InGreek mythology andreligion,Notus (Ancient Greek:Νότος,romanized: Nótos,lit.'south') is the god of the south wind and one of theAnemoi (wind-gods), sons of the dawn goddessEos and the star-godAstraeus. A desiccating wind of heat, Notus was associated with the storms of late summer and early autumn, wetness, mist, and was seen as a rain-bringer. Unlike his two more notable brothers,Boreas (the god of the north wind) andZephyrus (the god of the west wind), Notus has little to no unique mythology of his own.
The Greek nounνότος refers both to the south cardinal direction and the south wind that blows from it.[1] Its ultimate etymology remains unknown, although apre-Greek origin seems to be the most likely origin.[2]
InHesiod'sTheogony, Notus is the son ofEos, the goddess of the dawn, andAstraeus, her husband. He is the sibling of the other winds, who Hesiod lists asZephyrus andBoreas.[3] Thus, he is brother to the stars and the justice goddessAstraea, and half-brother to the mortalsMemnon andEmathion, sons of his mother Eos by the Trojan princeTithonus. Notus has no known consorts, lovers or offspring.
The ancient Greeks distinguished the three types of wind blowing from the south; the first was notos (the one Notus mostly represents) which blew from various directions in winter and was seen as the rain-bringer that obscured visibility, the second was leukonotos ("white notus") which was milder and cleared up the sky, and the third was the hot bringer of dust, identified withsirocco.[4]
Notus is one of the three wind-gods mentioned byHesiod, alongside his brothersBoreas andZephyrus,[5] the three wind gods seen as beneficial by the ancient Greeks.[6] Unlike his two more prominent brothers however, Notus has very little mythology, and mostly appears in conjugation with his brothers, with too few unique appearances to differentiate him from the rest.[7] In his few appearances in mythology, Notus is usually paired with his full brotherEurus, the god and personification of the east wind.
In his preparation for the Great Deluge,Zeus locked up Boreas and the other cloud-blowing gales, and let Notus free, to rain upon the earth, who let it pour all over the globe, drowning almost everyone.[8]
Statue of Notus.
In theOdyssey the winds seem to dwell on the island ofAeolia, asZeus has madeAeolus keeper of the winds.[9] Aeolus receivesOdysseus and his crew, and keeps them as guests for a month.[10] As they part, Aeolus gives Odysseus a bag containing all the winds, except for Zephyrus; although warned not to open the bag, Odysseus's crewmates however foolishly open the bag, thinking it to contain some treasure, and set free Notus along with all the other winds as well, who then blow the ships back to Aeolia.[9] Much later, he andEurus strand Odysseus onThrinacia, the island of the sun-godHelios, for an entire month.[11]
In theDionysiaca meanwhile, he and his brothers live with their father Astraeus; Notus serves water from a jug whenDemeter pays a visit.[12] In theIliad, Notus dined together with his brothers in a far away land asIris visited to summon Boreas and Zephyrus.[13][14]
In one of his few defining appearances, Notus features in two of theDialogues of the Sea Gods, a satirical work byLucian ofSamosata. In the first, he and Zephyrus discuss the woes of the Argive princessIo at the hands ofZeus andHera,[15] while in the second Zephyrus enthusiastically describes the marvellous scene of the abduction ofEuropa by the bull, while Notus admits in disappointment having seen nothing of note.[16]
Notus appears rarely in ancient Greek or Roman art. In thePergamon Altar, which depicts the battle of the gods against theGiants, Notus and the other three wind gods are shown as horse-shaped deities who pull Hera's chariot;[17][18] their equine form is also found inQuintus Smyrnaeus's works, where they pull Zeus instead.[19] In theTower of the Winds, a Roman-era octagonal clock tower inAthens, Notus is depicted in middle relief as a beardless young man emptying a water-filled pointed amphora, symbolizing rain.[20]
For the Romans, Notus was identified with the god Auster ("south"),[21] closely associated with the sirocco wind. Like Notus himself, Auster has no big role in mythology. The name, Auster, means south and is the root of words such asAustralia, literally "south land."[22]
^Kunze, Max (1988).Der grosse Marmoraltar von Pergamon [The Large Marble Altar of Pergamon] (in German). Berlin: Staatliche Museem zu Berlin. pp. 23–24.
^Although usually the daughter of Hyperion and Theia, as inHesiod,Theogony371–374, in theHomeric Hymn to Hermes (4),99–100, Selene is instead made the daughter of Pallas the son of Megamedes.
^Astraea is not mentioned by Hesiod, instead she is given as a daughter of Eos and Astraeus inHyginusAstronomica2.25.1.
Apollodorus,Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Homer,The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PhD in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Homer;The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
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