An eastwind is a wind that originates in the east and blows in a westward direction. This wind is referenced as symbolism in mythology, poetry and literature.
In mythology
In Greek mythology, Eurus, the east wind, was the only wind 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. In Egyptian mythology, Henkhisesui, the east wind who had the body of a scarab beetle with one wing or he had the body of a man with two of wings. In Native AmericanIroquois culture, the east wind is said to be brought by the Moose, whose breath blows the grey mist and sends down cold rains upon the earth. Some 17 references to the East Wind exist in the Authorized King James Version of the English Old Testament. In chapter 41 of Genesis, the pharaoh's dream, that is interpreted by Joseph, describes seven ears of grain blasted by the east wind. In chapters 10 and 14 of Exodus, the east wind is summoned by Moses to bring the locusts that plague Egypt and to part the Red Sea so that the Children of Israel can escape pharaoh's armies. Several other references exist, most associating the east wind with destruction. Often, this destruction is of the wicked by God.
Literary references
In Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, "The Garden of Paradise", it is the East Wind who takes the hero to visit the eponymous garden. In George MacDonald's At the Back of the North Wind, on the other hand, the East Wind is described as more mischievous than strictly evil; the North Wind comments, "...ne does not exactly know how much to believe of what she says, for she is very naughty sometimes..." Much in the same way, the East Wind symbolizes change in P. L. Travers' Mary Poppins series. Mary Poppins arrives at the Banks' house carried by the East Wind, but warns the children that she will only stay until the wind changes. At the end of the book, the West wind carries her away. Arthur Conan Doyle'sSherlock Holmes story, "His Last Bow", ends with Holmes' addressing his assistant Doctor Watsonon the eve of the First World War: Holmes' same speech from "His Last Bow" was used at the end of the 1942 Basil Rathbone Holmes film, Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror, this time in reference to the Second World War. And In the BBC series Sherlock, Holmes's sister, Eurus Holmes, is named after Eurus, the God of the East wind. In J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, the East Wind, like most other things dealing with the east, is viewed as a thing of evil. In Book III, after Aragorn and Legolas have sung a lament for Boromir involving invocations of the other three winds, the following dialogue takes place: An east wind is referred in Bleak House by Charles Dickens, first published serially between 1852–1853. The character Mr Jarndyce uses it several times as a harbinger of unfavourable events. For example, Marianne Moore's poem "Is Your Town Nineveh?" asks, In The History of Mr. Polly by H.G. Wells, Mr. Polly is aggravated by an east wind and laments that doctors cannot give us an antidote for it.
