Aeacus

Aeacus was the king of the island of Aegina in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and the nymph Aegina, the daughter of the river Asopus. He was remembered as the most pious of men, as the father of Peleus and Telamon and grandfather of Achilles and Ajax, and, after his death, as one of the judges of the dead.

Family

Homer says that Peleus was the son of Aeacus and that Aeacus was himself born of Zeus (Homer, Iliad 21.188–189). Apollodorus explains that Zeus carried off Aegina, one of the daughters of the river Asopus, to the island then called Oenone, which was afterwards named Aegina after her, and there fathered Aeacus (Apollodorus, Library 3.12.6). Pindar likewise tells that Zeus took Aegina to the Oenopian isle and that she bore him the godlike Aeacus, dearest of mortals to his thundering father (Pindar, Isthmian 8.16–23).

According to Apollodorus, Aeacus married Endeis, daughter of Sciron, and had two sons by her, Peleus and Telamon; later he lay with Psamathe, a daughter of the sea-god Nereus, who turned herself into a seal to escape him, and she bore him a son, Phocus (Library 3.12.6). Pindar calls the sons of Aeacus and their sons brave in war and wise of heart (Isthmian 8.24–25) and names Achilles among the Aeacidae (Isthmian 8.55). Through Peleus, Aeacus was therefore the grandfather of Achilles, and through Telamon the grandfather of Ajax.

Aeacus and the Myrmidons

Pausanias reports that when Zeus brought Aegina to the uninhabited island, its name changed from Oenone to Aegina, and when Aeacus grew up and asked Zeus for settlers, the god raised up inhabitants from the earth (Pausanias 2.29.2). Apollodorus gives the same story in another form: as Aeacus was alone on the island, Zeus turned the ants into men for him (Library 3.12.6). These were the Myrmidons, whose name resembles the Greek word for ants.

In Ovid’s version, Aeacus tells the story to Cephalus. The goddess Juno hated the land named after her husband’s mistress and sent a deadly plague that killed people in heaps. Aeacus prayed to Zeus, saying that if the stories were true that Zeus had lain with Aegina, he should give him his people back or bury him too. Zeus answered with lightning and thunder. Beside a sacred oak Aeacus watched a long line of ants carry grain, and he asked Zeus for as many citizens. That night he dreamed that the ants on the tree turned into men, and when he woke his son Telamon called him out to see the new crowd. Aeacus named them Myrmidons and divided the empty fields among them (Ovid, Metamorphoses 7.472–660).

The Just King

Apollodorus calls Aeacus the most pious of men. When Greece was suffering from infertility, oracles declared that it would be freed from its troubles if Aeacus offered prayers on its behalf, and so Greece was delivered from the dearth (Library 3.12.6). Pausanias tells the same story with details. A drought had struck Greece, and the Pythian priestess told the envoys that Zeus would not listen unless Aeacus was the one to pray to him. Aeacus sacrificed and prayed to Zeus Panhellenios, and the rain fell. The Aeginetans showed his sanctuary, a white marble enclosure with the envoys carved at its entrance; the altar was said to be his tomb (Pausanias 2.29.6–8).

The Aeginetans also said that Aeacus had made the sunken rocks and reefs around the island on purpose, as a defence against pirates (Pausanias 2.29.6). Pindar says that Aeacus settled disputes even for the gods (Pindar, Isthmian 8.24), and tells of a quarrel among the gods themselves: Zeus and Poseidon both wanted to marry Thetis, but Themis told them that Thetis was fated to bear a son stronger than his father, so they gave her instead to Peleus, the son of Aeacus, as the most pious of men (Isthmian 8.26–40).

The Walls of Troy

Pindar says that when Apollo and Poseidon built the wall of Ilium, they called on Aeacus as helper, because it was fated that the wall would breathe out fierce smoke in the wars to come. When the wall was newly built, three grey serpents leapt at the tower: two fell back stunned and died, and the third leapt up with a cry. Apollo read the sign. Troy would be taken where Aeacus’ hands had worked, not without his descendants, with the first generation and with the third (Pindar, Olympian 8.30–46). Pindar elsewhere tells that Telamon, the son of Aeacus, sailed with Heracles against Troy and took it (Pindar, Isthmian 6.27–31).

Phocus, Peleus and Telamon

Peleus and Telamon were not Phocus’ full brothers, and they plotted against him because he excelled at athletics. The lot fell on Telamon, who killed him with a discus (Library 3.12.6). In Pausanias it is Peleus who deliberately hits Phocus with the stone used as a quoit in a pentathlon (Pausanias 2.29.9). Pausanias adds that the sons of Endeis fled in a ship, and that when Telamon later sent a herald to deny the plot, Aeacus would not let him land and told him to defend himself from the ship or from a mole built in the sea; Telamon was found guilty and sailed away to Salamis (Pausanias 2.29.9–10). The sons of Phocus made their home near Parnassus in the country afterwards called Phocis (Pausanias 2.29.2).

Aeacus in the Underworld

Apollodorus says Aeacus is honoured after his death in the house of Hades and keeps its keys (Library 3.12.6). In Plato, Zeus appoints three of his sons as judges of the dead: Minos and Rhadamanthus from Asia, and Aeacus from Europe, who judge at the meadow where the road divides, one way leading to the Isles of the Blessed and the other to Tartarus (Plato, Gorgias 523e–524a). In the Apology, Socrates hopes to meet the true judges Minos, Rhadamanthus, Aeacus and Triptolemus (Plato, Apology 41a).

Aeacus Sources

Homer, Iliad 21.188–189; Pindar, Olympian 8.30–46, Isthmian 6.27–31 and Isthmian 8.16–55; Apollodorus, Library 3.12.6; Ovid, Metamorphoses 7.472–660; Pausanias 2.29.2–10; Plato, Gorgias 523e–524a and Apology 41a.

See Also: Zeus, Asopus, Hera, Minos, Rhadamanthus, Peleus, Telamon, Phocus, Achilles, Ajax, Thetis, Troy