Aegeus

Also known as: Ægeus · Family: Athens · Role: father of Theseus · First appears: Sophocles, Oedipus At Colonos — Scene 1

In Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus, Aegeus is identified as the parent of Theseus, “child of Aegeus, our late king.” In Euripides’ Medea, he is the son of Pandion and marries Medea in Athens.

In Scene 4, Aegeus has come from the oracle of Apollo, seeking to know how he may have offspring; he says he is childless and receives an oracle concerning his return to his paternal hearth. Medea tells him she can free him from childlessness and cause him to raise offspring. He agrees to receive her safely in his country if she reaches his house herself, swearing never to expel her or surrender her to her enemies.

Afterward, Medea selects Aegeus’s city as refuge for her escape, declaring that she will go to the land of Erectheus and dwell with him. Aegeus also names Pittheus as “the dearest of all my friends in war.”

Relationship record

Life events

• Medea marries Aegeus in Athens.(Euripides, Medea — Scene 1 · 📍 Athens)
  • With: Medea
  • “and there marries Ægeus son of Pandion.”
• Aegeus agrees to receive Medea safely in his country if she reaches his house herself.(Euripides, Medea — Scene 4)
  • With: Medea
  • “if thou comest to my country, I will endeavor to receive thee with hospitality, being a just man; so much however I beforehand apprise thee of, O lady, I shall not be willing to lead thee with me from this land; but if thou comest thyself to my house, thou shalt stay there in safety, and to no one will I give thee up.”
• Aegeus swears never to expel Medea or surrender her to her enemies.(Euripides, Medea — Scene 4)
  • With: Medea
  • “I swear by the earth, and the hallowed majesty of the sun, and by all the Gods, to abide by what I hear from thee.”
• Medea selects Aegeus’s city as refuge for her escape after killing her children.(Euripides, Medea — Scene 5)
  • With: Medea
  • “For this man, where I was most at a loss, hath appeared a harbor to my plans.”
• Medea announces that she will leave for the land of Erectheus and dwell with Aegeus.(Euripides, Medea — Scene 8 · 📍 land of Erectheus)
  • With: Medea
  • “But I myself will go to the land of Erectheus, to dwell with Ægeus son of Pandion.”

Sophocles, Oedipus At Colonos — Scene 1

• child: Theseus “Lord Theseus, child of Aegeus, our late king.”

Euripides, Medea — Scene 1

• married with Medea “and there marries Ægeus son of Pandion.”
• parent: Pandion “and there marries Ægeus son of Pandion.”

Euripides, Medea — Scene 4

• protégé: Medea “if thou comest to my country, I will endeavor to receive thee with hospitality, being a just man; ... if thou comest thyself to my house, thou shalt stay there in safety”
• with Medea (Medea offers to help Aegeus obtain offspring.) “I will free thee from being childless, and I will cause thee to raise up offspring, such charms I know”
• mentor: Apollo “ÆG. Having left the ancient oracle of Phœbus. MED. But wherefore wert thou sent to the prophetic centre of the earth? ÆG. Inquiring of the God how offspring may arise to me? MED. By the Gods, tell me, dost thou live this life hitherto childless? ÆG. Childless I am, by the disposal of some deity. MED. Hast thou a wife, or knowest thou not the marriage-bed! ÆG. I am not destitute of the connubial bed. MED. What then did Apollo tell thee respecting thy offspring? ÆG. Words deeper than a man can form opinion of. MED. Is it allowable for me to know the oracle of the God? ÆG. Certainly, inasmuch as it needs also a deep-skilled mind. MED. What then did he say? Speak, if I may hear. ÆG. That I was not to loose the projecting foot of the vessel-- MED. Before thou didst what, or came to what land? ÆG. Before I revisit my paternal hearth.”
• friends with Pittheus “And to me at least the dearest of all my friends in war”

Euripides, Medea — Scene 5

• protégé: Medea (Aegeus provides Medea with a refuge in his city.) “For this man, where I was most at a loss, hath appeared a harbor to my plans.”

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Extracted from the original text of Greek Tragedy. Made with Rho MD.