Aiolos

by Herman Rechberger

Eolos

Description

Odysseus' crew lands next on the island of Aiolia, ruled by Aiolos, the god of the winds. Aiolos welcomes the Ithakans and listens to their tale of the Trojan War. They stay at his home for a month.

When they leave, the gracious Aiolos gives Odysseus a bag of storm winds. Odysseus doesn't tell his men what's in the bag, and just takes care of steering the ship by himself for nine days. Then, predictably, he falls asleep, exhausted. His men see Ithaka on the horizon, but before waking their master decide to check out what's in the sack; they think it may be treasure of some sort. This is a phenomenally bad idea. The moment they open the sack all the storm winds rage out and blow the ship backwards, undoing all their nine days of sailing.

Odysseus rows all the way back to Aiolia and begs for more help. Aiolos now realizes that the gods have cursed Odysseus, because there's no other way he could've messed that one up. The god refuses to help him. So the Ithakans row for six more days and again see land.

- Herman Rechberger -

Instrumentation

3fl, 6vln, 3vla, 2vlc, db, cel, timp, perc

Category

Works for Orchestra or Large Ensemble

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Archive number

MF32580

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