Aeëtes
Aeëtes | |
---|---|
King of Colchis | |
King of Colchis | |
Predecessor | None (office established) |
Successor | Perses |
Wife | Idyia |
Issue | Medea, Absyrtus, Chalciope |
Heir | Absyrtus |
Father | Helios |
Mother | Perseis |
Aeëtes (
Family
Aeëtes was the son of Sun god
According to others, he was the brother of Perses, a king of Tauris, husband of his niece Hecate, and father of Medea, Chalciope and Absyrtus. Yet other versions make Aeëtes a native of Corinth and son of Ephyra, an Oceanid,[11] or else of a certain Antiope.[12] Asterope was also one of the possible mothers of Aeëtes.[13] (For a comparative table of Aeëtes' family, see below).
Mythology
Foundation of Colchis
Flight of two siblings
The Argonauts
Some time later, Jason arrived to claim the fleece as his own. Aeëtes promised to give it to him only if he could perform certain tasks. First, Jason had to plow a field with fire-breathing oxen that he had to yoke himself. Then, Jason sowed into a field the teeth of a dragon which the Colchian king received from Athena, half of it was sowed before by Cadmus in Thebes.[16] These teeth sprouted into an army of warriors. Jason was quick-thinking, however, and before they attacked him, he threw a rock into the crowd. Unable to determine whence the rock had come, the soldiers killed each other. Jason then ran away. Medea fled, too. Aeëtes pursued them in his own ship as they fled, but Medea distracted her father by killing and dismembering her brother, Absyrtus, and throwing pieces of his cadaver overboard. Aeëtes paused to gather the pieces of his son, and thus Jason and Medea escaped.
Historicity
The mythical Aeetes may have reflected a memory of a historical personage. His name recurs in historical narratives of
Family table
Relation | Name | Source | |||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Epim. | Hom. | Hesiod | Naup. | Soph. | Pindar | Apollon | Dio. | Cic. | Diop. | Ovid | Str. | Val. | Apol. | Hyginus | Ael. | Paus. | Orph. | ||||||
Odys. | Theo. | Frag. | Scyth. | Sch. Oly. | Arg. | Sch. | Met. | Fab. | Sch. | Arg. | |||||||||||||
Parentage | Helios and Ephyra | ✓ | ✓ | ||||||||||||||||||||
Helios and Perseis | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||||||||||||
Helios and Antiope | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||||||||||||||||||
Helios and Asterope | ✓ | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Helios | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||||||||||||||||
Siblings | Circe | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||||||||||||
Pasiphae | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||||||||||||||
Perses | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||||||||||||||
Aloeus | ✓ | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Consort | Idyia | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||||||||||||
Asterodia | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||||||||||||||||
Neaera | ✓ | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Hecate | ✓ | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Clytia | ✓ | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Eurylyte | ✓ | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Unnamed | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||||||||||||||||
Children | Medea | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||||||
Chalciope or | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||||||||||||||||
Iophossa | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||||||||||||||||
Absyrtus / Apsyrtus or | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||||||||
Aegialeus | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||||||||||||||||
Circe | ✓ |
Footnotes
- SimonidesPMG545 (Schol. Eur. Med. 19).
- ISBN 0252063562. Retrieved 2015-06-30.
- 3.19
- ^ Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 3.241
- ^ Scholia on Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 3.242
- ^ Preston's note to Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 3.330 "Asterodea" (p. 168) quoting "Sophocles assigns them, as their parent, Neera, one of the Nereids" & "Now in his hands" (p. 269) quoting "In his Scythians, Sophocles says, that Absyrtus was not the uterine brother of Medea : they were not the offspring of one bed; the youth was newly sprung from a Nereid.—Eiduia, the daughter of Ocean, bore the virgin. "
- ^ Hyginus, Fabulae Preface
- ^ Scholia on Hyginus, Fabulae 23
- ^ Scholia on Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica l.c.
- ^ Preston's note to Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 3.330 "Asterodea" (p. 168) quoting the name of Aeetes' wife: "The author of the Naupactica calls her Eurylyte".
- ^ Epimenides in scholia on Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 3.242
- ^ Scholia ad Pindar, Olympian Ode 13.52; Diophantus in scholia on Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 3.242; Tzetzes on Lycophron, Alexandra 174
- Argonautica Orphica, 1216
- ^ Roman, L., & Roman, M. (2010). Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman mythology., p. 12, at Google Books
- ^ "Hyginus, Fabulae 1-49 - Theoi Classical Texts Library". Retrieved 2022-03-28.
- ^ Apollodorus, 1.9.23
- ISBN 0198144733.
- ^ Lordkipanidze, Otar (1968). "Colchis in Antiquity". Archaeologia. 19: 35–41.
References
- Argonautica Orphica, 760–1044.
- Apollonius Rhodius. Argonautica, 3. 240–4. 131.
- Scholia on Argonautica, 3. 242
- Bibliotheca 1. 9. 23.
- Pausanias. Description of Greece, 2. 3. 10.
- Strabo. Geographica, 1,45.
- Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). "Periphas 5."
External links
- Media related to Aeëtes at Wikimedia Commons