Meteorologists who monitor wind conditions at Cape Canaveral already know what one mythical voyager learned the hard way. Never underestimate the wind.

To the ancient Greeks, a god named Aeolus guarded the winds in his cave on the island of Aeola. Each of his four winds had special features.

Boreas, the north wind, was powerful and harsh. Africus, the south wind, was wet and enshrouded in clouds. Euras, the east wind, was dry and made plants and animals thirsty. Zephyrus, the west wind, was soft and pleasant.

As a favor to the Greek hero Odysseus, the wind god agreed to bag some particularly strong north winds that had menaced Odysseus' ship. But sailors on board the ship became curious about the strange-looking bag. When they untied it to have a peek, Boreas got loose. The angry wind blew Odysseus' ship off course and into one of the most famous adventure stories of all time, The Odyssey.

Along with the Greeks, ancient Japanese also had a wind god who was thought to carry the winds in a backpack from which he released them now and then.

On the South Pacific island of Tonga, people believed that the wind itself was a god. When the god slept, there was calm. But the slightest breeze meant the god was beginning to stir.

In the myths of the Micmac Indians of North America, ethnic groups in South Africa, and ancient Icelandic peoples, wind was produced by the flapping wings of a bird.

Although today's meteorologists look to science for explanations of the wind, the figments of the storytellers' imaginations fill the language. A zephyr, for instance, still describes a gentle breeze from the west. And any adventurous voyage, whether it's a sailor heading out to sea or an astronaut aiming for the stars, is an odyssey.

This week WHAT'S IN THE NEWS takes a look at the role of meteorologists as the Neurolab mission is readied for take off.