Anemoi

"Aquilon" redirects here. For the French Navy fighter, see de Havilland Sea Venom.

"Notus" redirects here. For the United States town, see Notus, Idaho.

Wind rose as known in ancient Greece, created by the scholar Adamantios Korais around 1796

In ancient Greek religion and myth, the Anemoi (Greek: Ἄνεμοι, "Winds") were wind gods who were each ascribed a cardinal direction from which their respective winds came (see Classical compass winds), and were each associated with various seasons and weather conditions. They were sometimes represented as mere gusts of wind, at other times were personified as winged men, and at still other times were depicted as horses kept in the stables of the storm god Aeolus, who provided Odysseus with the Anemoi in the Odyssey. The Spartans were reported to sacrifice a horse to the winds on Mount Taygetus. Astraeus, the astrological deity sometimes associated with Aeolus, and Eos, the goddess of the dawn, were the parents of the Anemoi, according to the Greek poet Hesiod.

Of the four chief Anemoi, Boreas (Septentrio in Latin) was the north wind and bringer of cold winter air, Zephyrus or Zephyr (Favonius in Latin) was the west wind and bringer of light spring and early summer breezes, and Notos (Auster in Latin) was the south wind and bringer of the storms of late summer and autumn; Eurus (Subsolanus in Latin), the east wind, was not associated with any of the three Greek seasons, and is the only one of these four Anemoi not mentioned in Hesiod's Theogony or in the Orphic Hymns. Additionally, four lesser Anemoi were sometimes referenced, representing the northeast, southeast, northwest, and southwest winds.

The deities equivalent to the Anemoi in Roman mythology were the Venti (Latin, "winds"). These gods had different names, but were otherwise very similar to their Greek counterparts, borrowing their attributes and being frequently conflated with them.

Boreas

Boreas (Βορέας, Boréas; also Βορρᾶς, Borrhás) was the Greek god of the cold north wind and the bringer of winter. His name meant "North Wind" or "Devouring One". Boreas is depicted as being very strong, with a violent temper to match. He was frequently shown as a winged old man with shaggy hair and beard, holding a conch shell and wearing a billowing cloak. Pausanias wrote that Boreas had snakes instead of feet, though in art he was usually depicted with winged human feet.

Boreas' two sons Calaïs and Zetes, known as Boreads, were in the crew of the Argo as Argonauts.

Boreas was closely associated with horses. He was said to have fathered twelve colts after taking the form of a stallion, to the mares of Erichthonius, king of Dardania. These were said to be able to run across a field of grain without trampling the plants. Pliny the Elder (Natural History iv.35 and viii.67) thought that mares might stand with their hindquarters to the North Wind and bear foals without a stallion. The Greeks believed that his home was in Thrace, and Herodotus and Pliny both describe a northern land known as Hyperborea "Beyond the North Wind" where people lived in complete happiness and had extraordinarily long lifespans. He is said to have fathered three giant Hyperborean priests of Apollo by Chione.

Boreas was also said to have kidnapped Orithyia, an Athenian princess, from the Ilisos. Boreas had taken a fancy to Orithyia and had initially pleaded for her favours, hoping to persuade her. When this failed, he reverted to his usual temper and abducted her as she danced on the banks of the Ilisos. Boreas wrapped Orithyia up in a cloud, raped her, and with her, Boreas fathered two sons—the Boreads, Zethes and Calais—and two daughters— Chione, goddess of snow, and Cleopatra.

Greco-Buddhist fragment of the wind god Boreas, Hadda, Afghanistan

Tower of the Winds in ancient Athens, part of the frieze depicting the Greek wind gods Boreas (north wind, on the left) and Skiron (northwesterly wind, on the right)

From then on, the Athenians saw Boreas as a relative by marriage. When Athens was threatened by Xerxes, the people prayed to Boreas, who was said to have then caused winds to sink 400 Persian ships. A similar event had occurred twelve years earlier, and Herodotus writes:

Now I cannot say if this was really why the Persians were caught at anchor by the stormwind, but the Athenians are quite positive that, just as Boreas helped them before, so Boreas was responsible for what happened on this occasion also. And when they went home they built the god a shrine by the River Illisus.

The abduction of Oreithyia was popular in Athens before and after the Persian War, and was frequently depicted on vase paintings. In these paintings, Boreas was portrayed as a bearded man in a tunic, with shaggy hair that is sometimes frosted and spiked. The abduction was also dramatized in Aeschylus's lost play Oreithyia.

In other accounts, Boreas was the father of Butes (by another woman) and the lover of the nymph Pitys.

Septentrio

The Roman equivalent of Boreas was Septentrio, a word derived from septem triones ("seven oxen") referring to the seven prominent stars in the northern constellation Ursa Major.

Zephyrus

Zephyrus, the Greek god of the west wind and the goddess Chloris, from an 1875 oil painting by William-Adolphe Bouguereau

Zephyr and Flora, c.1720, by Antonio Corradini, Victoria and Albert Museum

File:Hyakinthos.jpg

Zephyrus and Hyacinth; Attic red-figure cup from Tarquinia, ca 480 BC, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Zephyrus, or sometimes just Zephyr (Ζέφυρος, Zéphyros), in Latin Favonius, is the Greek god of the west wind. The gentlest of the winds, Zephyrus is known as the fructifying wind, the messenger of spring. It was thought that Zephyrus lived in a cave in Thrace.

