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Region of central Greece north of the gulf of Calydon (area 2).
Ætolia owes its name to the mythological hero Ætolus, a son of the Æolian Endymion, king of Elis. Endymion had three sons, Pæon, Epeius and Ætolus. In order to decide which one would succeed him, he organized a race between them in Olympia. Epeius won and became king of Elis, and Pæon fled to Macedon, while Ætolus stayed around and eventually succeeded his brother at his death. But later, Ætolus killed Apis, a son of Phoroneus (the first man according to Peloponnesian legends) who was then king of all Peloponnese but acted as a tyrant. As a result, Ætolus had to flee and he moved across the gulf of Corinth, where he was greeted by the local kings, Dorus (the eponym of the Dorians, who, in other traditions, is presented as one of the sons of Hellen and a grandson of Deucalion), Laodocus and Polypoetes, the three sons of Apollo and Phthia (the eponym of the region of Phthia). But Ætolus killed the three of them, expelled local residents, the Couretes, and reigned over the country, that took his name. He had two sons, Pleuron and Calydon, who gave their names to two cities of Ætolia.