Aeacus. The first king of Aegina. He was the son of Zeus and the nymph Aegina, daughter of the river-god Asopus, and was born on the island then named Oenone but later renamed by him after his mother. When he grew to manhood and was grieved by his solitude, Zeus transformed all the island's ants (myrmekes) into men and women. Aeacus called his new people the Myrmidons.

He married ENDEIS, who was probably the daughter of the kindly Centaur Cheiron, and had by her two sons, PELEUS, and TELAMON. Both of these were great heroes in their own right and became the fathers of even mightier sons: Peleus the father of ACHILLES, and Telamon the father of AJAX (1). Aecaus also had by the Nereid Psamathe a son PHOCUS (1), so named because his mother and changed herself into a seal (phoke) while trying to avoid intercourse with Aeacus. When his two legitimate sons killed their half-brother, he banished them. It was sometimes said that Aeacus had a fourth son, MENOETIUS (2).

According to some accounts, Aeacus helped Apollo and Poseidon to build the walls of Troy for LAOMEDON. When the work was complete, three snakes tried to leap on to the ramparts. Two of these at once fell dead, but the third succeeded, and at the very part of the wall that Aeacus had built. Apollo interpreted this omen at meaning that Troy would be taken by Aeacus' descendants- as indeed it was, first by Heracles with the help of Telamon, and later by the Greek army under the leadership of Agamemnon, which included Achilles and his son NEOPTOLEMUS, and the Great Ajax.

Aeacus was renowned for his justice and wisdom. When Zeus was angry with PELOPS for dismembering the body of his enemy, Stymphalus, and for scattering the pieces over the land, he inflicted on Greece a prolonged drought. In another version, the god was angry because of the murder of ANDROGEOS. Whichever the reason, it was Aeacus who was chosen by oracles to intercede with Zeus for deliverance. He did so, and even as he prayed the blessed rain began to fall. Even after his death he was honored for his justice, for he kept the key of HADES (2), and along with MINOS and RHADAMANTHYS became a judge of the souls of the dead.

Asteria. Daughter of the Titans COEUS and PHOEBE (1) and mother by PERSES (1), of the goddess HECATE. To escape capture by the amorous ZEUS, Asteria turned herself into a quail (ortyx) and jumped into the sea. Here an island appeared, named Asteria or Ortygia ("Quail Island"). It was later renamed Delos and would offer a haven to Asteria's sister LETO, pregnant with Apollo and Artemis.

(Jenny March, Classical Mythology [Cassel & Co: London, 1998])