Zephyrus was reported as having several wives in different stories. He was said to be the husband of Iris, goddess of the rainbow. He abducted the goddess Chloris, and gave her the domain of flowers. With Chloris, he fathered Karpos ("Fruit"). He is said to have vied for Chloris's love with his brother Boreas, eventually winning her devotion. Additionally, with yet another sister and lover, the harpy Podarge (also known as Celaeno), Zephyrus was said to be the father of Balius and Xanthus, Achilles' horses.

One of the surviving myths in which Zephyrus features most prominently is that of Hyacinth. Hyacinth was a very handsome and athletic Spartan prince. Zephyrus fell in love with him and courted him, and so did Apollo. The two competed for the boy's love, but he chose Apollo, driving Zephyrus mad with jealousy. Later, catching Apollo and Hyacinth throwing a discus, Zephyrus blew a gust of wind at them, striking the boy in the head with the falling discus. When Hyacinth died, Apollo created the hyacinth flower from his blood. Apollo was furious, but Eros protected Zephyrus, as the act was committed in the name of love, on the condition that the wind god served Eros forever.

In the story of Cupid and Psyche, Zephyrus served Eros (or Cupid) by transporting Psyche to his abode.

Favonius

Zephyrus' Roman equivalent was Favonius, who held dominion over plants and flowers. Favonius "Favourable" was also a common Roman name.

Notos

Notos (Νότος, Nótos) was the Greek god of the south wind. He was associated with the desiccating hot wind of the rise of Sirius after midsummer, was thought to bring the storms of late summer and autumn, and was feared as a destroyer of crops.

Auster

Notos' equivalent in Roman mythology was Auster, the embodiment of the sirocco wind, who brought heavy cloud cover and fog or humidity. The Auster winds are mentioned in Vergil's Aeneid Book II, lines 304-307: “in segetem veluti cum flamma furentibus Austris incidit, aut rapidus montano flumine torrens sternit agros, sternit sata laeta boumque labores, praecipitesque trahit silvas”.

Eurus

Eurus (Εὖρος, Euros) was the Greek deity representing the unlucky east wind. He was thought to bring warmth and rain, and his symbol was an inverted vase, spilling water.

Subsolanus

Eurus' Roman counterpart was Subsolanus.

Minor winds

Four lesser wind deities appear in a few ancient sources, such as at the Tower of the Winds in Athens.

Kaikias was the Greek deity of the northeast wind. He is shown as a bearded man with a shield full of hail-stones, and his name is cognate to the Latin word caecus "blind", that is, he was seen as a "dark" wind. The Roman spelling of Kaikias was Caecius.

Apeliotes, sometimes known to the Romans as Apeliotus, was the Greek deity of the southeast wind. As this wind was thought to cause a refreshing rain particularly beneficial to farmers, he is often depicted wearing high boots and carrying fruit, draped in a light cloth concealing some flowers or grain. He is cleanshaven, with curly hair and a friendly expression. Because Apeliotes was a minor god, he was often synthesized with Eurus, the east wind. Vulturnus, Apeliotes' Roman counterpart, was also sometimes considered the east wind, in Subsolanus' place.

Skiron, or Skeiron, was the Greek god of the northwest wind. His name is related to Skirophorion, the last of the three months of spring in the Attic calendar. He is depicted as a bearded man tilting a cauldron, representing the onset of winter. His Roman counterpart is Caurus, or Corus. Corus was also one of the oldest Roman wind-deities, and numbered among the di indigetes ("indigenous gods"), a group of abstract and largely minor numinous entities.

Lips was the Greek deity of the southwest wind, often depicted holding the stern of a ship. His Roman equivalent was Afer ventus ("African wind"), or Africus, due to Africa being to the southwest of Italy. This name is thought to be derived from the name of a North African tribe, the Afri.

Other minor wind deities included:

• Argestes "clearing", a wind blowing from about the same direction as Skiron (Caurus), and probably another name for it
• Aparctias, sometimes called the north wind instead of Boreas (Septentrionarius)
• Circius or Thrascius, the north-north-west wind
• Euronotus, the wind blowing from the direction, as its very name suggests, between Euros and Notos, that is, a south-southeast wind (Euroauster to the Romans)
• Iapyx, the northwest wind about the same as Caurus
• Libonotus, the south-southwest wind, known as Austro-Africus to the Romans
• Meses, another name for the north-west wind
• Olympias, apparently identified with Skiron/Argestes
• Phoenicias, another name for the southeast wind ("the one blowing from Phoenicia", due to this land lying to the south-east of Greece)

See also

• Anemometer, modern device to measure wind
• Aurai
• Bacab
• Classical compass winds
• Dáinn, Dvalinn, Duneyrr and Duraþrór
• Norðri, Suðri, Austri and Vestri
• Vayu
• List of wind deities

Notes and references

Notes

References

Sources

• Aristotle, Meteorologica, 2.6
• Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights, 2. 22
• March, J. (1999). Cassell's Dictionary Of Classical Mythology. London. ISBN 0-304-35161-X.

External links

• Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (ca 40 images of Boreas)
• Theoi.com: The Anemoi

Myths read aloud by storytellers
Bibliography of reconstruction: Homer, Iliad ii.595–600 (c. 700 BC); Various 5th century BC vase paintings; Palaephatus, On Unbelievable Tales 46. Hyacinthus (330 BC); Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1.3.3; Ovid, Metamorphoses 10. 162–219 (1–8 AD); Pausanias, Description of Greece 3.1.3, 3.19.4 (160–176 AD); Philostratus the Elder, Images i.24 Hyacinthus (170–245 AD); Philostratus the Younger, Images 14. Hyacinthus (170–245 AD); Lucian, Dialogues of the Gods 14 (170 AD); First Vatican Mythographer, 197. Thamyris et Musae