the mountains, with difficulty procuring their food), agreeing that the remaining land would not be sufficient to support them all, divided themselves into two parts.
καὶ αὐτῶν οἱ μὲν ἐν Ἀρκαδίᾳ ὑπομένουσι βασιλέα καταστησάμενοι Δείμαντα τὸν Δαρδάνου, οἱ δὲ λοιποὶ §1.61.3ἀπανίστανται Πελοποννήσου στόλῳ μεγάλῳ.
Some of them remained in Arcadia, having set up Deimas, the son of Dardanus, as king, while the rest departed from the Peloponnesus with a great fleet.
ποιούμενοι δὲ τὸν πλοῦν παρὰ τὴν Εὐρώπην εἰς τὸν Μέλανα καλούμενον ἀφικνοῦνται κόλπον καὶ τυγχάνουσιν ἐν νήσῳ τινὶ τῆς Θρᾴκης ὁρμισάμενοι, ἣν οὐκ ἔχω εἰπεῖν εἴτε ἦν οἰκουμένη καὶ πρότερον, εἴτʼ ἔρημος· ᾗ τίθενται τοὔνομα σύνθετον ἔκ τε ἀνδρὸς καὶ τόπου, Σαμοθρᾴκην·
Making their voyage along Europe, they arrived at the gulf called Melas and happened to anchor at a certain island of Thrace, which I cannot say whether it was inhabited before or was desert; to this they gave a composite name, Samothrace, from a man and a place.
τὸ μὲν γὰρ χωρίον τῆς Θρᾴκης, ὁ δὲ οἰκιστὴς Σάμων, υἱὸς Ἑρμοῦ καὶ νύμφης Κυλληνίδος Ῥήνης ὀνομαζομένης.
For the place belonged to Thrace, and the founder was Samon, the son of Hermes and a Cyllenian nymph named Rhene.
§1.61.4ἐκεῖ δὲ χρόνον οὐ πολὺν διατρίψαντες, ὡς οὐκ εὐμαρὴς ἦν ὁ βίος αὐτοῖς γῇ τε λυπρᾷ καὶ θαλάττῃ ἀγρίᾳ μαχομένοις, ὀλίγους τινὰς ἐν τῇ νήσῳ λειπόμενοι ἀπανίστανται πάλιν οἱ πλείους εἰς τὴν Ἀσίαν ἔχοντες ἡγεμόνα τῆς ἀποικίας Δάρδανον· Ἴασος γὰρ ἐν τῇ νήσῳ κεραυνῷ πληγεὶς τελευτᾷ Δήμητρος εὐνῆς ὀριγνώμενος·
Having spent no long time there, as life was not easy for them, contending as they were with a poor land and a wild sea, they left a few of their number on the island, and the majority departed again for Asia, having Dardanus as the leader of the colony; for Iasus had died in the island, struck by lightning, because he had desired Demeter's bed.
ποιησάμενοί τε τὴν ἀπόβασιν ἐν τῷ καλουμένῳ νῦν Ἑλλησπόντῳ περὶ τὴν ὕστερον κληθεῖσαν οἰκίζονται Φρυγίαν, Ἰδαῖος μὲν ὁ Δαρδάνου μέρος τῆς στρατιᾶς ἔχων ἐν τοῖς ὄρεσιν, ἃ νῦν Ἰδαῖα ἀπʼ ἐκείνου λέγεται, ἔνθα μητρὶ θεῶν ἱερὸν ἱδρυσάμενος ὄργια καὶ τελετὰς κατεστήσατο, αἳ καὶ εἰς τόδε χρόνου διαμένουσιν ἐν ἁπάσῃ Φρυγίᾳ· Δάρδανος δʼ ἐν τῇ καλουμένῃ νῦν Τρωάδι πόλιν ὁμώνυμον αὑτῷ κατασκευάσας, δόντος αὐτῷ τὰ χωρία Τεύκρου βασιλέως, ἀφʼ οὗ Τευκρὶς τὸ ἀρχαῖον ἡ γῆ ἐλέγετο·
Having made their landing in the place now called the Hellespont, they settled around the region afterwards called Phrygia; Idaeus, the son of Dardanus, holding a part of the army, settled in the mountains, which are now called Idaean after him, where he established a temple to the mother of the gods, and instituted mysteries and rites, which remain to this day in all Phrygia; and Dardanus built a city of the same name as himself in the land now called the Troad, the sites having been given to him by King Teucer, after whom the land was anciently called Teucris.
§1.61.5τοῦτον δὲ ἄλλοι τε πολλοὶ καὶ Φανόδημος ὁ τὴν Ἀττικὴν γράψας ἀρχαιολογίαν ἐκ τῆς Ἀττικῆς μετοικῆσαί φασιν εἰς τὴν Ἀσίαν δήμου Ξυπεταιέως ἄρχοντα καὶ πολλὰ παρέχονται τοῦ λόγου τεκμήρια. κρατήσαντα δὲ χώρας συχνῆς τε καὶ ἀγαθῆς καὶ οὐ πολὺ τὸ ἐπιχώριον ἐχούσης γένος ἀσμένως τὸν Δάρδανον ἰδεῖν καὶ τὸ σὺν αὐτῷ παραγενόμενον Ἑλληνικόν, τῶν τε πρὸς τοὺς βαρβάρους πολέμων συμμαχίας ἕνεκα καὶ ἵνα ἡ γῆ μὴ ᾖ ἔρημος.
And many others as well as Phanodemus, who wrote the early history of Attica, say that he migrated from Attica to Asia, being a ruler of the deme of Xypete, and they offer many proofs of this account. and they say that, having become master of a large and fertile territory which did not have a large native population, he gladly welcomed Dardanus and the Greek force that had come with him, both for the sake of alliance in wars against the barbarians and so that the land might not be uninhabited.