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AEGINA, AIGINA (Island) GREECE
Aeacus was the king of the island of Aegina, son of Zeus by nymph Aegina, father of Peleus and Telamon by Endeis and of Phocus by numph Psamathe (Il. 21.189, also see Hes. Theog. 1003). He arbitrated between Nisus and Sciron in their dispute for the kingship of Megara (Paus. 1,39,6).
Aeacus (Aiakos), a son of Zeus and Aegina, a daughter of the river-god Asopus.
He was born in the island of Oenone or Oenopia, whither Aegina had been carried
by Zeus to secure her from the anger of her parents, and whence this island was
afterwards called Aegina (Apollod. iii. 12.6; Hygin. Fab. 52; Paus. ii. 29.2;
comp. Nonn. Dionys. vi. 212; Ov. Met. vi. 113, vii. 472). According to some accounts
Aeacus was a son of Zeus and Europa. Some traditions related that at the time
when Aeacus was born, Aegina was not yet inhabited, and that Zeus changed the
ants (murmekes) of the island into men (Myrmidones) over whom Aeacus ruled, or
that he made men grow up out of the earth (Hes. Fragm. 67, ed. Gottling; Apollod.
iii. 12.6; Paus. l. c.). Ovid (Met. vii. 520; comp. Hygin. Fab. 52; Strab. viii.
p. 375), on the other hand, supposes that the island was not uninhabited at the
time of the birth of Aeacus, and states that, in 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, and that Zeus restored the population by changing the ants into men.
These legends, as Muller justly remarks (Aeginetica), are nothing
but a mythical account of the colonisation of Aegina, which seems to have been
originally inhabited by Pelasgians, and afterwards received colonists from Phthiotis,
the seat of the Myrmidones, and from Phlius on the Asopus. Aeacus while he reigned
in Aegina 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
(Pind. Isth. viii. 48; Paus. i. 39.5). He was such a favourite with the latter,
that, when Greece was visited by a drought in consequence of a murder which had
been committed (Diod. iv. 60, 61; Apollod. iii. 12.6), the oracle of Delphi declared
that the calamity would not cease unless Aeacus prayed to the gods that it might;
which lie accordingly did, and it ceased in consequence. Aeacus himself shewed
his gratitude by erecting a temple to Zeus Panhellenius on mount Panhellenion
(Paus. ii. 30.4), and the Aeginetans afterwards built a sanctuary in their island
called Aeaccum, which was a square place enclosed by walls of white marble. Aeacus
was believed in later times to be buried under the altar in this asacred enclosure
(Paus. ii. 29.6). A legend preserved in Pindar (Ol. viii. 39) relates that Apollo
and Poseidon took Aeacus as their assistant in building the walls of Troy. When
the work was completed, three dragons rushed against the wall, and while the two
of them which attacked those parts of the wall built by the gods fell down dead,
the third forced its way into the city through the part built by Aeacus. Hereupon
Apollo prophesied that Troy would fall through the hands of the Aeacids. Aeacus
was also believed by the Aeginetans to have surrounded their island with high
cliffs to protect it against pirates (Paus. ii. 29.5). Several other incidents
connected with the story of Aeacus are mentioned by Ovid (Met. vii. 506, ix. 435).
By Endeis Aeacus had two sons, Telamon and Peleus, and by Psamathe a son, Phocus,
whom he preferred to the two others, who contrived to kill Phocus during a contest,
and then fled from their native island. After his death Aeacus became one of the
three judges in Hades (Ov. Met. xiii. 25; Hor. Carm. ii. 13. 22), and according
to Plato (Gorg.; compare Isocrat. Evag. 5) especially for the shades of Europeans.
In works of art he was represented bearing a sceptre and the keys of Hades (Apollod.
iii. 12.6; Pind. Isthm. viii. 47). Aeacus had sanctuaries both at Athens and in
Aegina (Paus. ii. 29.6; Hesych. s. v. ; Schol. ad Pind. Nem. xiii. 155), and the
Aeginetans regarded him as the tutelary deity of their island (Pind. Nem. viii.
22).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited June 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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