Aeacus (bewailing) In Greek mythology, first king of Aegina; son of Zeus by Aegina, a daughter of the river god Asopus in Philius. Zeus, in the form of an eagle, had taken Aegina and carried her off to the island named after her, where Aeacus was born. As king of Aegina, Aeacus ruled the Myrmidons, people whom Zeus had transformed from ants to populate the island. Aeacus was loved by the gods for his piety, and when a drought desolated Greece, his intercession obtained rain from Zeus. The Greeks built Aeacus a temple enclosed with a marble wall. The poet Pindar says that Aeacus helped Poseidon and Apollo construct the walls of Troy. Because Aeacus was noted for his justice, he was made one of the judges over the dead, along with Minos and Rhadamanthys. At Aegina and Athens he was worshipped as a demigod. His sons by Chiron’s daughter Endeis were Telamon and Peleus, the fathers of Ajax and Achilles. Another son, Phocus, by the Nereid Psamathe was killed by his half brothers, who were then banished by their father for the crime. Ovid’s Metamorphoses (book 7) and Hesiod’s Theogony (1003–5) tell of Aeacus.
SOURCE:
Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend, Third Edition – Written by Anthony S. Mercatante & James R. Dow
Copyright © 2009 by Anthony S. Mercatante
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