Aeolus – מילון אנגלי-אנגלי
Aeolus
n.
(Greek Mythology) god of the winds
Aeolus
Aeolus (; ,
Aiolos ,
Modern Greek: ), a name shared by three mythical characters, was the ruler of the winds in
Greek mythology. These three personages are often difficult to tell apart, and even the ancient mythographers appear to have been perplexed about which Aeolus was which.
Diodorus Siculus made an attempt to define each of these three (although it is clear that he also became muddled), and his opinion is followed here. Briefly, the first Aeolus was a son of
Hellen and
eponymous founder of the Aeolian race; the second was a son of
Poseidon, who led a colony to islands in the
Tyrrhenian Sea; and the third Aeolus was a son of
Hippotes who is mentioned in
Odyssey and the
Aeneid as the Keeper of the
Winds. All three men named Aeolus appear to be connected genealogically, although the precise relationship, especially regarding the second and third Aeolus, is often ambiguous.
Aeolus
Noun
1. god of the winds in ancient mythology
(hypernym) Greek deity
Aeolus
(n.)
The god of the winds.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), edited by Noah Porter.
About
Aeolus
[Greek] Custodian of the four winds. A minor deity, he is the son of a king called Hippotes, and lived on one of the rocky Lipara islands, close to Sicily. In the caves on this island were imprisoned the winds, and Aeolos, directed by the higher gods, let out these winds as soft breezes, gales, or whatever the higher gods wished. Being visited by the Greek hero Odysseus, Aeolos received him favorably, and on the hero's departure presented Odysseus with a bag containing all the adverse winds, so that his friend might reach Ithaca with a fair wind. Odysseus did as Aeolos bid, but in sight of his homeland, having been untroubled by foul weather, he fell asleep and his men, curious, opened the bag, thus releasing all the fierce winds, which blew their ship far off course (Odyssey X, 2; Vigil I, 52). Aeolus is also the name of the legendary ancestor of the Aeolians.
