DARDANUS, in Greek mythology, is said to have crossed over from Samothrace to the Troad by swimming on an inflated skin, and to have there founded the kingdom of Dardania previous to the existence of Troy. Apparently this was invented to account for the existence in the Troad of a worship of the Cabiri similar to that of Samothrace. Dardanus is called a son of Zeus and the Pleiad Electra, and in the Iliad (xx. 304) Zeus is said to have loved him more than his other sons.