[1][2] According to Pausanias, Aetolus' mother was called Asterodia, Chromia, or Hyperippe.
[5] In one account, Aetolus was the son of Protogenia by Zeus and the brother of Aethlius,[6] Opus[7] and possibly Dorus.
[10] Aetolus' father compelled him and his two brothers Paeon and Epeius to decide by a contest at Olympia as to which of them was to succeed him in his kingdom of Elis.
Epeius gained the victory, and occupied the throne after his father, and on his demise he was succeeded by Aetolus.
[11][12] After leaving Peloponnesus, he went to the country of the Curetes, between the Achelous and the Corinthian gulf, where he slew Dorus, Laodocus, and Polypoetes, the sons of Apollo and Phthia, and gave to the country the name of Aetolia.