Actæon (ak-tē´ōn).—A mighty huntsman, son of Aristæus and Autonoë. One day while hunting he saw Diana and her nymphs bathing, and was immediately changed by the goddess into a stag, in which form he was torn to pieces by his fifty dogs.
Admetus (ad-mē´tus).—King of Pheræ, in Thessaly. On the death of his first wife he sued for the hand of Alcestis, whom he obtained, by Apollo’s aid, only on coming in a chariot drawn by a lion and a wild boar. The god (Apollo) tended the flocks of Admetus for nine years, when he was compelled to serve a mortal for having slain the Cyclops. Apollo prevailed on the Fates to grant that Admetus should never die if another would lay down his life for him. This Alcestis did, but was brought back from the lower world by Hercules.
Adonis (a-dō´nis).—A beautiful youth beloved by Venus. While hunting he was killed by a wild boar, and was changed by Venus into the anemone. The grief of Venus was so great that the gods of the nether regions allowed him to spend six months of every year with Venus upon the earth. (This myth seems to refer to the apparent death of nature in winter and its revival in spring; hence Adonis spends six months in the lower and a like period in the upper world.)
Æacus (ē´ak-us).—Son of Jupiter and Ægina. It is related that at his birth in the island of Ægina, which was named after his mother, there were no inhabitants on the island, and that Jupiter changed the ants there into men; hence the latter were called Myrmidones (Gr. ants), and Æacus ruled over them. Æacus was renowned throughout Greece for his justice and piety, and after his death became one of the three judges in Hades (the other two being Rhadamanthus and Minos).
Aedon (a-ē´dōn).—Daughter of Pandareus and wife of Zethus, king of Thebes. Jealous of Niobe, her brother Amphion’s wife, having six sons and six daughters, while she had but one son, she determined to kill the eldest of Niobe’s sons, but by mistake slew her own son Itylus. Jupiter changed her into a nightingale, whose melancholy notes are represented as Ædon’s lamentations for her son.
Æetes (ē-ē´tēz) or Æeta, (ē-ē´ta).—Son of Helios (the sun) and Persëis, and king of Colchis at the time Phrixus had fled to his court on a ram with golden fleece, the gift of Mercury. (See “[Phrixus].”) After having sacrificed to Jupiter the ram that had carried him, Phrixus gave its golden fleece to Æetes, who suspended it to an oak tree in the grove of Mars, where it was guarded day and night by an ever-watchful dragon. It was, however, greatly coveted, and an expedition was fitted out, consisting of all the great heroes of the age, with the special object, which proved successful, of obtaining it. (See “[Argonautæ].”)
Ægæon (ē-jē´ōn).—Son of Uranus (heaven) and Gæa (earth). Ægæon and his brothers, Gyas and Cottus, were huge monsters with a hundred arms and fifty heads. Ægæon and his brothers, who are often called the Uranids, conquered the Titans when they made war upon the gods, and secured the victory to Jupiter, who thrust the Titans into Tartarus, and placed Ægæon and his brothers to guard them. Ægæon is often referred to under the name Briareus.
Æneas (ē-nē´as), the hero of Virgil’s great epic poem the Æneid (ē-ne´id), was the son of Anchises and Venus, and was born on Mount Ida. Having been attacked on Mount Ida by Achilles, who also drove away his flocks, he led the Dardanians against the Greeks, and at once took part in the Trojan war. Æneas and Hector were the great Trojan heroes, and the former, being beloved by gods and men, was on more than one occasion saved in battle by the gods. Venus saved him from Diomedes, and Neptune from Achilles, when the latter was on the point of killing him. From the flames of Troy he carried on his back his father, Anchises, and the household gods, and led Ascanius, his son, leaving his wife, Creusa, daughter of Priam, to follow. Æneas then set out on those wanderings that form the subject of the Æneid. After visiting Epirus and Sicily he was driven by a storm on the coast of Africa, where he met with Dido, queen of Carthage, who hospitably entertained him and became enamored of him. Æneas, however, left suddenly, and [Dido] (q.v.) killed herself. He then sailed to Latium, where he married Lavinia, the daughter of King Latinus, and founded the town of Lavinium, so named in honor of his wife. Turnus, to whom Lavinia had been betrothed, made war against Latinus and Æneas, but was slain by the latter, who now became ruler of the Aborigines and Trojans. Soon afterwards, however, he was slain in battle by the Rutulians.
Æolus (ē´o-lus).—The happy ruler of the Æolian Islands. He had been given, by Jupiter, dominion over the winds, which he kept enclosed in a mountain. When Ulysses was on his journey from Troy to Ithaca, Æolus gave him all the adverse winds in bags, but his companions, from curiosity, opened them.
Æsculapius (ēs-kū-lā´pi-us).—The god of healing. He was the son of Apollo and Coronis, and was brought up by Chiron, the centaur, who instructed him in the art of healing and in hunting. When he was grown up, he not only healed the sick, but recalled the dead to life. He was killed by a thunderbolt by Jupiter, who feared lest men should, by his aid, escape death altogether. Serpents were sacred to him, and the cock was sacrificed to him.