Who Is Aeolus (Aiolos)?
The keeper who sealed the winds in a bag
Aeolus is the keeper of the winds, entrusted by Zeus with calming and rousing them. The son of Hippotes, he lives on Aeolia, a floating island, in a hall ringed by a bronze wall, together with his six sons and six daughters.
In this story, he hosts Odysseus for a month, listening to tales of Troy, and sends him off with all the troublesome winds sealed in an ox-hide bag. Carried by the west wind alone, the ships come within sight of Ithaca on the tenth day. But while Odysseus sleeps, his men open the bag, and a storm blows them all the way back to the island. When Odysseus asks for help again, Aeolus turns him away, saying he cannot help a man the gods hate.
In the original poem he is a mortal favored by the gods, but in later times he came to be treated as the god of the winds.
