Considering the Greeks' focus on understanding the ethnography and geography of the countries and peoples they encountered, it's not surprising that the oldest records about the eastern coast of the Adriatic are found in the works of Greek writers. These authors, while documenting crucial geographical information, occasionally provided stories about the origins of settlements and the peoples who inhabited them, often attributing them to Greek heroes. One such figure from Greek mythology who ventured to the Adriatic and founded a people bearing his name, as well as the peninsula they inhabited, is Hyllus, the Corcyrian son of the hero Heracles and the nymph Melite. This myth has been preserved in 11 literary sources (spanning from the 4th century BCE to the 13th century), who primarily transmitted the story of Hyllus within the context of writings about the Hyllic Peninsula. Although seemingly concise and straightforward in content, the myth of Hyllus has preserved complex and intricate traces of potential relationships between Greeks and the local population and reflects the significance of the Hyllic Peninsula during this period. The myth of Hyllus also played a profound role in the discourse of Daniele Farlati, the author of the monumental Illyricum Sacrum. In this book, where the boundaries between myth and reality merge, Hyllus was portrayed as the forefather of the Illyrians, a conqueror, city founder, and Illyrian king on the Adriatic in the 13th century BC. By amalgamating various sources, literature, and his creative assumptions, Farlati centered his theory of the Illyrians' Pelasgian origin on the figure of Hyllus, thus ascribing them the most ancient and illustrious origin. Consequently, Hyllus underwent a transformation from a Greek mythological hero of the Adriatic to a genuine Illyrian king from the 13th century BC.