WHO WAS AQUILO?

In Roman mythology Aquilo was the North wind personified. A very powerful, often violent, storm wind. The Romans adopted any number of Greek Gods, including wind gods, as their own and gave them their own Roman names; Aquilo was such a one. Aquilo's Greek mythological counterpart had the name of Boreas. Here he is depicted on the 'Tower of the Winds' in Athens in a heavy cloak and blowing trough a triton shell.  Aquilo's other Roman 'brothers' were Favonius (West wind), Auster (South wind) and Eurus (East wind). Homer thought that all the winds were under the control of Aeolus; he mentions four including Euros (East), while Hesiod spoke of three winds, Boreas, Zephyros, and Notos (South) all of them the children of Astreus and Eos (Dusk and Dawn).  The ‘Tower of the Winds’ in Athens (click image) shows eight winds in human form on its eight faces — following the compass points clockwise they are: Boreas, Kaikias, Apēliōtēs, Euros, Notos, Lips, Zephyros and Skīrōn. Sacrifices were made to the winds where and when necessary, they were usually animals — black ones for evil winds, white ones for good winds. Sometimes sacrifices were human; the sacrifice of Iphigenaia by Agamemnon, her own father, for favourable winds before the campaign to Troy for the recovery of kidnapee Helen of Sparta,  his brother's wife, by Paris is one of mention.