AEETES
(Aiedes)
Jason taming the bulls of Aeetes, Jean-Francois de Troy, 1743.
John Bell
Bell's New Pantheon (1790)
AEETES, king of Cholchis during the Argonautic expedition, was son of Perseis by the Sun, brother of Circe, husband of Idyaia, daughter of Oceanus, and father of Absyrtus, Calciope, and Medea, mother of Medus by Jason. Some authors make him also father of Pasiphae, and grandfather of Phaedra, the dissolute wives of Minos and Theseus. Banier thinks, with many of the ancients, that Aeetes was slain in an engagement on the Euxine sea, betwixt the Colchian fleet and that of the Argonauts under Jason. It must be observed that there were two kings of Colchis of the name of Aeetes, as well as two Circes, the first having reigned in the time of the Argonauts, and the second after the war of Troy. Aeetes the first, was brother of Circe by the Sun; Aeetes the second, brother of the second Circe, daughter of the former, and grand-daughter of Helius ; she who reigned over the coasts of Italy, and at whose court Ulysses abode, about the time of the Trojan war.
Source: John Bell, Bell's New Pantheon; or, Historical Dictionary of the Gods, Demi-Gods, Heroes, and Fabulous Personages of Antiquity, vol. 1 (London: British Library, 1790).
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons.
