Aegialeus

Aegialeus is the name of three figures in Greek mythology: an early king of Sicyon after whom the northern Peloponnese was named Aegialia, the son of Adrastus who was killed leading the Epigoni against Thebes, and, in one account, a son of Aeetes of Colchis.

Aegialeus of Sicyon

The Sicyonians told Pausanias that Aegialeus was the first and aboriginal inhabitant of their land, that he reigned over the district later called Aegialus, and that he founded the city of Aegialea on the plain. They made him the father of Europs, Europs the father of Telchis, and Telchis the father of Apis (Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.5.6). Pausanias also writes that the Sicyonians derived the old name of the coast, Aegialus, from this king, while others derived it from the land itself, most of which is coast (Pausanias 7.1.1; Strabo, Geography 8.6.25).

In Apollodorus he has a different genealogy. Inachus and the Oceanid Melia had two sons, Phoroneus and Aegialeus. Aegialeus died childless, and the whole country was called Aegialia after him, while Phoroneus ruled the land that later became the Peloponnese (Apollodorus, Library 2.1.1). The two accounts disagree on whether he left descendants, and on his parents.

Aegialeus, Son of Adrastus

Adrastus, king of Argos, had by Amphithea, daughter of Pronax, three daughters, Argia, Deipyle and Aegialia, and two sons, Aegialeus and Cyanippus (Apollodorus, Library 1.9.13). Adrastus had led the first expedition against Thebes.

When the sons of the Seven set out to avenge their fathers, Aegialeus went with them. Apollodorus lists him among the Epigoni, with Alcmaeon, Amphilochus, Diomedes, Promachus, Sthenelus, Thersander and Euryalus (Apollodorus, Library 3.7.2). In Euripides’ Suppliants, Athena foretells that the sons of the dead leaders will grow up, sack the city by the Ismenus, and avenge their fathers, with Aegialeus taking his father’s place as general (Euripides, Suppliants 1213–1218).

The Thebans, led by Laodamas, the son of Eteocles, met the Argives at Glisas. Laodamas killed Aegialeus, and was killed in turn by Alcmaeon (Apollodorus, Library 3.7.3). Pausanias also names Laodamas as his killer (Pausanias 9.5.13). Pausanias says that Aegialeus died early in the first battle at Glisas, and that his relatives carried him to Pagae in Megaris and buried him there; the hero-shrine at Pagae was still called the Aegialeum (Pausanias 1.44.4). In Pausanias the Argives won the battle, and Laodamas withdrew to Illyria with the Thebans willing to follow him (Pausanias 9.5.13).

The loss of Aegialeus was Adrastus’ sorrow. In Pindar the ghost of Amphiaraus foretells, during the battle of the Epigoni, that Adrastus will return with his army unharmed, and that he alone of the Danaan army will gather the bones of a dead son; in this account Aegialeus is the one Argive leader to fall (Pindar, Pythian 8.48–55). The Megarians said that Adrastus died among them as he led the army back from Thebes, and that his death was caused by old age and the fate of Aegialeus (Pausanias 1.43.1). Argos had a statue of Aegialeus among the Epigoni (Pausanias 2.20.5), and Herodotus says that the Sicyonians, some sixty years after the death of Cleisthenes, gave one of their tribes the name Aegialeis after Aegialeus, son of Adrastus (Herodotus, Histories 5.68.2).

Aegialeus, Son of Aeetes

Diodorus Siculus names Aeetes’ wife as Hecate, the daughter of Perses, and says she bore him two daughters, Circe and Medea, and a son, Aegialeus (Diodorus Siculus 4.45). Apollodorus gives the brother of Medea who accompanied her on the Argo the name Apsyrtus. When Aeetes overtook the ship, Medea murdered the boy, cut him into pieces and threw them into the sea, so that her father fell behind collecting them (Apollodorus, Library 1.9.23–24). Diodorus names Aegialeus only in the list of Aeetes’ children.

Aegialeus Sources

Apollodorus, Library 1.9.13, 1.9.23–24, 2.1.1, 3.7.2–3; Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.43.1, 1.44.4, 2.5.6, 2.20.5, 7.1.1, 9.5.13; Strabo, Geography 8.6.25; Herodotus, Histories 5.68.2; Euripides, Suppliants 1213–1218; Pindar, Pythian 8.48–55; Diodorus Siculus 4.45.

See Also: Inachus, Phoroneus, Adrastus, Seven Against Thebes, Epigoni, Aeetes, Medea, Absyrtus