Editing Aeacus (section)

=== In the afterlife ===
[[File:Mack, Ludwig, Die Unterwelt, mitte.jpg|left|thumb|''Minos, Aeacus and Rhadamanthys'' by Ludwig Mack, Bildhauer]]

After his death, Aeacus became one of the three judges in Hades (along with his [[Minoan Crete|Cretan]] half-brothers [[Rhadamanthus]] and [[Minos]])<ref>Ovid, ''Metamorphoses'' 13.25; [[Horace]], ''[[Carmen Saeculare]]'' 2.13.22</ref> and, according to [[Plato]], was specifically concerned with the shades of Europeans upon their arrival to the underworld.<ref>Plato, ''Gorgias'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0178%3Atext%3DGorg.%3Asection%3D524a 524a]; [[Isocrates]], ''Evagoras'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0144%3Aspeech%3D9%3Asection%3D15 15]</ref> In works of art he was depicted bearing a sceptre and the keys of Hades.<ref>Pindar, ''Isthmian Odes'' 7.47; Apollodorus, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+3.12.6&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022:boo=0:chapter=0&highlight=Aeacus 3.12.6]</ref> Aeacus had sanctuaries in both [[Athens]] and in [[Aegina]],<ref>Pausanias, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+2.29.6&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160:boo=0:chapter=0&highlight=Aeacus 2.29.6]; Scholia ad Pindar, ''Nemean Odes'' 13.155; [[Hesychius of Miletus|Hesychius]] ''s.v.''</ref> and the Aeginetans regarded him as the tutelary deity of their island and celebrated the [[Aeacea]] in his honor.<ref>Pindar, ''Nemean Odes'' 8.22</ref>

In ''[[The Frogs]]'' (405 BC) by [[Aristophanes]], [[Dionysus]] descends to Hades and proclaims himself to be [[Heracles]]. Aeacus, lamenting the fact that Heracles had stolen [[Cerberus]], sentences Dionysus to [[Acheron]] to be tormented by the hounds of [[Cocytus]], the [[Echidna (mythology)|Echidna]], the Tartesian eel, and Tithrasian Gorgons.