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Aeolus |
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Aeolus (ē`ələs), in Greek mythology. 1 The wind god. He lived on the island of Aeolia, where he kept the winds in a cave. 2 Son of Hellen Hellen (hĕl`ən, –ēn), in Greek mythology, ancestor of the Hellenes, or Greeks; son of Deucalion and Pyrrha. AeolusGreek god of the winds. In the Odyssey Homer represents Aeolus as the mortal ruler of the floating island of Aeolia. He gives Odysseus a favourable wind for his voyage and a bag in which the unfavourable winds are confined, but Odysseus's careless companions open the bag, releasing the winds and driving their ship back to shore. Later writers depicted Aeolus as a minor god rather than a human being. The Aeolian harp is named for him. Aeolus god of the winds. [Gk. Myth.: Zimmerman, 9] See : Air Aeolus steward of winds; gives bag of winds to Odysseus. [Gk. Myth: Kravitz, 10; Gk. Lit.: Odyssey] See : Wind
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Thence we went on to the Aeolian island where lives Aeolus son of Hippotas, dear to the immortal gods. Hellen had three sons, Dorus, Xuthus, and Aeolus, parents of the Dorian, Ionic and Aeolian races, and the offspring of these was then detailed. But in each of these stout bags, King Aeolus, the ruler of the winds, had tied up a tempest, and had given it to Ulysses to keep in order that he might be sure of a favorable passage homeward to Ithaca; and when the strings were loosened, forth rushed the whistling blasts, like air out of a blown bladder, whitening the sea with foam, and scattering the vessels nobody could tell whither. |
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