Aegimius

The mythical ancestor of the Doric race, who is described as their king and lawgiver at the time when they were yet inhabiting the northern parts of Thessaly.1 When involved in a war with the Lapiths, he called Heracles to his assistance, and promised him the third part of his territory, if he delivered him of his enemies. The Lapiths were conquered, but Heracles did not take for himself the territory promised to him by Aegimius, and left it in trust to the king who was to preserve it for the sons of Heracles.2

Aegimius had two sons, Dymas and Pamphylus, who migrated to the Peloponnese and were regarded as the ancestors of two branches of the Doric race (Dymanes and Pamphylians), while the third branch derived its name from Hyllus (Hylleans), the son of Heracles, who had been adopted by Aegimius.3 Respecting the connexion between Aegimius and Heracles, see Müller.4

There existed in antiquity an epic poem called Aegimius, of which a few fragments are still extant, and which is sometimes ascribed to Hesiod and sometimes to Cercops of Miletus.5 The main subject of this poem appears to have been the war of Aegimius and Heracles against the Lapiths.

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References

Notes

  1. Pindar. Pythian Odes i, 124; v, 96.
  2. Pseudo-Apollodorus. The Library ii, 7.7; Diodorus Siculus, iv, 37.
  3. Pseudo-Apollodorus. The Library ii, 8.3; Scholiast on Pindar's Pythian Odes i, 121.
  4. Die Dorier i, 35 ff.
  5. Athenaeus, xi, 503; Stephanus of Byzantium, s.v. Ἀβαντίς.

Source

  • Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.

This article incorporates text from Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) by William Smith, which is in the public domain.