Abstract

This paper analyses the story of the ἀσκóς, which Aiolos presents to Odysseus and discusses its setting and background (Od. 10, 1-79). The general explanation of the ἀσκóς as a piece of wind magic is modified in favour of an Ancient Near Eastern background of the device. The ἀσκóς represents an inflated skin which, as opposed to the Aegean, was a common device to traverse the rivers and canals in the Middle East. Around 700 B.C.E., in the reign of the Assyrian king Sennacherib, a new type of inflated skin was introduced which was much larger and made of cattle hide. Such plump hides are depicted on Neo-Assyrian reliefs where they are presented as fully inflated and lying on rafts. It is argued that the awareness of such hides triggered the story of the ἀσκóς, which transfered the inflated skin into an entirely new setting.