A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

2. A son of Zeus by Laodameia, or according to others of Evander by Deidameia, and a brother of Clarus and Themon. (Hom. Il. 6.199; Apollod. 3.1.1; Diod. 5.79; Verg. A. 10.125.) He was a Lycian prince, and a grandson of No. 1. In the Trojan war he was an ally of the Trojans, and distinguished himself by his valour. (Hom. Il. 2.876, 5.479, &c., 629, &c., 12.292, &c., 397, 16.550, &c., 17.152, &c.; comp. Philostr. Her. 14; Ov. Met. 13.255.) He was slain at Troy by Patroclus. (Il. 16.480, &c.) Apollo, by the command of Zeus, cleaned Sarpedon's body from blood and dust, anointed it with ambrosia, and wrapped it up in an ambrosian garment. Sleep and Death then carried it into Lycia, to be honourably buried. (Il. 16.667, &c. ; comp. Verg. A. 1.100.) Eustathius (Eustath. ad Hom. p. 894) gives the following tradition to account for Sarpedon being king of the Lycians, since Glaucus, being the son of Hippolochus, and grandson of Bellerophontes, ought to have been king: when the two brothers Isandrus and Hippolochus were disputing about the government, it was proposed that they should shoot through a ring placed on the breast of a child, and Laodameia, the sister of the two rivals, gave up her own son Sarpedon for this purpose, who was thereupon honoured by his uncles with the kingdom, to show their gratitude to their sister for her generosity. This Sarpedon is sometimes confounded with No. 1, as in Eurip. Rhes. 29, comp. Eustath. ad Hom. pp. 369, 636, &c. There was a sanctuary of Sarpedon (probably the one we are here speaking of) at Xanthus in Lycia. (Appian, App. BC 4.78.)