Ilium
The citadel of Troy, site of the legendary ten-year siege by the Greek forces
The Story of Ilium
Ilium was the ancient name for the fortified citadel of Troy, situated on a hill overlooking the plain of the Scamander River in northwestern Asia Minor. The city's mythological founder was Ilus, grandson of Dardanus, who followed a cow to the spot where she lay down and built the city there, as directed by an oracle. The walls of Ilium were said to have been built by Apollo and Poseidon during a period of servitude to King Laomedon, who then refused to pay them — an act of treachery that turned the gods against Troy forever. The city's most famous episode was the ten-year siege by the Greek alliance, provoked when Paris abducted Helen from Sparta. After years of inconclusive warfare, the Greeks triumphed through the stratagem of the Wooden Horse. The fall of Ilium became the defining catastrophe of the mythological age, scattering its survivors across the Mediterranean and providing the origin stories for Rome (through Aeneas), the Etruscans, and various other peoples. Heinrich Schliemann's excavations at Hisarlik in the 1870s revealed multiple layers of ancient settlement, confirming that a substantial Bronze Age city had existed at the traditional site.
Parents
None recorded
Symbols
Fun Fact
Schliemann's excavations at Hisarlik revealed nine superimposed cities, with Troy VIIa showing signs of destruction by fire around 1180 BCE, matching the traditional date
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Troy
🏛 placeCity besieged in the Trojan War
The legendary city in Asia Minor besieged by the Greeks for ten years in the Trojan War. Troy's fall — achieved through the deception of the wooden horse — is one of myth's defining moments.
Mycenae
🏛 placeCitadel of Agamemnon
Mycenae was the great Bronze Age citadel in the Argolid, seat of King Agamemnon who led the Greek expedition against Troy — its Lion Gate still stands after 3,200 years.
Corinth
🏛 placeCity of Sisyphus and Medea
Corinth was a wealthy trading city on the narrow isthmus connecting mainland Greece to the Peloponnese, associated with Sisyphus, Medea, Bellerophon, and Pegasus.
Sicyon
🏛 placeGeography
An ancient city near Corinth claiming to be one of the oldest in Greece and site of Prometheus's sacrifice trick
Argos
🏛 placecity-state, Peloponnese
One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and a major power in the Peloponnese, closely associated with the goddess Hera.
Acrocorinth
🏛 placegeography
The towering citadel rock above Corinth, sacred to Aphrodite and site of her famous temple.
Crete
🏛 placeIsland of the Minotaur and Minoan civilisation
Crete was the largest Greek island and the seat of the Minoan civilisation, home to King Minos, the labyrinth, and the bull-cult that produced some of mythology's most famous stories.
Arges
🏛 placegeography
The Argolid plain dominated by the city of Argos, one of the oldest and most mythologically saturated regions of Greece.
Tyre
🏛 placeGeography
The great Phoenician island-city whose princess Europa was abducted by Zeus in the form of a bull
Orchomenus
🏛 placecity, Boeotia
An ancient Boeotian city that was one of the wealthiest in Bronze Age Greece, rivalling Thebes and associated with the Minyans.
Thespiae
🏛 placeSacred geography
A Boeotian city near Mount Helicon famous for its cult of Eros and the sanctuary of the Muses
Pherae
🏛 placeGeography
A city in Thessaly where Admetus ruled and Alcestis chose to die in her husband's place