Helios and Aeolus

Abstract

In summer it’s always hot in the Big Apple, but the summer of 2003 had been especially sweltering. Temperatures had been around 35ºC during all the month, with humidity approaching one hundred percent. The higher the temperature, the lower the New Yorkers’ thermostats, up to the point where you needed a sweater at the office, while outside delivery men, mail carriers and peddlers had to suffer the heat, together with the tourists brave enough to venture through the smoldering avenues.

The king of winds, Aeolus, is invited for a month to the Aeolian Islands, and he gives Odysseus a present: a bag with all the winds inside, except the wind that can take him back to Ithaca. While he’s sleeping, his men go through the bag thinking of the treasures it might contain, and they release all the winds. They reach the island of the Lestrigons, man-eating giants who kill and devour the crew of eleven ships.

The Odyssey, Book X, summarized