General Notes

[FAMILY.FTW]

AEGIALE (2) was the mother of Alcyone by Aeolus, according to some, although Alcyone's mother is usually given as Enarete.

CALYCE was a daughter of Aeolus and Enarete. Her family tree produced some of the greatest heroes and heroines in mythology, since her brothers were Cretheus, Sisyphus, Athamas, Salmoneus, Deion, Magnes, Perieres, and Macareus. She did well in her own right. She married Aethlius, son of Zeus and Protogeneia and grandson of Deucalion. By him she became the mother of the famous Endymion, who was not only the lover of the moon goddess Selene but also king of Elis and ancestor of the Aetolians, Epeians, and Paeonians. By report, she had 50 half-immortal granddaughters by the union of Selene with her sleeping son, but this phenomenon is discussed elsewhere. [Apollodorus 1.7.2,3.5; Pausanias 5.1.2,8.1, 10.31.2.]

MEROPE was one of the Pleiades. In the constellation of the Pleiades she is the seventh and least visible star because she was ashamed of having had intercourse with a mortal man. This mortal was Sisyphus, and Merope should have been ashamed not so much that he was mortal but because of the type of mortal he was. He was the son of Aeolus and Enarete, and brother of Cretheus, Athamas, Salmoneus, Deion, Magnes, Perieres, and Macareus. He eventually reigned in Corinth, since Medea gave him the sovereignty when she left. He promoted commerce and helped make the city important. He was of bad character however, as Merope was soon to discover. She bore him Glaucus, Ornytion, Thersander, and Halmus. Sisyphus meanwhile had twin sons by his niece Tyro, but she killed them at their birth. Of Merope's sons we know Glaucus best, not only as the father of Bellerophon but also as the breeder of flesh-eating mares. When Sisyphus was on his deathbed, he begged Merope not to bury him. She complied, and when he got to the underworld he complained that he was neglected and needed to return to the upper world to punish his wife. Once there he refused to return, and Hermes, transporter of the dead, had to carry him back by force. [Apollodorus 1.9.3,3.10.1; Ovid, Fasti 4.175; Homer, Iliad 6.153; Eustathius on Homer's Iliad 1155; Pausanias 2.4.3, 6.20.9, 9.34.5; Hyginus, Fables 60.]