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The Bag of Winds of Aeolus

Also called: Aeolus, Bag of winds, Laestrygonians

A legend handed down over the centuries.

A Greek myth told in Book 10 of the Odyssey. Aeolus, keeper of the winds, gives Odysseus the rough winds tied up in a leather bag, and Ithaca comes into sight — but his men, thinking it holds treasure, open the bag and are blown far away again. Then the cannibal Laestrygonians destroy nearly all their ships.

Odysseus’ companions open the bag in which Aeolus had shut the winds — 17th-century drawing, Rijksmuseum
Odysseus’ companions open the bag in which Aeolus had shut the winds — 17th-century drawing, Rijksmuseum

Rijksmuseum · CC0 · Source

This Greek myth is told in Book 10 of Homer’s Odyssey. On the floating island of Aeolia, Aeolus, keeper of the winds, entertained Odysseus and his men for a month and on their departure gave him the rough winds shut in an oxhide bag tied with silver cord. Driven by the gentle west wind alone, they sailed for nine days, and on the tenth the fires of Ithaca came into view.

While Odysseus slept exhausted, his men, suspecting the bag held gold and silver, opened it. The winds burst out and drove the ships back to Aeolia, where Aeolus refused to help a man so hated by the gods. At the harbour of the Laestrygonians that followed, cannibal giants smashed the ships with boulders and devoured the crews; only Odysseus’ own ship, moored outside the harbour, escaped. Since antiquity Aeolia has been identified with the Lipari (Aeolian) Islands north of Sicily.

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Themes that include this event

  • The Trojan War and the Odyssey1200 BC – 1876

    From the apple of discord to the Trojan Horse and the homecoming of Odysseus — the Greek myth in story order, alongside the real site of Troy, the making of the epics, the Laocoön group and Schliemann’s excavations