Aeolus, << EE uh luhs, >> was the keeper of the winds in Greek mythology. Aeolus lived on a floating island, which scholars believe was one of the Aeolian Islands near Sicily. These islands were named for him. Aeolus kept the winds confined in a cave on the island and released them whenever he wished.
Aeolus plays an important part in two great epic poems, the Odyssey and the Aeneid. In the Odyssey, Aeolus gives the Greek hero Odysseus (Ulysses in Latin) a leather bag containing the winds that could prevent Odysseus from sailing home. Odysseus’s sailors open the bag because they mistakenly believe that it contains treasure. The winds escape from the open bag and blow Odysseus’s ship off its course. At the beginning of the Aeneid, the goddess Juno, an enemy of the Trojan hero Aeneas, persuades Aeolus to release winds that cause a storm. The storm then scatters Aeneas’s fleet.
