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EGESTA (Ancient city) SICILY
Acestes (Akestes), a son of the Sicilian river-god Crimisus and of a Trojan woman
of the name of Egesta or Segesta (Virg. Aen. i. 195, 550, v. 36, 711, &c.), who
according to Servius was sent by her father Hippotes or Ipsostratus to Sicily,
that she might not be devoured by the monsters, which infested the territory of
Troy, and which had been sent into the land, because the Trojans had refused to
reward Poseidon and Apollo for having built the walls of their city. When Egesta
arrived in Sicily, the river-god Crimisus in the form of a bear or a dog begot
by her a son Acestes, who was afterwards regarded as the hero who had founded
the town of Segesta (Comp. Schol. ad Lycophr. 951, 963.) The tradition of Acestes
in Dionysius (i. 52), who calls him Aegestus (Aigestos), is different, for according
to him the grandfather of Aegestus quarrelled with Laomedon, who slew him and
gave his daughters to some merchants to convey them to a distant land. A noble
Trojan however embarked with them, and married one of them in Sicily, where she
subsequently gave birth to a son, Aegestus. During the war against Troy Aegestus
obtained permission from Priam to return and take part in the contest, and afterwards
returned to Sicily, where Aeneas on his arrival was hospitably received by him
and Elymus, and built for them the towns of Aegesta and Elyme. The account of
Dionysius seems to be nothing but a rationalistic interpretation of the genuine
legend.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Sep 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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