Origin

Egaeus grew up a depressed child and fearful of the world.  This despite the fact that he grew up in a extremely affluent family and home.  His family was known to be "a race of visionaries".  He grew up in the home/mansion with his cousin Berenice.  Berenice was the oppisite of Egaeus.  She was a happy child and did not have the problem with depression that he had.  Eventually the two would marry despite Egaeus' admission that he did not love her.
 
Shortly after the marriage Berenice became very ill.  She became very emaciated due to the illness.  It is at this time that Egaeus starts to have weird blackout/thoughts/dreams/wanderings.  His attention focuses on his wife's teeth.  Evetually Berenice supposedly dies seized by epilepsy one morning.  She is eventually buried.  A very short time after her burial Egaeus falls asleep only to be woken by a servant with the knowledge of doing some task in his mind.  Berenice had been buried alive and someone had removed all her teeth.  Egaeus realized he was covered in mud and blood and when he gets up he knocks over a box filled with her 32 teeth.

Creation

Egaeus is the narrator in the short story Berenice by Edgar Allan Poe.  The story is a mystery after it is read because Egaeus' being an unreliable narrator do to his being mad and prone to blacking outs.  He is woken at the end of the story only to find he has a box containing Berenice's teeth.