A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

AEOLUS.
Sisyphus (Ov. Met. xiii. 26; Hom. II. vi. 154),
Cretheus (Hom. Od. xi. 237), locastus (Tzetz. ad
Lycophr. 732); and to his grandsons, as Cephalus
(Ov. Met. vi. 621), Odysseus (Virg. Aen. vi. 529),
and Phryxus. (Val. Flace. i. 286.) Aeolis is the
patronymic of the female descendants of Aeolus,
and is given to his daughters Canace and Alcyone.
(Ov. Met. xi. 573; Heroid. xi. 5.) [L. S.]
AE'OLUS (A'ohos). In the mythical history
of Greece there are three personages of this name,
who are spoken of by ancient writers as connected
with one another, but this connexion is so confused, that it is impossible to gain a clear view of
them. (Muller, Orclhom. p. 138, &c.) We shall
follow Diodorus, who distinguishes between the
three, although in other passages he confounds
them,
1. A son of Hellen and the nymph Orsei's, and
a brother of Dorus and Xuthus. He is described
as the ruler of Thessaly, and regarded as the
founder of the Aeolic branch of the Greefk nation.
He married Enarete, the daughter of Deimachus,
by whom he had seven sons and five daughters,
and according to some writers still more. (Apollod.
i. 7. ~ 3; Schol. ad Pind. Pyth. iv. 190.) According to Miiller's supposition, the most ancient
and genuine story knew only of four sons of
Aeolus, viz. Sisyphus, Athamas, Cretheus, and
Salmoneus, as the representatives of the four main
branches of the Aeolic race. The great extent of
country which this race occupied, and the desire of
each part of it to trace its origin to some descendant of Aeolus, probably gave rise to the varying
accounts about the number of his children. According to Hyginus (Fab. 238, 242) Aeolus had
one son of the name of Macareus, who, after having committed incest with his sister Canace, put
an end to his own life. According to Ovid (Heraoid.
11) Aeolus threw the fruit of this love to the
dogs, and sent his daughter a sword by which she
was to kill herself. (Comp. Plut. Parallel. p. 312.)
2. Diodorus (iv. 67) says, that the second
Aeolus was the great-grandson of the first Aeolus,
being the son of Hippotes and Melanippe, and
the grandson of Mimas the son of Aeolus. Arne,
the daughter of this second Aeolus, afterwards became mother of a third Aeolus. (Comp. Paus. ix.
40. ~ 3.) In another passage (v. 7) Diodorus represents the third Aeolus as a son of Hippotes.
3. According to some accounts a son of Hippotes, or, according to others, of Poseidon and
Arne, the daughter of the second Aeolus. His
story, which probably refers to the emigration of a
branch of the Aeolians to the west, is thus related:
Arne declared to her father that she was with child
by Poseidon, but her father disbelieving her statemeat, gave her to a stranger of Metapontum in
Italy, who took her to his native town. Here she
became mother of two sons, Boeotus and Aeolus (iii.), who were adopted by the man of Metapontum in accordance with an oracle. When they
had grown up to manhood, they took possession of
the sovereignty of Metapontum by force. But
when a dispute afterwards arose between their
mother Arne and their foster-mother Autolyte, the
two brothers slew the latter and fled with their
mother from Metapontum. Aeolus went to some
islands in the Tyrrhenian sea, which received from
him the name of the Aeolian islands, and according to some accounts built the town of Lipara.
(Diod. iv. 67, v. 7.) Here he reigned as a just

AEPYTUS. 35
and pious king, behaved kindly to the natives,
and taught them the use of sails in navigation, and
foretold them from signs which lihe observed in the
fire the nature of the winds that were to rise.
Hence, says Diodorus, Aeolus is described in
mythology as the ruler over the winds, and it was
this Aeolus to whom Odysseus came during his
wanderings. A different account of the matter is
given by Hyginus. (Fab. 186.)
In these accounts Aeolus, the father of the
Aeolian race, is placed in relationship with Aeolus
the ruler and god of the winds. The groundwork
on which this connexion has been formed by later
poets and mythographers, is found in Homer. (Od.
x. 2, &c.) In Homer, however, Aeolus, the son
of Hippotes, is neither the god nor the father of
the winds, but merely the happy ruler of the
Aeolian island, whom Cronion had made the
Trapiis of the winds, which he might soothe or excite according to his pleasure. (Od. x. 21, &c.)
This statement of Homer and the etymology of
the name of Aeolus from adiEw were the cause,
that in later times Aeolus was regarded as the god
and king of the winds, which he kept enclosed in
a mountain. It is therefore to him that Juno applies when she wishes to destroy the fleet of the
Trojans. (Virg. Aen. i. 78.) The Aeolian island
of Homer was in the time of Pausanias believed to
be Lipara (Panus. x. 11. ~ 3), and this or Strongyle
was accordingly regarded in later times as the place
in which the god of the winds dwelled. (Virg.
Aen. viii. 416, i. 52; Strab. vi. p. 276.) Other
accounts place the residence of Aeolus in Thrace
(Apollon. Rhod. i. 954, iv. 765; Callim. IHymn.
in Del. 26), or in the neighbourhood of Rhegium
in Italy. (Tzetz. ad Lycophr. 732; comp. Diod.
v. 8.) The following passages of later poets also
shew how universally Aeolus had gradually come
to be regarded as a god: Ov. Met. i. 264, xi. 748
xiv. 223; Val. Flacc. i. 575; Quint. Smyrn. xiv.
475. Whether he was represented by the ancients in works of art is not certain, but we now
possess no representation of him. [L. S.]
AE'PYTUS (Africos). 1. One of the mythical kings of Arcadia. He was the son of Eilatus
(Pind. 01. vi. 54), and originally ruled over Phaesana on the Alpheius in Arcadia. When Cleitor,
the son of Azan, died without leaving any issue,
Aepytus succeeded him and became king of the
Arcadians, a part of whose country was called
after him Aepytis. (Paus. viii. 4. ~ 4, 34. ~ 3.)
He is said to have been killed during the chase on
mount Sepia by the bite of a venomous snake.
(Paus. viii. 4. ~ 4, 16. ~ 2.) His tomb there was
still shewn in the time of Pausanias, and he was
anxious to see it, because it was mentioned in
Homer. (Il. ii. 604.)
2. The youngest son of Cresphontes the Heraclid, king of Messenia, and of Merope, the
daughter of the Arcadian king Cypselus. Cresphontes and his other sons were murdered during
an insurrection, and Aepytus alone, who was
educated in the house of his grandfather Cypselus,
escaped the danger. The throne of Cresphontes
was in the meantime occupied by the Heraclid
Polyphontes, who also forced Merope to become his
wife. (Apollod. ii. 8. ~ 5.) When Aepytus had
grown to manhood, he was enabled by the aid of
Holcas, his father-in-law, to return to his kingdom,
punish the murderers of his father,. and put Polyphontes to death. He left a son, Glaucus, and it
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