Aeolus. Under the name of Aeolus both Greeks and Romans worshiped a god and ruler of winds and storms. He was called the son of Jupiter, sometimes of Neptune, and by others, of Hippotes, an ancient lord of the Lipari Isles. From Jupiter he received his authority over the winds, which had previously been formed into mythical persons, and were known by the names Zephyrus, Boreas, Notus, and Eurus, and were afterwards considered the servants of Aeolus. He held them imprisoned in a cave of an island in the Mediterranean Sea, and let them loose only to further his own designs or those of others, in awakening storms, hurricanes, and floods. He is usually described by the poets as virtuous, upright, and friendly to strangers. He is represented as a vigorous man supporting himself in the air by wings, and blowing into a shell trumpet like a Triton, while his short mantle is waving in the wind.
