[[Image:Aeolus1.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Aeolus]]

'''Aeolus''' ({{polytonic|Αἴολος}}), [[Latin]]ized as '''Aeolus''', '''Eolus''', '''Aeolos''', '''Æolus''', or '''Aiolus''', was the ruler of the winds in [[Greek Mythology]]. In fact this name was shared by three mythic characters. 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]] made an attempt to define each of these three (although it is clear he also became muddled), and his opinion is followed here.<ref name="dgrbm">{{Citation
| last = Schmitz
| first = Leonhard
| author-link =
| contribution = Aeolus (1), (2) and (3)
| editor-last = Smith
| editor-first = William
| title = [[Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology]]
| volume = 1
| pages = 35
| publisher =
| place =
| year = 1867
| contribution-url = http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0044.html }}</ref> Briefly, the first Aeolus was a son of [[Hellen]] and founder of the Aeolian race; the second was a son of [[Poseidon]], who led a colony to the [[Tyrrhenian Sea]]; and the third Aeolus was a son of [[Hippotes]] who is mentioned in the ''[[Odyssey]]'' as Keeper of the [[Anemoi|Winds]] who gives Odysseus a bag full of the captured winds so he could sail easily home to [[Ithaca]]. All three men named Aeolus appear to be connected genealogically, although the precise relationship is often ambiguous. The traditions regarding the second and third Aeolus are especially entangled.
[[Image:Yakovlev Eoles.jpg|left|thumb|''Aeolus'' by [[Alexandre Jacovleff]] ]]
==Aeolus (son of Hellen)==
This '''Æolus''' was son of [[Hellen]] and the [[nymph]] [[Orseis]], and a brother of [[Dorus]], [[Xuthus]] and [[Amphictyon]]. He is described as the ruler of [[Aeolia]] (later called [[Thessaly]]) and held to be the founder of the [[Aeolic]] branch of the Greek nation. Æolus married [[Enarete]], daughter of Deimachus (otherwise unknown). Æolus and Enarete had many children, although the precise number and identities of these children vary from author to author in the ancient sources.<ref>''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheca]]'' i. 7. §3</ref><ref>Schol. ''ad Pind. Pyth.'' iv. 190</ref> The great extent of country which this race occupied, and the desire of each part of it to trace its origin to some descend­ant of Aeolus, probably gave rise to the varying accounts about the number of his children. Some scholars content the most ancient and genuine story knew only of four sons of Aeolus: [[Sisyphus]], [[Athamas]], [[Cretheus]], and [[Salmoneus]], as the representatives of the four main branches of the Aeolic race.<ref name="dgrbm"/> Other sons included [[Deioneus]], [[Perieres]], [[Cercaphas]] and perhaps [[Magnes (mythology)|Magnes]] (usually regarded as a brother of [[Makednos|Macedon]]) and [[Aethlius]]. Another son is named Mimas, who provides a link to the third Æolus in a genealogy that seems very contrived. [[Calyce (mythology)|Calyce]], [[Peisidice]], [[Perimele]] and [[Alcyone]] were counted among the daughters of Æolus and [[Enarete]].<ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]] [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022&layout=&loc=1.7.3 i. 7. ~ 3])</ref> This Æolus also had an illegitimate daughter named [[Arne (mythology)|Arne]], begotten on [[Melanippe]], daughter of the Centaur [[Cheiron]]. This Arne became the mother of the second Æolus, by the god [[Poseidon]]. This Æolus is often described as god of Wind.

==Æolus (son of Poseidon)==
This '''Æolus''' was a son of Poseidon by [[Arne (mythology)|Arne]], daughter of Æolus. He had a twin brother named [[Boeotus]]. Arne confessed to her father that she was with child by the god Poseidon; her father, however, did not believe her, and handed her over to a man named [[Metapontus]], King of [[Icaria]]. When Bœotus and Æo­lus were born, they were raised by Meta­pontus; but their stepmother ([[Autolyte]], wife of Metapontus) quarrelled with their mother Arne, prompting Bœotus and Æolus to kill Autolyte and flee from Icaria. Bœotus (accompanied by Arne) went to southern Thessaly, and founded [[Boeotia]]; but Æolus went to a group of islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea, which received from him the name of the [[Aeolian Islands]]; accord­ing to some accounts this Æolus founded the town of [[Lipara]]. Although his home has been traditionally identified as one of the Æolian Islands (there is little consensus as to which), near [[Sicily]], an alternative location has been suggested at [[Gramvousa]] off the northwest coast of [[Crete]]. Æolus had six sons and six daughters, and the family lived happily together - that is until the day Æolus learned that one of his sons, named [[Macareus]], had committed incest with his sister [[Canace]].<ref>[[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''Fabulae'' 238, 242</ref> Horrified, Æolus expelled Macareus and threw the child borne of this incestuous union to the dogs,<ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Heroides]]'' 11</ref> and sent his daughter a sword by which she was to kill herself.<ref>Comp. Plut. ''Parallel'', p. 312</ref> (Other accounts claim that the child, a daughter named [[Amphissa]], was rescued and later beloved by [[Apollo]].)

==Æolus (son of Hippotes)==
This '''Æolus''' is most frequently conflated with Æolus, the son of Poseidon. It is difficult to delineate this Æolus from the second Æolus, as their identities seem to have been merged by many ancient writers. The father of this third Æolus is given as Mimas, a son of the first Æolus (son of Hellen). According to some accounts, Mimas married the same Melanippe who was the mother of Arne. This Æolus lived on the floating island of [[Aeolia]] and was visited by [[Odysseus]] and his crew in the ''[[Odyssey]].'' He gave hospitality for a month and provided for a west wind to carry them home. Unfortunately he also provided a gift of a bag containing each of the four winds, which Odysseus's crew members opened just before their home was reached. They were blown back to [[Aeolia]], where Æolus refused to provide any further help.<ref>[[Homer]], ''[[Odyssey]]'' x, 2</ref> This Æolus was perceived by later authors (i.e., after Homer) as a god, rather than as a mortal and simple Keeper of the Winds (as in the ''Odyssey'').

In the [[Aeneid]] by [[Virgil]], [[Juno (mythology)|Juno]] offers Aeolus the nymph [[Deiopea]] as a wife if he will release his winds upon the fleet of [[Aeneas]].<ref>[[Virgil]], ''[[Aeneid]]'' i. 71-75</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

===Other sources===
[http://www.theoi.com/Titan/Aiolos.html Aiolos at Theoi.com] <br>
[http://www.dl.ket.org/latin1/mythology/1deities/gods/lesser/aeolus.htm The lesser deities of Greek Mythology]

{{Characters in the Odyssey}}

[[Category:Greek gods]]
[[Category:Sky and weather gods]]
[[Category:Characters in the Odyssey]]
[[Category:Characters in the Aeneid]]
[[Category:Mythological kings]]
[[Category:Offspring of Poseidon]]

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