Aeolus: Greek Keeper of the Winds

The Story of Aeolus

Aeolus was the keeper of the winds. In Homer's Odyssey, he is the son of Hippotes, a mortal favored by the gods, and he lives on Aeolia, a floating island surrounded by a wall of bronze. He lived there with his wife and their six sons and six daughters.

Zeus had made Aeolus the master of the winds, giving him the power to calm them or set them loose. He kept the winds shut away and released them at the gods' command. Ancient writers sometimes mixed him up with other men named Aeolus, including the ancestor of the Aeolian Greeks.

When Odysseus landed on Aeolia on his way home from Troy, Aeolus welcomed him warmly and hosted him for a month. As a parting gift, he gave Odysseus a leather bag tied with silver thread, holding all the storm winds. Only the gentle west wind was left free, to carry the ships home to Ithaca.

For nine days they sailed, and Ithaca came into sight. But while Odysseus slept, his curious crew opened the bag, thinking it held treasure, and the winds burst out and blew them all the way back to Aeolia. This time Aeolus refused to help, believing Odysseus must be hated by the gods.

In Virgil's Aeneid, Juno offered Aeolus a beautiful nymph as his bride if he would destroy the Trojan fleet. He struck the mountain where the winds were kept, and they rushed out to raise a terrible storm. The Aeolian Islands near Sicily are named after him, and so is the Aeolian harp, an instrument played by the wind.