for Ovid's
Metamorphoses Book VII, 622–642.
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. 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. 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. 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. Aeacus prayed, and as a result, the drought ceased. Aeacus then demonstrated his gratitude by erecting a temple to
Zeus Panhellenius on Mount Panhellenion, 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.
Later adventures A legend preserved in
Pindar 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 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
pirates. 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
Cretan half-brothers
Rhadamanthus and
Minos) and, according to
Plato, was specifically concerned with the shades of Europeans upon their arrival to the underworld. In works of art he was depicted bearing a sceptre and the keys of Hades. Aeacus had sanctuaries in both
Athens and in
Aegina, and the Aeginetans regarded him as the tutelary deity of their island and celebrated the
Aeacea in his honor. 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 ==