Aeolic

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Associated with the properties of the wind in the context of classical Greek artistic expressions, it conveys a musical genre that implies an airy or ethereal quality, and it concerns regions shaped by wind and their cultural outputs
2. Pertaining to the influence and representation of wind in ancient Greek art forms, this term also refers to a musical style evoking lightness and atmospheric characteristics, while relating to locations affected by wind and their artistic traditions
3. This word relates to artistic representations influenced by the wind in classical Greek culture, signifies a musical genre that captures a light and airy essence, and addresses geographical areas shaped and inspired by wind-related phenomena

Etymology: Aeolic takes its name from Aeolus, the keeper of the winds in Greek myth, who in Homer's "Odyssey" gives Odysseus a bag holding all the adverse gales. The Greeks called a people of the northeastern Aegean and their dialect "Aiolis" after him, and the Latin adjective "Aeolicus" followed, carrying the same link between a region and the winds. The link to the wind stuck to the word's later uses. Aeolian harps, wooden boxes strung with strings that sound when air moves across them, were named after the god, and the wind-played quality of those instruments explains why "aeolic" and its relatives came to suggest something airy or ethereal. The word's musical and regional senses grew from that root: the Aeolic dialect and Aeolic mode in Greek music were both named after the same people and their homeland.