was the custom of young princes and heroes in those days; and he
traveled on until he arrived at the court of the king of Phrygʹi-a, a
country lying east of Troas. Here he found the people engaged in
athletic games, at which the king gave valuable prizes for competition.
Ilus took part in a wrestling match, and he won fifty young men and
fifty maidens,--a strange sort of prize we may well think, but not at
all strange or unusual in ancient times, when there were many slaves
everywhere. During his stay in Phrygia the young Dardanian prince was
hospitably entertained at the royal palace. When he was about to depart,
the king gave him a spotted heifer, telling him to follow the animal,
and to build a city for himself at the place where she should first lie
down to rest.

Ilus did as he was directed. With his fifty youths and fifty maidens he
set out to follow the heifer, leaving her free to go along at her
pleasure. She marched on for many miles, and at last lay down at the
foot of Mount Ida on a beautiful plain watered by two rivers, and here
Ilus encamped for the night. Before going to sleep he prayed to Jupiter
to send him a sign that that was the site meant for his city. In the
morning he found standing in front of his tent a wooden statue of the
goddess Minerva, also called Pallas. The figure was three cubits high.
In its right hand it held a spear, and in the left, a distaff and
spindle.

This was the Pal-laʹdi-um of Troy, which afterwards became very famous.
The Trojans believed that it had been sent down from heaven, and that
the safety of their city depended upon its preservation. Hence it was
guarded with the greatest care in a temple specially built for the
purpose.