Aeacus (; also spelled Eacus; Ancient Greek: Αἰακός) was a king of the island of Aegina in Greek mythology. He was a son of Zeus and the nymph Aegina, and the father of the heroes Peleus and Telamon.[Apollodorus, 1.9.16] According to legend, he was famous for his justice, and after he died he became one of the three judges in the Greek underworld alongside Minos and Rhadamanthus. In another story, he assisted Poseidon and Apollo in building the walls of Troy.
He had sanctuaries in Athens and Aegina, and the Aeginetan festival of the Aeacea (Αἰάκεια) was celebrated in his honour.
Mythology
Birth and early days
Aeacus was born on the island of Oenone or Oenopia, where his mother Aegina had been carried by Zeus to secure her from the anger of her parents; afterward, this island became known as
Aegina.
[Apollodorus, 3.12.6; Smith, s.v. Aeacus; Compare Plato, Gorgias 524a] He was the father of
Peleus,
Telamon and
Phocus and was the grandfather of the
Trojan War warriors
Achilles and
Telemonian Ajax (aka Ajax the Greater). In some accounts, Aeacus had a daughter called
Alcimache who bore Medon to
Oileus of
Locris.
Aeacus's sons Peleus and Telamon were jealous of Phocus and killed him. When Aeacus learned about the murder, he exiled Peleus and Telamon.
[Strabo, 8 p. 375] Some traditions related that, at the time when Aeacus was born,
Aegina was not yet inhabited, and that Zeus either changed the ants (μύρμηκες) of the island into the men (
Myrmidons) over whom Aeacus ruled, or he made the men grow up out of the earth.
, on the other hand, supposed that the island was not uninhabited at the time of the birth of Aeacus, instead stating that during the reign of Aeacus,
Hera, jealous of Aegina, ravaged the island bearing the name of the latter by sending a plague or a fearful
dragon into it, by which nearly all its inhabitants were carried off. Afterward, Zeus restored the population by changing the ants into men.
These legends seem to be a mythical account of the colonization of Aegina, which seems to have been originally inhabited by Pelasgians, and afterwards received colonists from Phthiotis, the seat of the Myrmidons, and from Phlius on the Asopus. While he reigned in Aegina, Aeacus was renowned in all Greece for his justice and piety, and was frequently called upon to settle disputes not only among men, but even among the gods themselves.[Pindar, Isthmian Odes 8.48; Pausanias, 1.39.6] He was such a favourite with the latter, that when Greece was visited by a drought as a consequence of a murder that had been committed, the oracle of Delphi declared that the calamity would not cease unless Aeacus prayed to the gods to end it.[Apollodorus, 3.12.6, Diodorus Siculus, 4.61.1] Aeacus prayed, and as a result, the drought ceased. Aeacus then demonstrated his gratitude by erecting a temple to Zeus Panhellenius on Mount Panhellenion,[Pausanias, 2.30.4] and afterward, the Aeginetans built a sanctuary on their island called Aeaceum, which was a square temple enclosed by walls of white marble. Aeacus was believed in later times to be buried under the altar of this sacred enclosure.[Pausanias, 2.29.6]
Later adventures
A legend preserved in
Pindar relates that
Apollo and
Poseidon took Aeacus as their assistant in building the walls of
Troy.
[Pindar, Olympian Odes 8.39] When the work was completed, three
rushed against the wall, and though the two that attacked the sections of the wall built by the gods fell down dead, the third forced its way into the city through the portion of the wall built by Aeacus. Thereafter, Apollo prophesied that Troy would fall at the hands of Aeacus's descendants, the Aeacidae (i.e. his sons Telamon and Peleus joined
Heracles when he sieged the city during Laomedon's rule. Later, his great-grandson Neoptolemus was present in the wooden horse).
