Æson, son of Cretheus, was born at the same birth as Pelias. He succeeded his father in the kingdom of Iolchos, but was soon exiled by his brother. He married Alcimeda, by whom he had Jason, whose education he entrusted to Chiron, being afraid of Pelias. When Jason was grown up, he demanded his father’s kingdom from his uncle, who gave him evasive answers, and persuaded him to go in quest of the golden fleece. See: [Jason]. At his return, Jason found his father very infirm; and Medea [See: [Medea]], at his request, drew the blood from Æson’s veins, and refilled them with the juice of certain herbs which she had gathered, and immediately the old man recovered the vigour and bloom of youth. Some say that Æson killed himself by drinking bull’s blood, to avoid the persecution of Pelias. Diodorus, bk. 4.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 9.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 7, li. 285.—Hyginus, fable 12.——A river of Thessaly, with a town of the same name.
Æsŏnĭdes, a patronymic of Jason, as being descended from Æson.
Æsōpus, a Phrygian philosopher, who, though originally a slave, procured his liberty by the sallies of his genius. He travelled over the greatest part of Greece and Egypt, but chiefly resided at the court of Crœsus king of Lydia, by whom he was sent to consult the oracle of Delphi. In this commission Æsop behaved with great severity, and satirically compared the Delphians to floating sticks, which appear large at a distance, but are nothing when brought near. The Delphians, offended with his sarcastic remarks, accused him of having secreted one of the sacred vessels of Apollo’s temple, and threw him down from a rock, 561 B.C. Maximus Planudes has written his life in Greek; but no credit is to be given to the biographer, who falsely asserts that the mythologist was short and deformed. Æsop dedicated his fables to his patron Crœsus; but what appears now under his name, is no doubt a compilation of all the fables and apologues of wits before and after the age of Æsop, conjointly with his own. Plutarch, Solon.—Phædras, bk. 1, fable 2; bk. 2, fable 9.——Claudus, an actor on the Roman stage, very intimate with Cicero. He amassed an immense fortune. His son, to be more expensive, melted precious stones to drink at his entertainments. Horace, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 239.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 8, ch. 10; bk. 9, ch. 1.—Pliny, bk. 9, ch. 35; bk. 10, ch. 51.——An orator. Diogenes Laërtius.——An historian in the time of Anaximenes. Plutarch, Solon.——A river of Pontus. Strabo, bk. 12.——An attendant of Mithridates, who wrote a treatise on Helen, and a panegyric on his royal master.
Æstria, an island in the Adriatic. Mela, bk. 2, ch. 7.
Æsŭla, a town on a mountain between Tibur and Præneste. Horace, bk. 3, ode 29.
Æsyetes, a man from whose tomb Polites spied what the Greeks did in their ships during the Trojan war. Homer, Iliad, bk. 2, li. 793.
Æsymnētes, a surname of Bacchus. Pausanias, bk. 7, ch. 21.
Æsymnus, a person of Megara, who consulted Apollo to know the best method of governing his country. Pausanias, bk. 1, ch. 43.
Æthalia, or Ætheria, now Elba, an island between Etruria and Corsica. Pliny, bk. 3, ch. 6; bk. 6, ch. 30.
Æthalĭdes, a herald, son of Mercury, to whom it was granted to be amongst the dead and the living at stated times. Apollonius, Argonautica, bk. 1, li. 641.