Hellen (bottom, centre-right), being presented with the twins Aeolus andBoeotus by a shepherd, in a depiction of the story ofMelanippe fromEuripides' lost playMelanippe Wise, on anApulianvolute krater, dating from the late fourth century BC.[1]
Aeolus was one of the central figures in the myths that were invented about the origins of the Greek people. He was the grandson ofDeucalion the son ofPrometheus, and the survivor of a great primordial flood, that covered much, if not all, of Greece (and the rest of the world, in later accounts). From Deucalion and his wifePyrrha, sprang a new race of people, which repopulated Central Greece and the westernPeloponnese. Deucalion and Pyrrha had a sonHellen, the eponym of theHellenes, another name for the Greeks.[4]
From Hellen came the eponyms of the four major tribes of the Greek people. According to the HesiodicCatalogue of Women, Hellen had three sons:Dorus,Xuthus, and Aeolus. Dorus was the eponym of theDorians, andXuthus's sonsAchaeus andIon were, respectively, the eponyms of theAcheaens andIonians. However, it was from Hellen's third son Aeolus, the eponym of theAeolians, that most if not all, of the heroes and heroines of the Deucalionids sprang.[5]
The survivingCatalogue fragments do not contain the name of Aeolus' mother, but according to a scholion onPlato'sSymposium citingHellanicus (fl. late fifth century BC), her name was Othreis (Ὀθρηίς),[6] while according to Apollodorus she was a nymph named Orseis (Ὀρσηίς).[7]M. L. West says that both Othreis and Orseis are "probably" corruptions of Othyis (Ὀθρυίς), a nymph ofMount Othrys.[8]
According toApollodorus, Aeolus marriedEnarete, the daughter ofDeimachus, and together they had seven sons and five daughters. Apollodorus lists the sons asCretheus,Sisyphus,Athamas,Salmoneus, Deion,Magnes, andPerieres, and the daughters asCanace,Alcyone,Pisidice,Calyce, andPerimede.[9] The HesiodicCatalogue also listed seven sons and five daughters, however only the names Cretheus, Athamas, Sisyphus, Salmoneus, Perieres, Pisidice, Alcyone, and Perimede are preserved.[10] Apollodorus's "Deion", "Calyce" and "Canace" would fit well into the missing gaps in the papyrus that preserves this part of theCatalogue, however, his "Magnes" conflicts with theCatalogues' use of that name elsewhere.[11] Hellanicus apparently also had Aeolus as the father of Salmoneus byIphis.[6]
Other sources give other children by other mothers. The tragic playwright Euripides made Melanippe a daughter of Aeolus and Hippe (or Hippo), daughter of theCentaurCheiron.[12] According to the Roman mythographerHyginus, theMacareus who had a tragic love affair with his sister Canace, was the son of "Aeolus son of Hellen".[13] Xuthus, Aeolus' brother according to the HesiodicCatalogue, and Apollodorus, was also said to be his son.[14] Others who were sometimes said to have had Aeolus as a father include:Macedon,[15]Minyas,[16] Mimas,[17]Cercaphus,[18]Aethlius,[19]Ceyx,[20]Arne,[21]Antiope,[22]Tanagra,[23]Iope[24] andTritogeneia.[25]
Apart from being the progenitor of many important descendants, Aeolus himself was of little mythological note.[73] However he does play a role in one myth involvingHippe ('Mare'), the daughter of theCentaurCheiron. Aeolus seduced Hippe, producing a daughter Melanippe, about whom the tragic playwrightEuripides wrote two lost plays. The story, as it apparently appeared in Euripides' plays, is preserved in the astronomical literature ofEratosthenes andHyginus. According to these sources, after becoming pregnant with Aeolus' child, Hippe fled into the mountains to escape the discovery of her pregnancy by her father Cheiron. When she was about to give birth and be discovered by her father, who had arrived in search of her, Hippe prayed to the gods to be made unrecognizable, and she was transformed into a horse and placed among the stars, becoming the constellation "the Horse" (modernPegasus).[74]
