Aeëtes - Wikipedia Aeëtes From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search Greek mythical character King Aeëtes by Bartolomeo di Giovanni. Aeëtes (/iːˈiːtiːz/; Ancient Greek: Αἰήτης, romanized: Aiḗtēs, Greek pronunciation: [ai̯.ɛ̌ː.tɛːs]; Georgian: აიეტი, [ɑiɛtʼi]), or Aeeta, was a king of Colchis in Greek mythology. The name comes from the ancient Greek word αἰετός (aietós, "eagle").[1] Contents 1 Family 2 Mythology 2.1 Foundation of Colchis 2.2 Flight of two siblings 2.3 Jason and the Argonauts 3 Historicity 4 Notes 5 References 6 External links Family[edit] Aeëtes was the son of Sun god Helios and the Oceanid Perseis, brother of Circe, Perses and Pasiphaë, and father of Medea, Chalciope and Absyrtus. His consort was either (1) Idyia, the youngest daughter of Oceanus,[2][3][4][5][6] (2) Asterodeia, a Caucasian Oceanid,[7] (3) the Nereid Neaera,[8][9] (4) Clytia,[10] (5) Ipsia[11] or Eurylyte.[12][13] 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,[14] or else of a certain Antiope.[15][16] Asterope was also one of the possible mothers of Aeëtes.[17] Comparative table of Aeetes' family 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. 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 ✓ Mythology[edit] Foundation of Colchis[edit] Pausanias states that, according to the poet Eumelos, Aeëtes was the son of Helios (from northern Peloponnesus) and brother of Aloeus. Helios divided the land he ruled, and he gave Aloeus the part in Asopia (see Asopus) and Aeëtes the part of Ephyra (Corinth). Later, Aeëtes gave his kingdom to Bounos, a son of Hermes and Alkidameia, and went to Colchis, a country in western Caucasus. When Bounos died, Epopeus, a son of Aloeus who ruled in Asopia, became king of Ephyra too. Aeëtes built a new colony in Colchis, near the mouth of the large river Phasis, and called it Aea. Flight of two siblings[edit] Phrixus, son of Athamas and Nephele, along with his twin, Helle, were hated by their stepmother, Ino. Ino hatched a devious plot to get rid of the twins, roasting all the town's crop seeds so they would not grow. The local farmers, frightened of famine, asked a nearby oracle for assistance. Ino bribed the men sent to the oracle to lie and tell the others that the oracle required the sacrifice of Phrixus but before they were able to kill him, Phrixus and Helle were rescued by a golden ram sent by Nephele, their natural mother. Helle fell off the ram into the Hellespont (which was named after her) and died, but Phrixus survived all the way to Colchis, where Aeëtes took him in and treated him kindly, giving Phrixus his daughter Chalciope in marriage. In gratitude, Phrixus gave the king the golden fleece of the ram, which Aeëtes hung on a tree in his kingdom. Aeëtes dedicated the golden fleece to Ares. [18] Jason and the Argonauts[edit] 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 the teeth of a dragon into a field. The 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 attacked and killed each other. Finally, Aeëtes made Jason fight and kill the sleepless dragon that guarded the fleece. Jason then took the fleece and sailed away with Aeëtes's daughter Medea, who had fallen in love with him and had done much to help him win the fleece. 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[edit] The mythical Aeetes may have reflected a memory of a historical personage. His name recurs in historical narratives of Classical authors who claim the enduring legacy of Aeëtes in Colchis. Arrian, touring the region in the 2nd century, reports seeing sites and ruins from Aeetes' time. The 5th-century author Zosimus mentions "a palace of Aeetes" standing at the mouth of the Phasis. Local rulers are claimed to have descended from Aeëtes, such as a king of the Phasians from Xenophon's Anabasis and Saulaces, a gold-rich king of Colchis, from Pliny the Elder's Naturalis Historia. Strabo, who treated Aeetes as a historical person, writes that this was "a local name among the Colchians".[19] The name of Aeëtes was bore by a historical Colchian, a 6th-century nobleman in Lazica in the times of Lazic War known from Agathias's account. If naming Aeëtes as the ancestor of the Colchian rulers was not the invention of the classical authors, it is possible that the Colchian rulers regarded themselves as descendants of Aeetes.[20] Notes[edit] ^ Yarnall, Judith (Jan 1, 1994). Transformations of Circe: The History of an Enchantress. University of Illinois Press. p. 28. ISBN 0252063562. Retrieved 2015-06-30. ^ Hesiod, Theogony, 960. ^ Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 9. §23. ^ Hyginus, Fabulae, 25 ^ Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 3.243–244. ^ Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3. 19. ^ Apollonius of Rhodes, 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 ^ Argonautica Orphica, 1216 ^ Roman, L., & Roman, M. (2010). Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman mythology., p. 12, at Google Books ^ Braund, David (1994). Georgia in Antiquity: A History of Colchis and Transcaucasian Iberia, 550 BC–AD 562. Clarendon Press. pp. 11, 30, 90–91. ISBN 0198144733. ^ Lordkipanidze, Otar (1968). "Colchis in Antiquity". Archaeologia. 19: 35–41. References[edit] 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[edit] Media related to Aeëtes at Wikimedia Commons Regnal titles New creation King of Colchis Succeeded by Perses v t e Medea Family Aeëtes (father) Chalciope (sister) Circe (aunt) Apsyrtus (brother) Jason (1st husband) Aegeus (2nd husband) Mermerus and Pheres (sons) Alcimenes and Tisander (sons) Medus (son) Thessalus (son) Achilles (3rd husband) Films A Dream of Passion (1978) Medea (1969) Medea (1988) Médée (2001) Medea (2005) Medea Miracle (2007) Operas Médée (1693, Charpentier) Medea (1775, Benda) Médée (1797, Cherubini) Medea in Corinto (1813, Mayr) Medea (1843, Pacini) Medea (2010, Reimann) Plays Medea (431 BC) Médée (1635) Médée (1946) The Hungry Woman (1995) Ballets Jason et Médée (1763) La hija de Cólquide (1944) Medea (1946) Musicals Medea, the Musical (1994) Marie Christine (1999) Music Medea's Dance of Vengeance (1956) Art Medea (painting) Jason and Medea (painting) Medea statue Other depictions Medea (character) "Medea Culpa" v t e Rulers of Ancient Corinth Heleidae Aeëtes Bounos Epopeus Corinthus Polybus Creon Jason Sisyphidae Sisyphus Glaucus Bellerophon Ornytion Thoas Damophon Propodas two kings at the same time Doridas and Hyanthidas Heracleidae Aletidae Aletes Ixion Agelas I Prymnes Bacchiadae Bacchis Agelas II Eudaemus Aristomedes Agemon Alexander Telestes Automenes Pritanius Cypselid tyrants Cypselus I Periander Psammetichus (Cypselus II) Authority control GND: 119377349 VIAF: 8196424 WorldCat Identities: viaf-8196424 Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aeëtes&oldid=1000400500" Categories: Mythological kings of Colchis Children of Helios Fictional people from Georgia (country) Characters in the Argonautica Metamorphoses characters Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description matches Wikidata Articles containing Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text Articles containing Georgian-language text Commons category link from Wikidata Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikimedia Commons Languages العربية Asturianu Български Brezhoneg Català Čeština Dansk Deutsch Eesti Ελληνικά Español Esperanto فارسی Français 한국어 Bahasa Indonesia Italiano ქართული Latina Lietuvių Magyar Македонски Nederlands 日本語 Polski Português Русский Slovenčina Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska Türkçe Українська 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 14 January 2021, at 23:09 (UTC). 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