Æacus

Also known as: Aeacus · Family: mortals · Role: king · First appears: Fable 66

In fable 66, Æacus, son of Ægina, rules Ægina and refuses Minos’s request for an alliance against Athens: “Thou askest in vain, and for a thing not to be done by my city.” He later grants Cephalus the military assistance Athens requests, offering the resources and forces of his kingdom. During Juno’s anger, a pestilence devastates his people, leaving the dead as bones and ashes and overwhelming the city’s burial customs.

In fable 67, at Æacus’s prayer, Jupiter transforms ants into men, and Æacus divides the city and vacant lands among them. His sons are Telamon, Peleus, and Phocus; in fable 69, Æacus enters with Telamon, Peleus, and newly levied soldiers, whom Cephalus receives armed.

Relationship record

Fable 66

with Minos (Minos threatens war against Æacus.) “{Minos} goes away in sadness, and says, ‘This compact of thine will cost thee a dear price;’ and he thinks it more expedient to threaten war than to wage it”
parent: Ægina “Ægina, the daughter of Asopus, and the mother of Æacus”
child: Telamon “Telamon, Peleus, and Phocus, were the three sons of Æacus.”
child: Peleus “Telamon, Peleus, and Phocus, were the three sons of Æacus.”
child: Phocus “Telamon, Peleus, and Phocus, were the three sons of Æacus.”
with Cephalus (Cephalus arrives as an ambassador seeking aid from Æacus.) “Even yet may the Lyctian[97] fleet be beheld from the Œnopian walls, when an Attic ship, speeding onward with full sail, appears, and enters the friendly harbor, which is carrying Cephalus, and together {with him} the request of his native country.”

Fable 67

parent: Jupiter “Jupiter, at the prayer of his son Æacus, transforms the ants that are in the hollow of an old oak into men;”
child: Telamon “lo! Telamon came in haste, and, opening the door, said, ‘Father, thou wilt see things beyond thy hopes or expectations. Do come out.’”

Fable 68

child: Phocus “Phocus, the son of Æacus, received them at the threshold; for Telamon and his brother were levying men for the war.”

Fable 69

child: Telamon “These were Telamon and Peleus, who had levied these troops.”
child: Peleus “These were Telamon and Peleus, who had levied these troops.”
with Cephalus (Æacus arrives with newly levied soldiers, whom Cephalus receives and equips.) “In tears, the hero is relating these things to them, as they weep, and, lo! Æacus enters, with his two sons,[119] and his soldiers newly levied; which Cephalus received, {furnished} with valorous arms.”

Fable 70

child: Telamon “‘Æacidis’ may mean either the forces sent by Æacus, or his sons Telamon and Peleus, in command of those troops.”
child: Peleus “‘Æacidis’ may mean either the forces sent by Æacus, or his sons Telamon and Peleus, in command of those troops.”

Fable 73

child: Peleus “Peleus, the brother of Ajax, and the son of Æacus and Ægina.”

Fable 81

parent: Jupiter “could I but change them, declining years should not be making my {son} Æacus to bend {beneath them}”

Fable 99

child: Telamon “Æacus was his father”
parent: Jupiter “The supreme Jupiter owns Æacus, and confesses that he is his offspring.”

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Extracted from the original text of The Metamorphoses of Ovid. Made with Rho MD.