Aegeus

King of Athens and mortal father of Theseus. Long childless, he consulted the Delphic oracle and received an answer so obscure he carried it still unread to his friend Pittheus of Troezen, who understood it at once and arranged for his daughter Aethra to lie with Aegeus that night (Plutarch *Theseus* 3; Apollodorus 3.15.6). Before leaving Troezen he hid his sword and sandals under a great rock as tokens for any son she might bear. Back in Athens he took in the refugee Medea as his consort, and when Theseus at last arrived with the tokens she tried to poison the unrecognised youth with aconite at a welcoming banquet; Aegeus recognised the sword just as Theseus reached for the cup, dashed it away, and drove Medea from the city (Apollodorus *Epitome* 1.5–6; Plutarch *Theseus* 12). When Theseus later sailed for Crete against the Minotaur the father instructed him to change the black sail for a white one if he returned alive. Theseus forgot; Aegeus, watching from the Acropolis, saw the black sail and threw himself into the sea — which from then on bore his name (Apollodorus *Epitome* 1.10; Plutarch *Theseus* 22; Pausanias 1.22.5).

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