Ilus

Ilos followed a dappled cow through Phrygia after winning a wrestling contest held by the local king. The king gave him fifty boys, fifty girls, and the cow, obeying an oracle that ordered Ilos to found a city wherever the animal lay down. When the cow reached the Hill of Phrygian Ate, it settled there. Ilos founded his city on that spot and named it Ilion. He then prayed to Zeus for a sign.

At daybreak, Ilos saw the Palladion lying outside his tent. It had fallen from the sky. The image stood three cubits high, with its feet joined together. It held a raised spear in its right hand and a distaff and spindle in the other. The Palladion was no ordinary statue. It possessed magical power, and the wider tradition held that Ilion could not be captured while it remained in its shrine.

A different account says that Ilos took the Palladion from Athena's shrine, apparently by force, and was struck blind. The reason given is that humans were not permitted to see or handle the image. Those who transgressed against it were blinded, perhaps at once. Later traditions say that Ilos recovered his sight after appeasing the goddess. The Palladion was later stolen from Ilion by Odysseus and Diomedes during a night expedition. Its removal was required for the Argive army to take the city, in accordance with a prophecy known to the Greeks and the Trojans.

Ilos went to Phrygia while the king was holding games. He won the wrestling contest and received fifty boys and fifty girls as his prize. Following an oracle, the king also gave him a dappled cow and told him to found a city where it lay down. Ilos followed the cow until it reached the Hill of Phrygian Ate. There it lay down, so he founded a city and named it Ilion. He prayed to Zeus for a sign, and at daybreak saw the Palladion outside his tent. It had fallen from the sky and stood three cubits high, with joined feet, a raised spear in its right hand, and a distaff and spindle in its left.

Tantalus was a wealthy king in Lydia, in Asia Minor. He was regarded as an ancestor of the Pelopids, the line that later provided the kings of Mycenae and Sparta during the Trojan War. The account gives his expulsion after a quarrel with Ilus. The quarrel was connected with Tantalus's impiety and with the hatred he had incurred from the gods. Ilus therefore drove Tantalus from his territory. The account does not state what was said or done during the quarrel.

Tantalus later suffered punishment from the gods. They seized him and shackled him after discovering his offence. They judged that killing him would not be severe enough, so they cast him into the dark depths of the Underworld. There he stood in a lake with the water reaching his chin, yet remained constantly thirsty. Whenever he bent down to drink, the water withdrew. Trees hung fruit above him, including pears, pomegranates, apples, figs, and olives. Whenever he reached for the fruit, the wind carried it out of reach. Many years later, a Greek king who looked into the Underworld saw this suffering and reported it.