Ægeus
Family: Athens · Role: king · First appears: Book 1 · Chapter 5
After the Metionidæ were expelled, Ægeus, the eldest, became sovereign over the Athenians. He instituted Aphrodite’s worship among them; Lycus fled from him to Termilæ, and Nisus ceded Attica to him before becoming king of Megara. Ægeus later expelled Peteus from Athens, and Peteus and his followers settled at Stiris.
When Theseus was eighteen, he lifted the stone and took the boots and sword Ægeus had left there. Later, after Theseus set out to face the Minotaur, he promised to return with white sails if victorious, but forgot after losing Ariadne. Seeing the ship’s black sails, Ægeus thought his son was dead, “threw himself in and was drowned.”
Relationship record
Book 1 · Chapter 5
- parent: Pandion (son of Cecrops the younger) “But his sons returned from exile at Megara, and expelled the Metionidæ, and Ægeus, being the eldest, had the sovereignty over the Athenians”
Book 1 · Chapter 14
- with Aphrodite (Ægeus instituted the worship of Aphrodite.) “And among the Athenians her worship was instituted by Ægeus”
Book 1 · Chapter 19
- with Lycus (Lycus fled from Ægeus.) “And it is also said that the natives of Termilæ, where Lycus went when he fled from Ægeus, are called Lycians from the same Lycus.”
Book 1 · Chapter 22
- child: Theseus “But Theseus told his father, (for he knew there was some peril in attacking the Minotaur), that he would have white sails, if he should sail back a conqueror. But he forgot this promise in his loss of Ariadne. And Ægeus seeing the ship with black sails, thinking his son was dead, threw himself in and was drowned.”
Book 1 · Chapter 27
- child: Theseus (Ægeus is Theseus's father.) “Ægeus put his boots and sword under a stone as means of identifying his son”
Book 1 · Chapter 39
- with Nisus (Nisus ceded the kingdom of Attica to Ægeus.) “Nisus, though he conceded the kingdom of Attica to Ægeus the head of the family”
Book 2 · Chapter 3
- with Medea (Medea lived with Ægeus.) “Medea when she went to Athens, lived with Ægeus”
- child: Medus “the son whom she carried off with her when she fled to the Arians was they say her son by Ægeus, and his name was Medus”
Book 2 · Chapter 34
- with Theseus (Theseus removed Ægeus's shoes and sword.) “after Theseus removed the shoes and sword of Ægeus”
Book 3 · Chapter 15
- parent: Œolycus “Ægeus the son of Œolycus”
- younger kin: Mæsis “Mæsis, Læas, and Europas, who are said to have been the sons of Hyræsus and grandsons of Ægeus.”
- younger kin: Læas “Mæsis, Læas, and Europas, who are said to have been the sons of Hyræsus and grandsons of Ægeus.”
- younger kin: Europas “Mæsis, Læas, and Europas, who are said to have been the sons of Hyræsus and grandsons of Ægeus.”
Book 4 · Chapter 2
- siblings with Lycus “when he also fled from Athens from his brother Ægeus”
Book 4 · Chapter 7
- with Euryleon (Euryleon is described as a descendant of Ægeus.) “the fifth descendant from Ægeus, the son of Œolycus”
- parent: Œolycus (Œolycus is Ægeus's father.) “Ægeus, the son of Œolycus”
Book 10 · Chapter 29
- child: Theseus “Theseus son of Ægeus like to the Immortals.”
Book 10 · Chapter 35
- with Peteus (Ægeus expelled Peteus from Athens.) “The people of Stiris say they were originally Athenians, and came from Attica with Peteus the son of Orneus, who was expelled from Athens by Ægeus: and as most of the followers of Peteus came from the township Stiria they called the town Stiris.”
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Extracted from the original text of Pausanias' Description of Greece. Made with Rho MD.