Aeacus was also believed by the Aeginetans to have surrounded their island with high cliffs in order to protect it against piracy.[Ovid, Metamorphoses 7.506 & 9.435] By Endeïs Aeacus had two sons, Telamon (father of Ajax and Teucer) and Peleus (father of Achilles), and by Psamathe a son, Phocus, whom he preferred to the former two sons, both of whom conspired to kill Phocus during a contest, and then subsequently fled from their native island.
In the afterlife
After his death, Aeacus became one of the three judges in Hades (along with his
Minoan Crete half-brothers
Rhadamanthus and
Minos)
[Ovid, Metamorphoses 13.25; Horace, Carmen Saeculare 2.13.22] and, according to
Plato, was specifically concerned with the shades of Europeans upon their arrival to the underworld.
[Plato, Gorgias 524a; Isocrates, Evagoras 15] In works of art he was depicted bearing a sceptre and the keys of Hades.
[Pindar, Isthmian Odes 7.47; Apollodorus, 3.12.6] Aeacus had sanctuaries in both
Athens and in
Aegina,
[Pausanias, 2.29.6; Scholia ad Pindar, Nemean Odes 13.155; Hesychius s.v.] and the Aeginetans regarded him as the tutelary deity of their island and celebrated the
Aeacea in his honor.
[Pindar, Nemean Odes 8.22]
In The Frogs (405 BC) by Aristophanes, Dionysus descends to Hades and proclaims himself to be Heracles. Aeacus, lamenting the fact that Heracles had stolen Cerberus, sentences Dionysus to Acheron to be tormented by the hounds of Cocytus, the Echidna, the Tartesian eel, and Tithrasian Gorgons.
Family
Aeacus was the son of
Zeus by Aegina, a daughter of the river-god
Asopus, and thus, brother of
Damocrateia.
[Pythaenetos, quoting the on Pindar, Olympian Odes 9.107] In some accounts, his mother was Europa and thus possible full-brother to
Minos,
Rhadamanthus and Sarpedon.
[Smith, s.v. Aeacus. Compare Plato, Gorgias 524a] He was the father of
Peleus,
Telamon and
Phocus and was the grandfather of the
Trojan War warriors
Achilles and
Telemonian Ajax. In some accounts, Aeacus had a daughter called
Alcimache who bore Medon to
Oileus of
Locris.
[Scholia on Homer, Iliad 13.694] Aeacus's sons Peleus and Telamon were jealous of Phocus and killed him. When Aeacus learned about the murder, he exiled Peleus and Telamon.
[Roman, L., & Roman, M. (2010). ] Aeacus's descendants are collectively known as Aeacidae (Αἰακίδαι).
Several times in the
Iliad, Homer refers to Achilles as Αἰακίδης (Aiakides: II.860, 874; IX.184, 191, etc.). The kings of Epirus and
Olympias, mother to Alexander the Great, claimed to be members of this lineage.
Family tree of Aeacidae
See also
Notes
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Apollodorus, The Library with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. ISBN 0-674-99135-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
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Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History translated by Charles Henry Oldfather. Twelve volumes. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989. Vol. 3. Books 4.59–8. Online version at Bill Thayer's Web Site
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Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica. Vol 1-2. Immanel Bekker. Ludwig Dindorf. Friedrich Vogel. in aedibus B. G. Teubneri. Leipzig. 1888–1890. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
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Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. . Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
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Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
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Pindar, Odes translated by Diane Arnson Svarlien. 1990. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
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Pindar, The Odes of Pindar including the Principal Fragments with an Introduction and an English Translation by Sir John Sandys, Litt.D., FBA. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1937. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
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Ovid, Metamorphoses translated by Brookes More (1859–1942). Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
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Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses. Hugo Magnus. Gotha (Germany). Friedr. Andr. Perthes. 1892. Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
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Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
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Strabo, The Geography of Strabo. Edition by H.L. Jones. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
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Strabo, Geographica edited by A. Meineke. Leipzig: Teubner. 1877. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
Further reading
External links
