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AIOLOS_

by Reylari Socrates

Aeolus_aka Aiolos: A son of Posidon, and Lord of the Winds.  He figures in the Odyssey, where Odysseus encounters him and is given a bag containing all of the winds (except the one which blows toward Ithacha).  Odysseus sailors open it however and raise a storm.

AIOLOS was the divine custodian, a minor diety. of the Storm-Winds (Anemoi). He kept these violent sons of Typhoeus locked away inside his island of Aiolia releasing them on the command of the gods to wreak their havoc upon the world. He also had at his command the four Wind-Gods - Boreas, Zephyros, Notos & Euros.

It is also said that as custodian of the Winds he was a minor god. As the son of a king called Hippotes he lived on one of the rocky Lipara islands close to Sicily. There the winds were kept imprisioned in a the caves.

Aeolus directed by the higher gods releases the winds as breezes, gales, or whatever the higher gods wished.

Tower of the 8 Winds
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by Andronikas

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Eight Wind-Gods are depicted on the C1st BC Tower of the Winds in Athens. They are:
BOREAS The god of the North-Wind who is depicted with shaggy hair and beard, with a billowing cloak and a conch shell in his hands;
KAIKIAS The god of the North-East Wind who is carved as a bearded man with a shield full of hail-stones;
APELIOTES The god of the East Wind who is shown cleanshaven and holding a cloak full of fruit and grain;
EUROS The god of the South-East Wind who is carved with beard and holding a heavy cloak;
NOTOS The god of the South Wind who is depicted pouring a vase of water;
LIPS The God of the South-West Wind who is shown holding the stern of a ship;
ZEPHYROS God of the West-Wind who is depicted as a beardless youth scattering flowers from his mantle;
and SKIRON The god of the North-West who is carved as a bearded man tilting a cauldron to signify the onset of winter.

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