AEACUS  , in

Greek legend, ancestor of the Aeacidae, was the son of Zeus and Aegina, daughter of the river-god Asopus . His mother was carried off .by Zeus to the island of Oenone, which was afterwards called by her name . The island having been depopulated by a pestilence, Zeus changed the ants upon it into human beings (Ovid, Met. vii . 520), who were called Myrmidones (p.bpµgxes =,ants) . Aeacus ruled over his people with such justice and impartiality that after his death he was made judge of the lower world together with Minos and Rhadamanthus . By his wife Endeis he was the father of Telamon and Peleus . His successful prayer to Zeus for rain at a time of drought (Isocrates, Evagoras, 14) was commemorated by a temple at Aegina (Pausanias ii . 29) . He himself erected a temple to Zeus Panhellenios and helped Poseidon and Apollo to build the walls of Troy . See Hutchinson, Aeacus, 1901 .