Anemoi


In ancient Greek religion and myth, the Anemoi were wind gods who were each ascribed a cardinal direction from which their respective winds came, and were each associated with various seasons and weather conditions. They were the progeny of Eos and Astraeus. They are not to be confused with violent storm winds also called the Anemoi which sprung from Typhoeus.

Etymology

The earliest attestation of the word in Greek and of the worship of the Winds by the Greeks, are perhaps the Mycenaean Greek word-forms ???????, a-ne-mo-i-je-re-ja, ????????, a-ne-mo,i-je-re-ja, i.e. "Priestess of the Winds". These words, written in Linear B, are found on the KN Fp 1 and KN Fp 13 tablets.

Mythology

The Anemoi are minor gods and are subject to the god Aeolus. They were sometimes represented as gusts of wind, and at other times were personified as winged men. They were also sometimes 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, and Eos/Aurora, the goddess of the dawn, were the parents of the Anemoi, according to the Greek poet Hesiod.
Of the four chief Anemoi, Boreas was the north wind and bringer of cold winter air, Zephyrus was the west wind and bringer of light spring and early-summer breezes, and Notus was the south wind and bringer of the storms of late summer and autumn; Eurus, the southeast 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. These gods had different names, but were otherwise very similar to their Greek counterparts, borrowing their attributes and being frequently conflated with them. Ptolomy's world map listed 12 winds: Septentrio, Aquilo, Vulturnus, Subsolanus, Eurus, Euroauster, Austerulnotus, Euronotus, Affricus, Ephirus, Eurus, Circius.

Boreas

Boreas 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. 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 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 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, married 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 cult was established in Athens in 480 B. C. E. in gratitude to the Boreas for destroying the approaching Persian fleet. A similar event had occurred twelve years earlier, and Herodotus writes:
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 and the lover of the nymph Pitys.

Aquilo

The Roman equivalent of Boreas was Aquilo. This north wind was associated with winter. The poet Virgil writes:
For the wind which came directly from the north the Romans sometimes used the name Septentrio.
and the goddess Chloris, from an 1875 oil painting by William-Adolphe Bouguereau

Zephyrus

Zephyrus, sometimes known in English as just Zephyr., 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. 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, Zephyrus was said to be the father of Balius and Xanthus, Achilles' horses.
In the story of Cupid and Psyche, Zephyrus served Eros by transporting Psyche to his abode.
Zephyrus was also claimed to have killed one of Apollo's many male lovers Hyacinth out of jealousy. Hyacinth was killed by a discus thrown by Apollo. Though according to some sources, his death was said to be an accident, others said that Zephyrus was the true culprit, having blown the discus off course.
Zephyrus' Roman equivalent was Favonius who held dominion over plants and flowers. The Roman poet Horace writes:

Notus

Notus 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.
Notus' equivalent in Roman mythology was Auster, the embodiment of the sirocco wind, a southerly wind which brings cloudy weather, powerful winds and rain to southern Europe. The Auster winds are mentioned in Virgil's Aeneid Book II, lines 304–307:
Another Roman poet, Tibullus 1.1, lines 47–48, speaks of the pleasure of lying in bed on rainy winter days:
The name "Australia" is derived from Auster.

Eurus

Eurus according to some was the southeast wind, but according to others the East wind. On the Tower of the Winds in Athens, Eurus occupies the southeast side, while Apeliotes is in the east. However, it is widely accepted that Eurus is the East wind, while Apeliotes is the southeast wind.
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.
Eurus is a wind of storm, described as a turbulent wind during storms and tossing ships on the sea. He is referred to as the “savior of Sparta” in a Homeric paean, or poem. Eurus is also called the “hot wind” by Nonnus in Dionysiaca. Eurus is closely related to Helios in passages of the Dionysiaca, being called from his place near Helios’ palace, Phaethon, where the sun rose in the east.

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 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 clean shaven, with curly hair and a friendly expression. Because Apeliotes was a minor god, he was often syncretized with Eurus, the East wind. The Roman counterpart of Apeliotes was Subsolanus.
Skiron was the name used in Athens for the wind which blew from the Scironian rocks. 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, a group of abstract and largely minor numinous entities. The Roman poet Virgil writes when describing steppe winter weather near the Sea of Azov:
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: