Must be often said
This gentleman here is Aeolus. Today's prompt on Sketching Every Day is Wind Chimes. Well, I gotta be honest, that left my boat unfloated and my candle unlit. Still, I did enjoy sketching the statues as part of my stamp design yesterday, so my imagination did start working on how I could combine sketching a statue with the general idea of wind. This was the best I could come up with.
Aeolus is an interesting character. At some times he is depicted as a man and at other times as a deity- at some times a personification of wind, and at others as the keeper of the winds. He's probably most well known for featuring in Homer's Odyssey. In this he is a man, the keeper of the winds. On his way home from the Trojan War, Odysseus stopped off on the isle of Aeolia (in the Lipari - or Aeolian - Islands off the coast of Italy), after his escape from Polyphemus the Cyclops. After being blinded, Polyphemus cursed Odysseus and begged his father Poseidon, the God of the Sea, for revenge. Poseidon was told by Zeus , King of the Gods, that he may not kill Odysseus, but decreed that Odysseus would not be able to return home until all of his companions were dead, and ten years had passed.
Odysseus stayed for a month in Aeolia, at the end of which Aeolus promised him a west wind to carry him home to Ithaca, and tied up all the other winds in a bag which he gave to Odysseus. This is presumably the bag that the statue is holding. After several days they come in sight of Ithaca. Odysseus, who has vigilantly guarded the bag night and day, falls asleep, and the inquisitive crew open the bag thinking it may contain gifts and valuables. The winds let loose blow the ship all the way back to Aeolia. Seeing that Odysseus was obviously not favoured by the Gods, Aeolus refused to provide any further help. Which is all to the good, since the Odyssey would have been a much shorter poem otherwise.
