Aeolus. The mortal son of the god Hippotes, Aeolus lived on the island of Aeolia with his intermarried sons and daughters. According to Homer, he had the power to control the winds by tying them up. In the Odyssey, Aeolus tried unsuccessfully to ensure a calm voyage for Odysseus by giving him the storm winds tied up in a goatskin bag, which Odysseus’s men unwittingly unleashed. Virgil describes Aeolus as a minor deity who imprisoned the winds in a cave on Aeolia; at Juno’s behest, he loosed them, creating the storm that drove Aeneas to the coast of Libya. Aeolus is often seen in the visual arts as a personification of the element Air or of Winter. His daughters, the Aeolides, became the islands that bear their name. The aeolian harp, an instrument played by the wind, takes its name from Aeolus. Classical Sources. Homer, Odyssey 10.1—77. Virgil, Aeneid 1.50-86. Ovid, Metamorphoses i.268ff., n.748ff., i4.223ff. Apollodorus, Biblioteca E.7.10—11. See also Aeneas, Storm; Gods, as Elements, as Seasons; Odysseus.