Aeetes was the King of Colchis and the father of Medea.
Biography[]
Aeetes, in Greek mythology, was the son of the sun god Helios and a daughter of Oceanus, and the brother of King Perses of Tauris. He married Idyia, and their children were Absyrtus, Medea, and Chalciope. Aeetes was granted the Golden Fleece by Phrixus after he kindly gave Phrixus refuge, and, in 1246 BC, Jason arrived in Colchis to claim the fleece as his own. Medea and Absyrtus, hoping to stop Jason's plundering of Colchis, stole the fleece and gave it to Jason, and Aeetes and his horsemen set out in pursuit. Medea killed and dismembered Absyrtus, forcing Aeetes and his horsemen to find and pick up the pieces as Medea and Jason escaped on the Argo. After 1236 BC, Perses usurped the throne of Colchis from Aeetes, but Medea returned to Colchis from Greece, killed her uncle, and restored Aeetes to the throne.