and the nymph Ægina, the most pious of mortals, and the first ruler of the island which bore his mother's name. Among his descendants were numbered many of the most famous heroes of antiquity—Peleus and Telamon, Achilles, Ajax, and Neoptolemus. The adventures of these supplied the poet with a copious stock of legendary material. He tells how Æacus assisted the gods Poseidon and Phœbus in building the walls of Troy; how Zeus and Poseidon—rival lovers of the sea-nymph Thetis—agreed to surrender her to a mortal husband, and selected Peleus as the mortal worthiest of such an honour. He describes the valour and untimely deaths of Ajax and Neoptolemus, the training of young Achilles in the cave of the Centaur Chiron, and the exploits by which he fulfilled the ancient prophecy that Thetis should bear a child more mighty than his father. And he dwells with especial pleasure on the tales which represented the Æacid Telamon as the chosen friend and comrade of the Thebans, Heracles and Iolaus, as foreshadowing the later alliances in war of the two sister-communities, Thebes and Ægina.
But to recapitulate in full all the countless legends of Ægina and the Æacids, as Pindar himself says, would but weary the reader.[1] A few selected passages will suffice to give us an idea of the poet's treatment of these stories in the various Odes which he has addressed to Æginetan victors.
Here is a strophe from the Third Nemean, describing the childhood of Achilles:—
- ↑ Pyth. viii. 12. cf. Isthm. v. 56.
