Aegeus

Family: Athens · Role: king and father of Theseus · First appears: Theseus

Life events

Aegeus recognized Theseus as his son and publicly acknowledged him as successor.(Theseus · 📍 Athens)
- With: Theseus
- “Aegeus, at once recognizing the token, threw down the cup of poison, and, questioning his son, embraced him, and, having gathered together all his citizens, owned him publicly before them”
Aegeus mistakenly believed Theseus had died and threw himself into the sea.(Theseus · 📍 Attica)
- With: Theseus
- “When they were come near the coast of Attica, so great was the joy for the happy success of their voyage, that neither Theseus himself nor the pilot remembered to hang out the sail which should have been the token of their safety to Aegeus, who, in despair at the sight, threw himself headlong from a rock, and perished in the sea.”
Theseus's failure to display the flag led to Aegeus's death.(Comparison of Romulus with Theseus)
- With: Theseus
- “But Theseus, in his forgetfulness and neglect of the command concerning the flag, can scarcely, methinks, by any excuses, or before the most indulgent judges, avoid the imputation of parricide.”

child: Theseus “Aegeus, at once recognizing the token, threw down the cup of poison, and, questioning his son, embraced him”
with Medea (interaction) “Medea, having fled from Corinth, and promised Aegeus to make him, by her art, capable of having children, was living with him”
with Aethra (interaction) “Pittheus, therefore, taking advantage from the obscurity of the oracle, prevailed upon him, it is uncertain whether by persuasion or deceit, to lie with his daughter Aethra.”
parent: Theseus “Aegeus, at once recognizing the token, threw down the cup of poison, and, questioning his son, embraced him”
ward: Theseus “commanding her, if she brought forth a son who, when he came to man's estate, should be able to lift up the stone and take away what he had left there, she should send him away to him with those things with all secrecy”

child: Theseus “The circumstances of the divine intervention, said to have preceded or accompanied their births, are also in contrast; for Romulus was preserved by the special favor of the gods; but the oracle given to Aegeus, commanding him to abstain, seems to demonstrate that the birth of Theseus was not agreeable to the will of the gods.”

Extracted from the original text of Plutarch's Lives. Made with Rho MD.