Aegimius was an ancestor of the Dorians, one of their first kings and lawgivers when they were inhabiting the northern parts of Thessaly.
History[]
Aegimius was the son of Dorus, the founder of the Dorian people. After his fathers death, he became the new ruler of the Dorians, and asked Heracles for help in a war against the Lapiths. In gratitude for his assistance, he offered Heracles one-third of his kingdom. The Lapiths were conquered, but Heracles did not take for himself the territory promised to him by Aegimius, and left it in trust to the king who was to preserve it for the descendants of Heracles, the Heracleidae. Heracles chose his son Hyllas to inherit this promised land, and Aegimius also chose to adopt the boy.
Aegimius had two sons, Dymas and Pamphylus, who migrated to the Peloponnese and were regarded as the ancestors of two branches of the Doric race, the Dymanes and the Pamphylians of Anatolia.
Years later, the sons of Hyllas came to Aegimius, demanding the lands he had promised Heracles and his descendants. They named this kingdom the Hylleans, after Hyllas.