father, who, when Polytechnus came in pursuit of his wife, had him bound, smeared with honey, and thus exposed him to the insects. Aedon now took pity upon the sufferings of her husband, and when her relations were on the point of killing her for this weakness, Zeus changed Polytechnus into a pelican, the brother of Aedon into a whoop, her father into a sea-eagle, Chelidonis into a swallow, and Aedon herself into a nightingale. This mythus seems to have originated in mere etymologies, and is of the same class as that about Philomele and Procne. [L. S.]
AEE'TES or AEE'TA (Αἰήτης), a son of Helios and Perseis. (Apollod. 1.9.1 Hes. Th. 957.) According to others his mother's name was Persa (Hygin. Praef. p. 14, ed. Staveren), or Antiope. (Schol. ad Pind. Ol. 13.52.) He was a brother of Circe, Pasiphae, and Perses. (Hygin. l.c.; Apollod. l.c.; Hom. Od. 10.136, &c.; Cic. de Nat. Deor. 3.19.) He was married to Idyia, a daughter of Oceanus, by whom he had two daughters, Medeia and Chalciope, and one son, Absyrtus (Hesiod. Theog. 960.; Apollod. 1.9,23.). He was king of Colchis at the time when Phrixus brought thither the golden fleece. At one time he was expelled from his kingdom by his brother Perses, but was restored by his daughter Medeia. (Apollod. 1.9.28.) Compare ABSYRTUS, ARGONAUTAE, JASON, and MEDEIA.
[L. S.]
AEE'TIS, AEE'TIAS, and AEETI'NE, are patronymic forms from Aeetes, and are used by Roman poets to designate his daughter Medeia. (Ov. Met. 7.9, 296, Heroid. 6.103; V. Fl. 8.233.)
[L. S.]
AEGA (Αἴγη), according to Hyginus (Poet. Astr. 2.13) a daughter of Olenus, who was a descendant of Hephaestus. Aega and her sister Helice nursed the infant Zeus in Crete, and the former was afterwards changed by the god into the constellation called Capella. According to other traditions mentioned by Hyginus, Aega was a daughter of Melisseus, king of Crete, and was chosen to suckle the infant Zeus; but as she was found unable to do it, the service was performed by the goat Amalthea. According to others, again, Aega was a daughter of Helios and of such dazzling brightness, that the Titans in their attack upon Olympus became frightened and requested their mother Gaea to conceal her in the earth. She was accordingly confined in a cave in Crete, where she became the nurse of Zeus. In the fight with the Titans Zeus was commanded by an oracle to cover himself with her skin (aegis). He obeyed the command and raised Aega among the stars. Similar, though somewhat different accounts, were given by Euemerus and others. (Eratosth. (Catast. 13; Antonin. Lib.. 36; Lactant. Instit. 1.22.19.) It is clear that in some of these stories Aegia is regarded as a nymph, and in others as a goat, though the two ideas are not kept clearly distinct from each other. Her name is either connected with αἴξ, which signifies a goat, or with ἄϊξ, a gale of wind; and this circumstance has led some critics to consider the myth about her as made up of two distinct ones, one being of an astronomical nature and derived from the constellation Capella, the rise of which brings storms and tempests (Arat. Phaen. 150), and the other referring to the goat which was believed to have suckled the infant Zeus in Crete. (Compare Buttmann in Ideler's Ursprung and Bedentung der Sternnamen, p. 309; Böttiger, Amalthea, i. p. 16, &c.; Creuzer, Symbol. iv. p. 458 &c.)
[L. S.]
AEGAEON (Αἰγαίων), a son of Uranus by Gaea. Aegaeon and his brothers Gyges and Cottus are known under the name of the Uranids (Hes. Th. 502, &c.), and are described as huge monsters with a hundred arms (ἑκατόγχειρες) and fifty heads. (Apollod. 1.1.1; Hes. Th. 149, &c.) Most writers mention the third Uranid under the name of Briareus instead of Aegaeon, which is explained in a passage of Homer (Hom. Il. 1.403, §c.), who says that men called him Aegaeon, but the gods Briareus. On one occasion when the Olympian gods were about to put Zeus in chains, Thetis called in the assistance of Aegaeon, who compelled the gods to desist from their intention. (Hom. Il. 1.398, &c.) According to Hesiod (Hes. Th. 154, &c. 617, &c.), Aegaeon and his brothers were hated by Uranus from the time of their birth, in consequence of which they were concealed in the depth of the earth, where they remained until the Titans began their war against Zeus. On the advice of Gaea Zeus delivered the Uranids from their prison, that they might assist him. The hundred-armed giants conquered the Titans by hurling at them three hundred rocks at once, and secured the victory to Zeus, who thrust the Titans into Tartarus and placed the Hecatoncheires at its gates, or, according to others, in the depth of the ocean to guard them. (Hes. Th. 617, &c. 815, &c.) According to a legend in Pansanias (2.1.6, 2.4.7), Briareus was chosen as arbitrator in the dispute between Poseidon and Helios, and adjudged the Isthmus to the former and the Acrocorinthus to the latter. The Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius (1.1165) represents Aegaeon as a son of Gaea and Pontus and as living as a marine god in the Aegean sea. Ovid (Ov. Met. 2.10) and Philostratus (Vit. Apollon. 4.6) like-wise regard him as a marine god, while Virgil (Aen. 10.565) reckons him among the giants who stormed Olympus, and Callimachus (Call. Del. 141, &c.), regarding him in the same light, places him under mount Aetna. The Scholiast on Theocritus (Idyll. 1.65) calls Briareus one of the Cyclops. The opinion which regards Aegaeon and his brothers as only personifications of the extraordinary powers of nature, such as are manifested in the violent commotions of the earth, as earth-quakes, volcanic eruptions and the like, seems to explain best the various accounts about them.
[L. S.]
AEGAEUS (Αἰγαῖος), a surname of Poseidon, derived from the town of Aegae in Euboea, near which he had a magnificent temple upon a hill. (Strab. ix. p.405; Verg. A. 3.74, where Servius erroneously derives the name from the Aegean sea.)
[L. S.]
AEGEIDES (Αἰγείδης), a patronymic from Aegeus, and especially used to designate Theseus. (Hom. Il. 1.265; Ov. Ep. 4.59, 2.67 ; compare AEGEUS.)
[L. S.]
AEGE'RIA or EGE'RIA, one of the Camenae in Roman mythology, from whom, according to the legends of early Roman story, Numa received his instructions respecting the forms of worship which he introduced. (Liv. 1.19; V. Max. 1.2.1.) The grove in which the king had his interviews with the goddess, and in which a well gushed forth from a dark recess, was dedicated by him to the Camenae. (Liv. 1.21.) The Roman Legends, however, point out two distinct places
