Zeus abducted the nymph Aegina and brought her to a deserted island that took her name. There she bore Aeacus, who became king of the island and progenitor of the Aeacid heroes.
Aeacus, son of Zeus and king of Aegina, fathered Peleus and Telamon by Endeis. Both sons were exiled after murdering their half-brother Phocus, with Peleus settling in Phthia and Telamon on Salamis.
Aeacus fathered Phocus by the Nereid Psamathe, making Phocus a half-brother to Peleus and Telamon. His divine parentage and athletic prowess provoked jealousy that led to his murder at their hands.
Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Aeacus serve as the three judges of the dead in the Underworld, appointed by Zeus for their justice in life. Rhadamanthus judges Asian souls, Aeacus those from Europe, and Minos casts the deciding vote.
In Pindar, Aeacus assisted Apollo and Poseidon in building the walls of Troy. A serpent breached the section Aeacus had built, an omen that Troy would fall through the part made by mortal hands — fulfilled generations later by his descendants.
Aeacus helped Poseidon and Apollo build the walls of Troy. The mortal-built section was prophesied to be Troy's weakness, and indeed Aeacus's own grandsons Ajax and Achilles later besieged those very walls.
When a devastating drought struck Greece, Aeacus prayed to his father Zeus on behalf of all the Greeks. Zeus answered his son's prayers with rain, demonstrating that Aeacus was the most pious man in Greece.
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