Aeson is presented in classical genealogical tradition as a son in the royal house of Iolcus whose line ties into the wider heroic and divine ancestries of Greek myth. He is usually described as the rightful king of Iolcus until displaced by his half-brother Pelias, who banishes other claimants and imprisons Aeson. Aeson's role in the narratives is mainly genealogical and political: he is the father of Jason, and his loss of power furnishes the motivating background for Jason's upbringing, education under Chiron, and eventual quest for the Golden Fleece. Sources record two principal variants for Aeson's end: in one account Pelias intends to kill him and Aeson commits suicide by drinking a poison called 'bull's blood' (interpreted by some modern notes as an arsenic compound); in an alternate tradition Aeson survives long enough to be subject to Medea's arts, in which Medea slits his throat, places the body in a pot and effects a restoration to youth. These versions are presented in the sources as alternative narrative accounts rather than reconciled history.
Classical summaries and the supplied sources do not provide a consistent physical description of Aeson. He is treated as an aged king or former ruler in narrative contexts where his advanced age and vulnerability are relevant (for example, being imprisoned or requiring restoration), but no specific iconography, measurements, clothing details, or distinctive bodily features are recorded in the provided material. Thus the available texts characterize him by social role and narrative function rather than by physical appearance.
Aeson is depicted as a mortal human ruler and is not attributed inherent supernatural powers in the cited sources. The miraculous element associated with him—restoration to youth—is an action performed by Medea, not an ability of Aeson himself. His behaviors in the narratives are political and familial: he is king until usurped by Pelias, father to Jason whose exile and education are tied to Aeson's dispossession, and a figure who either takes his own life when faced with imminent murder or becomes the object of Medea's life-and-death arts. The sources present him as subject to imprisonment, assassination attempts, and narrative manipulation rather than as an autonomous supernatural agent.
Weaknesses
- conditionmortality / political vulnerability
- otherimprisonment by Pelias
- otherexposure to lethal acts (suicide by 'bull's blood' or being killed in narratives)
Wards
None recorded.
Abderus
Abderus (Ancient Greek: Ἄβδηρος, romanized Ábdēros) is a mortal heroic figure in Greek myth closely associated with Heracles, remembered as the youth left in charge of the Mares of Diomedes who was killed by them. He functions as an eponymous local/divine-hero ancestor for the city of Abdera and received funerary commemoration and athletic agones at his tomb.
Acamas
Acamas (Ancient Greek: Ἀκάμας) is a personal name recurrent in ancient Greek narrative traditions applied to multiple human characters (warriors, princes, suitors), once to a Cyclops, and once as a hound's name. Rather than a single supernatural entity, bearers of the name appear episodically across the Trojan War, Theseid, and Theban cycles as mortal actors whose deeds intersect with gods and fate.
Acarnan
Acarnan (Ancient Greek: Ἀκαρνάν) is an anthroponym attested in Greek mythic and epic tradition as the name of at least two distinct mortal figures: a son of Alcmaeon and Callirrhoe, and a human suitor of Penelope from Dulichium. The lexical form also appears adjectivally/ethnically (Acarnanian), linking the word to the region Acarnania; etymologically the name is reported as derived from a Greek fish-name (akarnan).
Acastus
Acastus is a mortal heroic figure of ancient Greek tradition: son of Pelias who became king of Iolcus, an Argonaut who sailed with Jason, and an actor in the post-Argonautic cycle involving Medea, Peleus, and the aftermath of Pelias’s death. He is attested as performing civic and ritual actions (burying Pelias, instituting funeral games, purifying Peleus) and as a participant in vendetta episodes that end in violent reprisals.
Acmon
Acmon (Ancient Greek: Ἄκμων, 'anvil') is a polyvalent personal name in Greek myth borne by several distinct minor figures — a Dactyl (artisan), a Phrygian eponymous king, a mischievous woodland creature, companions in epic cycles (one companion of Diomedes transformed into a bird; an Aenead), and in some brief traditions an alleged father of Uranus. The name therefore functions across artisanal, topographical, trickster, and metamorphosis motifs rather than denoting a single unified supernatural species.
Acrisius
Acrisius (Ancient Greek: Ἀκρίσιος, Akrisios) is a mythic-historical king of Argos in Greek tradition whose narrative is defined by an oracular prophecy foretelling his death by his daughter's son. He is portrayed as a mortal ruler entangled with dynastic rivalry, oracular authority, and the eventual accidental fulfillment of fate.
Aeacidae
The Aeacidae are a dynastic lineage in Greek myth and historiography descended from the hero Aeacus, son of Zeus and the nymph Aegina. The name functions as a patronymic designation for those 'of Aeacus' and is used to claim genealogical legitimacy and political prestige in regions such as Aegina and Molossian Epirus.
Aegipan
Aegipan (Αἰγίπαν / Αἰγίπανος) is an ancient Greek mythological figure associated with goat attributes and with the sea‑goat imagery of the constellation Capricornus. He appears in classical myth as a semi‑divine helper (notably in the Typhon episode) and, in later natural‑history and medieval bestiary reception, the name is applied to satyr‑like or ape‑like wild men in distant lands.
Aegisthus
Aegisthus (Greek Αἴγισθος, Aigisthos) is a mortal member of the House of Atreus in Greek myth who, born of incestuous circumstances and raised by shepherds and a goat, participates in dynastic murder and usurpation — notably the slaying of Atreus in some accounts and the conspiracy (with Clytemnestra) that results in Agamemnon's death — and is later killed by Orestes, an episode that figures in narratives about inherited guilt, vengeance, and the transition from private retribution to public justice.
Aepytus
Aepytus (Ancient Greek: Αἴπυτος, Aíputos/Aípytos, lit. 'steep, high, lofty') is a personal name in Greek myth borne by several legendary kings tied to Arcadian and Heraclid genealogies. The figures named Aepytus function as ancestral/dynastic nodes in literary genealogies and later literary receptions rather than as supernatural beings.
Aethalides
Aethalides is a personal name borne by two distinct figures in ancient Greek myth: one listed among the Argonauts as a son of Hermes and Eupolemeia, and another named among the Tyrrhenian sailors who attempted to deceive Dionysus and was transformed into a dolphin. The sources treat Aethalides as named human mythic personages appearing in separate narrative contexts rather than as a class of supernatural being.
Agelaus
Agelaus (Ancient Greek: Ἀγέλαος) is not a single supernatural being but a personal name borne by multiple mortal figures in Greek myth, epic, and local history. Bearers include a herdsman who raised the exposed infant Paris, several minor warriors in the Trojan cycle, mythic princes (e.g., sons of Oeneus, Stymphalus, Temenus, and in some lists a son of Heracles), a suitor of Penelope, and a historical official of Naupactus in the Aetolian League.
Community Record
- [1]Aeson - Wikipedia. Wikipedia contributors, 'Aeson,' Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.wiki
- [2]Aeson (Wikidata). Wikidata entry Q410082, summary: 'father of Jason in Greek mythology.'other
- [3]Jason of the Argonauts (1990) (archive item provided in notes). Archive item referenced in research notes (compilation on Jason and Argonautic tradition).other