[2] Aeëtes was the son of Sun god Helios and the Oceanid Perseis, brother of Circe, Perses and Pasiphaë, and father of Medea, Chalciope and Absyrtus.

His consort was either (1) Idyia, the youngest daughter of Oceanus,[3] (2) Asterodeia, a Caucasian Oceanid,[4] (3) the Nereid Neaera,[5][6] (4) Clytia,[7] (5) Ipsia[8] or Eurylyte.

Later, Aeëtes gave his kingdom to Bounos, a son of Hermes and Alkidameia, and went to Colchis, a country in western Caucasus.

Ino hatched a devious plot to get rid of the twins, roasting all the town's crop seeds so they would not grow.

In gratitude, Phrixus gave the king the golden fleece of the ram, which Aeëtes hung on a tree in his kingdom.

Aeëtes pursued them in his own ship as they fled, but Medea distracted her father by killing and dismembering her brother, Absyrtus, and throwing pieces of his cadaver overboard.

His name recurs in historical narratives of Classical authors who claim the enduring legacy of Aeëtes in Colchis.

[16] The name of Aeëtes was borne by a historical Colchian, a 6th-century nobleman in Lazica in the times of Lazic War known from Agathias's account.