| Mt. Eolus |
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Name History (Mt. Eolus)Title: Naming of Mt. Eolus Entered by: 14erFred Added: 5/14/2010, Last Updated: 5/14/2010 Sources: Hart, J.L.J. (1977). Fourteen thousand feet: A history of the naming and early ascents of the high Colorado peaks (Second Edition). Denver, CO: The Colorado Mountain Club. Smith, W. (1936). Smith's Smaller Classical Dictionary and Atlas of Classical Geography. (Dent's Double Volumes: Volume 1). London: J.M. Dent & Sons. Mount Eolus was named for the Greek God of the Winds, Aeolus, by the Hayden Survey of 1874. In his classic Odyssey, Homer told the story of Aeolus, whom Zeus had made Keeper of the Winds, and who dwells on a floating island named Aeolia. To help Odysseus sail home to Ithaca, Aeolus gives him a favorable west wind, along with a bag in which he has trapped all the unfavorable winds. Being curious or perhaps thinking the bag contained valuable treasures, Odysseus' companions open the bag, and the unfavorable winds escape, driving their boat back to Aeolia, where Aeolus sends them away in anger. In his classic Aeneid, Virgil, claimed that Aeolus dwells on one of the Aeolian Islands north of Sicily, where he keeps the winds imprisoned in a huge cave. |
