Metamorphoses Book 7: Minos, Aeacus, The Plague at Ageina, The Myrmidons

Minos threatened war against Athens in retribution for his son's death. He had made alliances with many armies, but the army of Aegina didn't join his forces because the king, Aeacus was allied with Athens. So as Minos' Cretan ships were leaving Aegina, Cephalus came to seek help for Athens. Aeacus agreed.

Cephalus asks why there are so many young men in Aegina and most of the men he'd known there years before were missing. Aeacus told him of the plague that Juno had sent on the island because it was named for her rival, Aegina, Aeacus' mother by Jove. In despair at the destruction the plague had reeked on the city's population, Aeacus had asked Jove for help. He said, "'Grant, / Thous best of sires, so many citizens / To me and stock again my empty walls!'" Book 7 -- Minos, Aeacus, The Plague at Aegina, and The Myrmidons, line 26-8 Standing beneath an oak, Jove's sacred tree, he saw a line of ants and wished that their great number could repopulate his city. The tree began to shake and bend. In a dream that night, the ants turned to men, and when Aeacus awoke, the dream had come true.

After that story, Cephalus and his men went to bed.