Dardan

The terms Dardan (Ancient Greek,"Δάρδανος") in classical writings were synonymous with the term Trojan, the Dardans being Trojans, an ancient people of the Troad in northwestern Anatolia. The Dardans derived their name from Dardanus, the mythical founder of Dardania (Asia minor), an ancient city in the Troad. Rule of the Troad was divided between Dardania and Troy. Homer makes a clear distinction between the Trojans and the Dardanians.

The Royal House of Troy was also divided into two branches, that of Dardania, and that of Troy (or Ilium). The House of Dardania was older than the House of Troy, but Troy later became more powerful than Dardania. Aeneas is referred to in Virgil's Aeneid interchangeably as a Dardan or as a Trojan, but strictly speaking Aeneas was of the Dardanian branch. Many rulers of Rome claimed descent from Aeneas and the Houses of Troy and Dardania.

Homer writes;

"The Dardanians were led by brave Aeneas, whom Venus bore to Anchises,when she, goddess though she was, had lain with him upon the mountain slopes of Ida. He was not alone, for with him were the two sons of Antenor, Archilochus and Acamas, both skilled in all the arts of war"

The strait of the Dardanelles was named after the Dardans, who lived in the region.

Origins

The ethnic affinities of the Dardans (and Trojans) and the nature of their language remain a mystery. The remains of their material culture reveal close ties with Luwian other Anatolian groups, Thracians and Greek contact.Homer writes the the elite was mixed but predominantly Greek and the Romans considered them to be Greeks as a whole.They are totally unrelated to the later Illyrian tribe of the same name

Archaeological finds from the Troad dating back to the Chalcolithic period show striking affinity to archaeological finds known from the same era in Muntenia and Moldavia, and there are other traces which suggest close ties between the Troad and the Carpatho-Balkan region of Europe. Archaeologists in fact have stated that the styles of certain ceramic objects and bone figurines show that these objects were brought into the Troad by Carpatho-Danubian colonists; for example, certain ceramic objects have been shown to have Cucuteni origins .

Variations of the name

Other words used that are synonymous with the term Trojan are Dardanian (Ancient Greek ,"Δαρδανίων")
Dardaniones (Ancient Greek"Δαρδανιώνες")
Dardanoi (Ancient Greek"Δάρδανοι")
Dardanides (Ancient Greek"Δαρδανίδες")
Dardanion (Ancient Greek"Δαρδανίων")

Etymology

Robert Graves connected Greek δάρδανος "burned up" (from the verb δαρδάπτω dardapto "to wear, to slay, to burn up")

Translation of "Dardan"

Albanian: Dardanët.