Æolus

Family: Gods · Role: keeper of the winds · First appears: Fable 8

In fable.8, Æolus is the keeper of the winds whose caverns hold the North Wind and the blasts that disperse the clouds. Jupiter uses those caverns to imprison North Wind before sending out South Wind: “At once he shuts the North Wind in the caverns of Æolus.”

In fable.44, Æolus is named as the parent of Sisyphus and Athamas, and in fable.47 he is identified as the son of Jupiter and Acesta, the daughter of Hippotas. He is also the father of Canace, Cephalus, Halcyone, and Misenus; Cephalus is additionally called his grandson. Halcyone is connected with Ceyx through Æolus’s family line, while Æolus is identified as a descendant of Hippotas.

In fable.97, Æolus restrains the winds and keeps the sea calm for his descendants, making the passage safe. In fable.105, he rules the Etrurian seas and gives Ulysses winds sealed in a leather bag, “a wondrous gift.”

Relationship record

Fable 8

with North Wind (The North Wind is associated with Æolus's caverns.) “At once he shuts the North Wind in the caverns of Æolus, and {all} those blasts which dispel the clouds drawn over {the Earth}; and {then} he sends forth the South Wind.”

Fable 44

child: Sisyphus “Sisyphus, the son of Æolus, was a daring robber, who infested Attica.”
child: Athamas “Immediately the son of Æolus, filled with rage, cries out, in the midst of his palace, ‘Ho! companions, spread your nets in this wood; for here a lioness was just now beheld by me with two young ones.’”

Fable 47

parent: Acesta “Æolus, the God of the Winds, was the son of Jupiter, by Acesta, the daughter of Hippotas.”
parent: Jupiter “Æolus, the God of the Winds, was the son of Jupiter, by Acesta, the daughter of Hippotas.”

Fable 55

child: Canace “This was Canace, or Arne, the daughter of Æolus, whom Neptune seduced under the form of a bull.”

Fable 61

child: Cephalus “Of these, Cephalus,[73] the son of Æolus, was blessed with thee, Procris, for his wife;”
younger kin: Cephalus “He was the son of Deioneus, and the grandson of Æolus.”

Fable 97

child: Halcyone “By such words and the tears of the daughter of Æolus, is her husband, son of the {Morning} Star, {much} affected;”
with Ceyx (Aeolus is Halcyone's father and Ceyx's father-in-law.) “And let not any deceitful assurance influence thy mind, that the grandson of Hippotas[35] is thy father-in-law;”
elder kin: Hippotas (Hippotas is Æolus's grandfather.) “that the grandson of Hippotas[35] is thy father-in-law;”

Fable 104

child: Misenus “Misenus, the trumpeter, was said to have been the son of Æolus.”

Fable 105

with Ulysses (Æolus supplied Ulysses with the winds in a hide.) “Macareus afterwards tells him how Ulysses had received winds from Æolus in a hide, and by that means had a prosperous voyage;”
with Hippotas (interaction) “Æolus, the grandson of Hippotas, who confines the winds in their prison”

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Extracted from the original text of The Metamorphoses of Ovid. Made with Rho MD.