Acestes

In Roman mythology, Acestes or Egestes (Ancient Greek: Ἀκέστης) was the son of the Sicilian river-god Crinisus by a Dardanian or Trojan woman named Egesta or Segesta.[1]

According to Servius, this woman Egesta or Segesta was sent by her father, Hippotes or Ipsostratus, to Sicily, that she might not be devoured by the monsters which infested the territory of Troy and which had been sent into the land, because the Trojans had refused to reward Poseidon and Apollo for having built the walls of their city.[2] When Egesta arrived in Sicily, the river-god Crinisus in the form of a bear or a dog sired with her a son named Acestes, who was afterwards regarded as the hero who had founded the town of Segesta.[3]

The funeral games of Aeneas's father Anchises were held there. Those of Aeneas's folk who wished to voyage no further were allowed to remain behind with Acestes and together with Acestes's people they founded the city of Acesta, that is Segesta.

The Aeneid cites him as giving wine as a farewell gift to Aeneas as he is leaving Sicily.

  1. ^ Virgil, Aeneid i. 195, 550, v. 36, 711, &c.
  2. ^ Schmidt, Leonhard (1867), "Acestes", in Smith, William (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. 1, Boston, p. 7, archived from the original on 2012-12-02, retrieved 2007-09-25{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. ^ Comp. Schol. ad Lycophron 951, 963.