King of Colchis at Aea, son of Helios and Perse daughter of Ocean, brother of Circe and Pasiphae; he received Phrixus and the golden fleece, and set Jason the trial of the brazen-footed bulls when the Argonauts came for the treasure.1
Hesiod makes Aeetes son of Helios who gives light to mortals and of Perse whom Ocean begot; by fair-cheeked Idyia, daughter of Ocean, he took wife and begot neat-ankled Medea — Circe and Pasiphae stand as his sisters in the same Sun-born house.2
Homer knows him only through kinship: Circe the dread goddess of human speech on Aeaea is own sister to Aeetes of baneful mind, and both are sprung from Helius and from Perse their mother.3
When Phrixus came to the Colchians, Aeetes received him and gave him one of his daughters, Chalciope; Phrixus sacrificed the ram with the golden fleece to Zeus the god of Escape and gave the fleece to Aeetes, who nailed it to an oak in a grove of Ares, where a dragon kept guard that never slept.4
At the river Phasis Jason repaired to Aeetes and invited him to give up the fleece; the king promised it if single-handed Jason would yoke the brazen-footed bulls. When he learned what Medea had done for the stranger, Aeetes pursued the ship — only to gather his son Absyrtus limb from limb when Medea cast the pieces into the deep.5
Apollonius names Aea of Aeetes as the eastern goal of the voyage, where the fleece hung in the sacred grove and the king's trial awaited the Argonaut captain.6
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the spine ignites as you read · hover a bond on the card — every mention of them lights in the story
