Anemoi

Mythology

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/Aurora, the goddess of the dawn, were the parents of the Anemoi, according to the Greek poet Hesiod. The daughters of the Anemoi are the Aurae (wind nymphs).

Of the four chief Anemoi, Boreas (Aquilo in Latin) was the north wind and bringer of cold winter air, Zephyrus (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, the southeast (or according to some, 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.

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. Although normally taken as the north wind, the Roman writers Aulus Gellius and Pliny the Elder both took Boreas as a north-east wind, equivalent to the Roman Aquilo. 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.^[1] 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.

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 Ilissus.

The abduction of Orithyia 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.

The Roman equivalent of Boreas was Aquilo. This north-east wind was associated with winter. The poet Virgil writes:

interea magnum sol circumvolvitur annum, et glacialis hiemps aquilonibus asperat undas

"Meanwhile the sun moves round the great year, and icy winter roughens the waters with north-east winds"

For the wind which came directly from the north the Romans sometimes used the name Septentrio.

Zephyrus

Zephyrus, sometimes known in English as 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 young man'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 Hyacinth in the head with the falling discus. When Hyacinth died, Apollo created the hyacinth flower from his blood.^[2] 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.

Zephyrus' Roman equivalent was Favonius (the 'favouring') who held dominion over plants and flowers. The Roman poet Horace writes:

quid fles, Asterie, quem tibi candidi primo restituent vere Favonii?

"Why do you weep, Asterie, for the man whom the bright west winds will restore to you at the beginning of spring?"

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.

Notos' equivalent in Roman mythology was Auster, the embodiment of the sirocco wind, a southerly wind which brings cloudy weather, strong winds and rain to southern Europe. The Auster winds are mentioned in Virgil'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

"Just as when a flame falls on the standing grain while the South Winds rage, or a rushing mountain stream lays low the fields, lays low the glad crops and labors of oxen, and drags down forests headlong".

Another Roman poet, Tibullus 1.1, lines 47-48, speaks of the pleasure of lying in bed on rainy winter days:

aut, gelidas hibernus aquas cum fuderit Auster, securum somnos igne iuvante sequi

"or when the winter South Wind has poured out his cold waters, to fall asleep carefree with the help of a fire".

The name "Australia" (the 'southern land') is derived from Auster.

Eurus

Eurus (Εὖρος, Euros) according to some was the southeast wind, but according to others the east wind. On the Tower of the Winds in Athens, Euros occupies the southeast side, while Apeliotes is in the east.

Eurus' Roman counterpart was Vulturnus, according to Pliny the Elder; but for Aulus Gellius Volturnus was the equivalent of the southeast wind Euronotus. Generally in the Latin poets the name Eurus is used for the east or southeast wind, as in Greek.

Lesser 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 on the monument as a bearded man with a shield full of hailstones.

Apeliotes (or Apheliotes) (the name means 'from the (rising) sun') was the Greek deity of the east 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 clean shaven, with curly hair and a friendly expression. Because Apeliotes was a minor god, he was often syncretized with Eurus, the southeast wind. The Roman counterpart of Apeliotes was Subsolanus.

Skiron was the name used in Athens for the wind which blew from the Scironian rocks (a geographical feature near Kineta to the west of Athens). On the Tower of the Winds, however, he appears on the northwest side. 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. Caurus 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. The Roman poet Virgil writes when describing steppe winter weather near the Sea of Azov:

Semper hiemps, semper spirantes frigora cauri

"Always winter, always the northwest winds breathing cold"

Lips was the Greek deity of the southwest wind, often depicted holding the stern of a ship. His Roman equivalent was Africus, due to the Roman province 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

Thrascias, the north-north-west wind (sometimes called in Latin Circius)

Euronotus, the wind blowing from the direction, as its 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. It was this wind, according to Virgil, that carried the fleeing Cleopatra home to Egypt after she was defeated at the battle of Actium.

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)

Popular culture

The Anemoi are occasionally referenced in popular culture. Notably, they make appearances in Percy Jackson & the Olympians and The Heroes of Olympus, two fantasy series by Rick Riordan. In Riordan's first novel, Zephyrus (referred to as "Zephyr") is said to have a role in bringing the demigod children of female Greek gods down to Earth, from Mount Olympus. In The Last Olympian, all four Anemoi and several minor wind gods are involved in the defense of Mount Olympus against Kronos (the Titan Cronus), the first series's chief antagonist.

Both the Greek and the Roman forms of the Anemoi appear in Riordan's second series. Boreas is a central character in The Lost Hero, and his children Khione, Calais, and Zetes continue to have important roles throughout the series. He resides in Montreal, and is described as "sturdily built...with dark purple wings" when in his Greek form, and as "taller and thinner" when Roman. "Notus/Auster appears in The House of Hades as a counselor of sorts to the protagonists. His Roman form is described as laid-back, disinterested in mortal affairs, and stormy; while his Greek form is quick to anger, more in-touch with the human world, and wears a wreath of barley. Favonius/Zephyros also appears in that novel, described as a deeply tanned man with wings the colors of a sunset and holding a basket of unripe fruit. He takes two of the protagonists to meet his master, Cupid, whom he serves as punishment for accidentally killing a man he and Apollo loved during a game of quoits.

Eurus was the name of Sherlock Holmes's sister in the BBC adaptation. Red letters intersperced in the credits at the end of the Sherlock episode "The Final Problem" spelled out Anemoi.