
Aegeus (died 1293 BC) was the King of Athens in Greek mythology, succeeding Pandion II and preceding Theseus. The Aegean Sea, into which he jumped after mistakenly believing that the Minotaur had killed his son, is named after him.
Biography[]
Aegeus was the brother of Pallas, Nisos, and Lycus, and, following Pandion II's death, they seized power from the usurper Metion. Aegeus married Chalciope, and he once drunkenly laid with Pittheus of Troezen's daughter Aethra, who gave birth to Theseus. Aegus later married Medea, who had fled from Corinth following the murder of her children, Glauce, and King Creon of Corinth, and they had one son, Medus. Later, Theseus returned and met his long-lost father, and Medea attempted to poison Theseus to secure her son's claim to the throne. However, Aegeus knocked the poison cup from Theseus' hand and embraced him as his own, while Medea fled to Iran.
Aegeus later went to war with King Minos of Crete, who defeated Athens and forced Aegeus to provide seven young men and seven young women as sacrifices to the Minotaur. One day, Theseus volunteered himself to join the next group of young virgins on the ship to Crete and slay the Minotaur, and he promised his father that he would change the ship's white sails to black ones on the return journey to show that he had survived. Theseus would succeed in slaying the Minotaur, but he forgot his father's instructions to change the sails. When Aegeus saw white sails on the returning ship, he threw himself into the sea out of despair, and Theseus - the new king - renamed the sea to the "Aegean" in his honor.