Zeus Abducts Aegina

Catalogue ID: 02-olympian-gods/083-zeus-aegina-abduction-apollodorus

Cycle: Olympian gods — Zeus’s loves / Aeginetan foundation

Version line: Apollodorean / Pindaric — eagle or pursuit; Asopus’s search

Sources: Apollodorus, *Library* 3.12.6; Pindar, *Isthmian* 8.21–23, *Nemean* 8; Pausanias 2.5.1–2 (Asopus pursuing)

Source file: /workspace/greek-myth-catalogue/02-olympian-gods/083-zeus-aegina-abduction-apollodorus.md

Characters

Aeacus — son of the union
Aegina — Asopus’s daughter; eponym of the island
Artemis — abductor; father of Aeacus
Asopus — river-father; pursues and is blasted back
Sisyphus — informant of the abductor’s identity (Corinthian variant)

Places

Corinth — Sisyphus’s betrayal locale (variant)
Mount Helicon — home of the nymph
Oenone — island of the abduction and birth

Themes

Narrative

Aegina, daughter of the river-god Asopus, is carried off by Zeus to the island then called Oenone (or Oenopia). Zeus begets Aeacus on her and renames the island Aegina after the mother. Asopus searches; in Corinthian and Sicyonian lore he learns the abductor’s name from Sisyphus (who is later punished for the betrayal) and pursues until Zeus’s thunderbolts drive him back to his bed. Pindar and Apollodorus stress the union as the root of Aeacus’s line—Peleus, Telamon, Achilles, Ajax—without needing the later plague-and-ants tale. Catalogue this as the Olympian love/abduction entry; the Myrmidon metamorphosis and Aeacus’s justice remain in 05/026.