In Greek mythology, Aeacus (Greek: Aiakos, "bewailing" or "earth borne") was king in the island of Aegina in the Saronic Gulf. He was far-famed for the righteous sense of piety and justice with which he ruled over his people and his judgment was sought all over Hellas, so much so that, after his death, he was appointed one of the judges of the shades in Erebus, with Cretan Minos and Rhadamanthus. Rhadamanthus judged the souls of easterners, Aeacus judged Hellenes and Minos had the deciding vote, a later elaboration of the myth tells. Greek mythology consists of an extensive collection of narratives detailing the lives and adventures of a wide variety of gods, goddesses, heroes, and heroines, which were first envisioned and disseminated in an oral-poetic tradition. ... Aegina (Greek: Αίγινα Egina), one of the Saronic Islands of Greece in the Saronic Gulf, 31 miles (50 km) from Athens. ... The Saronic Gulf or Gulf of Aegina in Greece forms part of the Aegean Sea and defines the eastern side of the isthmus of Corinth. ... In Greek mythology, Erebus, or Érebos was a primordial god, the personification of darkness, offspring of Chaos alone. ... In Greek mythology, Minos was a semi-legendary king of Crete, son of Zeus and Europa. ... Rhadamanthus (also transliterated as Rhadamanthys or Rhadamanthos) in Greek mythology was a son of Zeus and Europa and brother of Minos, king of Crete and Sarpedon. ... This article or section should include material from Greeks According to Thucydides, Hellenes were the people of Hellas. ...

Aeacus was the son of Zeus and Aegina, daughter of the river-god Asopus. Thus in his birthright he linked the Olympians with the immemorial chthonic water spirits of the land. His mother was carried off by Zeus to the island of Oenone, which was afterwards called by her name. Statue of Zeus Phidias created the 12-m (40-ft) tall statue of Zeus at Olympia about 435 BC. The statue was perhaps the most famous sculpture in ancient Greece, imagined here in a 16th-century engraving. ... In Greek mythology, Aegina was the daughter of the river-god Asopus and the nymph Metope. ... Asopus or Asôpos is the name of five different rivers in Greece and also in Greek mythology the name of the gods of those rivers. ... In mythology chthonic (from Greek χθονιος-pertaining to the earth; earthy) designates, or pertains to, gods or spirits of the underworld, especially in Greek mythology. ... In Greek mythology, Oenone (wine woman) was the first wife of Paris. ...

When Aeacus' kingdom had a horrific plague, he prayed to Zeus for help. The king of the gods changed the local ants into people (Ovid, Metamorphoses vii. 520), who were called Myrmidones. Aeacus was the ancestor of the Aeacidae. Engraved frontispiece of George Sandyss 1632 London edition of Publius Ovidius Naso (Sulmona, March 20, 43 BC â€“ Tomis, now Constanta AD 17) Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid, wrote on topics of love, abandoned women, and mythological transformations. ... Cover of George Sandyss 1632 edition of The Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid is a poem in fifteen books that describes the creation and history of the world in terms of Greek and Roman mythology. ... The Myrmidons (or Myrmidones, the name literally means ant-people) were an ancient nation of Greek mythology. ...

By his wife Endeis he was the father of Telamon and Peleus (the father of Achilles). By Psamathe, he fathered Phocus. In Greek mythology, Endeis was the wife of Aeacus and mother of Telamon and Peleus. ... In Greek mythology, Telamon, son of Aeacus, King of Aegina, and Endeis and brother of Peleus, accompanied Jason as one his Argonauts, and was present at the hunt for the Calydonian Boar. ... In Greek mythology, Pēleús (Greek: Πηλεύς) was the son of Aeacus, King of Aegina. ... The wrath of Achilles, by Léon Benouville In Greek mythology, , transliterated to Akhilleus or Achilleus in Roman letters, Latinized from this ancient Greek to Achilles, appearing in Etruscan as Achle, was a hero (ancient Greek heros, defender) of the Trojan War, the greatest and the most central character of... In Greek mythology, there were two people named Psamathe. ... In Greek mythology, two different people bore the name Phocus. ...

His successful prayer to Zeus for rain at a time of drought (Isocrates, Evagoras, 14) was commemorated by a temple at Aegina (Pausanias ii. 29). He himself erected a temple to Zeus and helped Poseidon and Apollo to build the walls of Troy. Pausanias was Greek traveller and geographer of the 2nd century A.D., who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. ... Statue of Zeus Phidias created the 12-m (40-ft) tall statue of Zeus at Olympia about 435 BC. The statue was perhaps the most famous sculpture in ancient Greece, imagined here in a 16th-century engraving. ... In Greek mythology, Poseidon (Ποσειδῶν) was the god of the sea. ... For other uses, see Apollo (disambiguation). ... Walls of the excavated city of Troy (Turkey) Troy (Greek Τροία Troia also Ἰλιον; Latin: Troia, Ilium) is a legendary city, scene of the Trojan War, part of which is described in Homers Iliad, an epic poem in Ancient Greek, composed in the 8th or 7th century BC, but containing older...

No other of the archaic priest-kings who ruled Aegina are remembered by the mythographers, for the grandsons of Aeacus, Phocus' sons Panopeus and Crisus left Aegina to settle in Phocis, a region bordering the Gulf of Corinth west of Boeotia. Phocis (Greek, Modern: Φωκίδα, Ancient/Katharevousa: -s, also Phokida, Phokis) is an ancient district of central Greece. ...

Alexander the Great traced his ancestry (through his mother) to Aeacus. Alexander the Great fighting Persian king Darius (not in frame) (Pompeii mosaic, from a 3rd century BC original Greek painting, now lost). ...

In Masami Kurumada's anime Saint Seiya, Aeacus is one of the three Generals of the Underworld, and wears the surplice of Garuda, Celestial Superior Star. Masami Kurumada (車田正美 Kurumada Masami, born December 6, 1953) is a manga artist and writer. ... Saint Seiya original Japanese logo. ...

External link

• Greek Mythology Link: Aeacus

References

• This article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, a publication in the public domain.