[9] However, in the standard classical tradition Sarpedon was instead the Cretan son of Zeus and Europa, and the brother of Minos.

[10] According to scholia to Iliad book 12, citing Hesiod and Bacchylides, Europa bore Zeus three sons on Crete, Minos, Sarpedon, and Rhadamanthus.

[11] A fragment of the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women (preserved on a papyrus with many holes), mentions Europa's children by Zeus, and while only the name Rhadamanthus is preserved, there is sufficient room for the names Minos and Sarpedon, and the rest of the fragment appears to involve Sarpedon's exploits at Troy.

[19] According to the scholia to Iliad book 12 (mentioned above) when Zeus brought Europa to Crete, he gave her as wife to Asterion, the king of Crete,[20] while the mythographers Diodorus Siculus and Apollodorus tells us that Europa married Asterion, who adopted her three sons Minos, Sarpedon and Rhadamanthus.

[23] However, in another version of the story reported by Apollodorus, Minos fought Sarpedon over the love of the boy Miletus (or Atymnius, the son of Zeus and Cassiopeia).

Again Minos was victorious, and Sarpedon fled (along with Miletus), this time to join Europa's brother Cilix, who was at war with the Lycians.

During their fight, Zeus sent a shower of bloody raindrops over the Trojans' heads expressing the grief for the impending death of his son.

The Greeks succeeded in gaining his armour (which was later given as a prize in the funeral games for Patroclus), but Zeus had Phoebus Apollo rescue the corpse.

Apollo took the corpse and cleaned it, then delivered it to Sleep (Hypnos) and Death (Thanatos), who took it back to Lycia for funeral honours.