The RomansOvid, and Hyginus, tell of the tragic love affair between Aeolus' son Macareus and his daughter Canace.[75] According to Hyginus, after the incest Macareus killed himself, and Aeolus killed Canace. While, according toOvid, Aeolus threw out Canace's new born baby as "prey to dogs and hungry birds", and gave Canace a sword and commanded her to kill herself with it.[76]
This Aeolus was sometimes confused (or identified) with theAeolus who is the keeper of the winds encountered byOdysseus inHomer'sOdyssey.[77] The confusion perhaps first occurs in Euripides' lost tragedyAeolus, where, although clearly based on theOdyssey's Aeolus, Euripides' Aeolus is, like Aeolus the son of Hellen, the father of a daughter Canace, and if the two are not identified, then they seem, at least, to be related.[78] Although in theOdyssey, that Aeolus, was the son ofHippotes,[79]Hyginus, describes the Aeolus encountered by Odysseus as "Aeolus, son of Hellen, to whom control of the winds had been given by Jove [the Roman equivalent of Zeus]".[80]Ovid has Alcyone, as well as the tragic lovers Canace and Macareus, being children of an Aeolus who was the ruler of the winds, and calls Alcyone "Hippotades", ie. a descendant of Hippotes.[81]
^According to Kerényi, p. 206, the name means both "the mobile" and "the many coloured", whileRose, s.v. Aeolus 1 associates the name, "perhaps by derivation", with "the changeable".
^Hard 2004, pp.401,404–405; Gantz, p. 167;Hesiod frr. 9, 10.20–23 Most (Most, pp. 48, 49, 52, 53); Hesiod fr. 4 Evelyn-White (Evelyn-White,pp. 156, 157)];Apollodorus,1.7.3. Ion is probably the missing name of the second child of Xuthus given in Hesiod fr 10a.23, see Gantz, p. 167; Most p. 53.
^Hard 2004,p. 401; Grimal,s.v. Aeolus;Apollodorus,1.7.3. For a comprehensive discussion of the descendants of Aeolus see Hard,pp. 409–436, along with genealogical tables pp. 703–707; Gantz, pp. 167–183.
^Gantz, pp. 167–169;Hesiod frr. 10, 12 Most (Most, pp. 52, 53, 58–61).
^Gantz, pp. 167, 182;Hesiod fr. 7 Most (Most, pp. 48, 49). Gantz, p 182, discusses the evidence for "Minyas" as the name of the seventh son.
^Hard 2004, pp.409–410; Gantz, pp. 168, 734;Euripides,Melanippe Wise test. i, fr. 481 (Collard and Cropp, pp. 572, 573, 578, 579).
^Hyginus,Fabulae238,242.Euripides in his lost playAeolus apparently made Macareus the youngest son of "Aeolus, who had mastery of the winds from the gods and lived on the islands off Etruria" (Euripides,Aeolus test. ii (Collard and Cropp, pp. 16, 17)); compare withPlutarch,Parallela minora28, which says that Macareus was the youngest son of "Aeolus, king of the Etruscans", andPausanias,10.38.4, which says that theLocrian city ofAmphissa was said to have derived its name from "Amphissa, daughter of Macar, son of Aeolus".
^Smith,s.v. Trigoneia: "a daughter of Aeolus, and the wife of Minyas, or according to others, the mother of Minyas by Poseidon", citing Tzetzes on Lycophron 873; Scholia onPindar,Pythian 4.120.
^abThe letters following a check mark are an abbreviation of the mother's name, the absence of a name means that no mother is mentioned in the corresponding source.
^Hard 2004,p. 409, describes him as "little more than a cipher" and "an eponym and genealogical link rather than a hero of myth". And, in fact, Gantz, p. 167, describes all the early descendants of Deucalion and Pyrrha as "primarily eponymous ancestors or intermediate place-holders rather than actors in any real narratives."
^Gantz, p. 169;Euripides fr. 14 (Collard and Cropp, pp. 16, 17) [=Strabo8.3.32]; Euripidesfr. 14 (Nauck, p. 366) (not in Collard and Cropp). For a discussion of the play along with the surviving testimonies and fragments see Collar and Cropp, pp. 31.
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