Aeolus , Latinized as Aeolus, Eolus, Aeolos, Æolus, or Aiolus, was the ruler of the winds in Greek Mythology. In fact this name was shared by three mythic characters. These three personages are often difficult to tell apart, and even the ancient mythographers appear to have been perplexed about which Aeolus was which Diodorus made an attempt to define each of these three (although it is clear he also became muddled), and his opinion is followed here. Briefly, the first Aeolus was a son of Hellen and founder of the Aeolian race; the second was a son of Poseidon, who led a colony to the Tyrrhenian Sea; and the third Aeolus was a son of Hippotes who is mentioned in the Odyssey as Keeper of the Winds who gives Odysseus a bag full of the captured winds so he could sail easily home to Ithaca (unfortunately his crewmen opened the bag and released the north winds, blowing them way off course). All three men named Aeolus appear to be connected genealogically, although the precise relationship is often ambiguous. The traditions regarding the second and third Aeolus are especially entangled.