Aegeus was the Athenian king who watched for Theseus’s returning ship in Greek mythology. He was Theseus’s father and had arranged the sail signal that was meant to reveal whether the expedition to Crete had succeeded.
Aegeus told Theseus to replace the ship’s black sail with a white one if he survived. Theseus killed the Minotaur and escaped the Labyrinth, but the story says the black sail remained in place. When Aegeus saw it, he concluded that his son was dead and threw himself into the sea.
The myth links Aegeus’s death with the naming of the Aegean Sea. Theseus then inherited the throne of Athens and became one of the city’s most important legendary rulers.
Aegeus is sometimes confused with Minos, the Cretan king who controlled the tribute, or with Theseus himself. They occupy different roles: Aegeus is the anxious father and Athenian king, while Minos is the ruler of Crete and Theseus is the returning hero.