Sithon was said to be king of Odomantice[5] (roughly equivalent with the plain of Serres and Eastern Macedonia) or the Thracian Cherronesus, also known as Sithonia (the modern Gallipoli peninsula).
[3] Pallene was a very beautiful and graceful princess, and her reputation travelled far, so that suitors from many places including the faraway lands of Illyria and Tanais flocked to ask for her hand.
[5] He beat and killed many potential grooms but in time he decided to make the suitors fight each other to death instead, either because his strengh was failing him as he grew older,[5] or because he realised he would have no son-in-law at all if he kept up the practice of slaughtering them en masse.
[8] She decided to rig the competition, or alternatively her desperate crying drew the attention of a sympathetic male slave, who comforted her at first and then heavily bribed Dryas' chariot-driver to undo the axle-pins of the chariot's wheels.
[10] Aphrodite then, the goddess of love who often paid visits to the Odomanti at night, intervened to save the unfortunate girl by snatching Pallene out of harm's way.
[13] In a different version appearing in the Dionysiaca by Nonnus, the girl's victorious suitor is supplanted by the god Dionysus, acting as an agent of Justice against Sithon's sacrilegious crimes.
[14] Dionysus wished to punish Sithon for the many unlawful murders of the suitors, so when he arrived at their kingdom, he pretended to be a mortal who had come for Pallene's hand in marriage, bringing many gifts.
[15] In the presence of Aphrodite and Eros Pallene fought the god earnestly, but he took hold of her fast; his gentle movements and were more fitting to a lover than a fighter.