| Zephyrus | |
|---|---|
God of the West Wind | |
 Zephyrus on an antique fresco inPompeii | |
| Greek | Ζέφυρος |
| Abode | Sky |
| Animals | Horse, swan |
| Genealogy | |
| Parents | Astraeus andEos |
| Siblings | Winds (Boreas,Eurus, andNotus),Eosphorus, the Stars,Memnon,Emathion,Astraea |
| Consort | Irisor Flora |
| Children | Pothos,Balius and Xanthus,Carpus, tigers |
| Equivalents | |
| Roman | Favonius |
InGreek mythology andreligion,Zephyrus (Ancient Greek:Ζέφυρος,romanized: Zéphuros,lit. 'westerly wind'), also spelled in English asZephyr, is the god and personification of theWest wind, one of the several wind gods, theAnemoi. The son ofEos (the goddess of the dawn) andAstraeus, Zephyrus is the most gentle and favourable of the winds, associated with flowers, springtime and even procreation.[1] In myths, he is presented as the tender breeze, known for his unrequited love for theSpartan princeHyacinthus. AlongsideBoreas, the two are the most prominent wind gods with relatively limited roles in recorded mythology.[2]
Zephyrus, similarly to his brothers, received a cult during ancient times although his worship was minor compared to theTwelve Olympians. Still, traces of it are found inClassical Athens and surrounding regions and city-states, where it was usually joint with the cults of the other wind gods.
His equivalent inRoman mythology is the godFavonius.
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The ancient Greek nounζέφυρος is the word for the wind that blows from the west.[3] His name is attested inMycenaean Greek as ze-pu2-ro (Linear B:𐀽𐁆𐀫),[4] which points to a possible Proto-Hellenic form*Dzépʰuros.[5] Further attestation of the god and his worship as part of the Anemoi is found in the word-forms𐀀𐀚𐀗𐀂𐀋𐀩𐀊,a-ne-mo-i-je-re-ja,𐀀𐀚𐀗𐄀𐀂𐀋𐀩𐀊,a-ne-mo i-je-re-ja. That is, "priestess of the winds", found on theKN Fp 1 and KN Fp 13 tablets.[6][7]
Traditionally, 'Zephyros' has been linked to the wordζόφος (zóphos) meaning "darkness" or "west". Both in turn have been connected to theProto-Indo-European root*(h₃)yebʰ-, meaning "to enter, to penetrate" (from whichοἴφω (oíphō), meaning 'to have sex', also derives).[8] It has been noted however that a development*Hi̯- →ζ- is unlikely, and most evidence in fact points to the contrary.[9]
It could also be of pre-Greek origin, thoughBeekes is not sure either way.[9] Due to his role as the west wind, his name and various derivatives of it were used to mean 'western',[9] for example the Greek colony ofEpizephyrian Locris in southernItaly, west ofGreece.
Zephyrus, like the rest of the wind godsAnemoi (Boreas,Eurus andNotus) was said to be the son ofEos, goddess of the dawn, by her husband and first cousinAstraeus, a minor god related to the stars.[10] The poetOvid dubs the four of them 'the Astraean brothers' in reference to their paternity.[11]
He is thus brother to the rest of Eos and Astraeus's children, namely the five star-gods and the justice goddessAstraea. His mortal half-brothers includeMemnon andEmathion, sons of his mother Eos by the Trojan princeTithonus. The Athenian playwrightAeschylus in his fifth-century BC playAgamemnon writes that Zephyrus is the son of the goddessGaia (the mother earth). The father, if one exists at all, is not named.[12]
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In Greek tradition, Zephyrus became the consort ofIris, the goddess of the rainbow and messenger of the gods. According toNonnus, a late-antiquity poet, together they became the parents ofPothos,[13] the god of desire, and according toAlcaeus of Mytilene (a six-century BC poet from the island ofLesbos), ofEros as well, though he is more commonly a son ofAres andAphrodite.[14] In the same passage, Zephyrus is described as having golden hair.
By theHarpyPodarge (who is Iris's sister) he became the father ofBalius and Xanthus, the two fast, talking horses that were given toAchilles,[15][16] when he mated with her while she was grazing on a meadow near the banks of the Ocean, implied in the form of a mare.[17]Quintus Smyrnaeus also says that by a Harpy he hadArion, the talking horse.[18] Like with the case of Eros, Arion's more common parentage is different, in this case the OlympiansDemeter andPoseidon.[19]
In some sources Zephyrus has a son namedCarpus ("fruit") by a nymphHora, who drowned in theMaeander river when the wind drove a wave right into his face, driving his loverCalamus into despair, who went on to take his life.[20][21][22] According toPseudo-Oppian, he also became the genitor of tigers by an unnamed consort.[23]
Zephyrus, along with his brother Boreas, is one of the most prominent of the Anemoi; they are frequently mentioned together by poets, and along with a third brother,Notus (the south wind) they were seen as the three useful and favourable winds (the east wind, Eurus, seen as bad omen).[1] They are the three wind gods mentioned byHesiod, as ancient Greeks avoided talking about Eurus.[2] Zephyrus and Boreas were thought to dwell together in a palace inThrace.[15]
In theOdyssey however, they all seem to dwell on the island ofAeolia, asZeus has taskedAeolus with the job of the keeper of the winds.[24] Aeolus receivesOdysseus and his wretched crew, and hosts them for a month gracefully.[25] As they part, Aeolus gives Odysseus a bag containing all the winds, except for Zephyrus himself, who is let free to blow Odysseus's ship gently back toIthaca; Odysseus's crewmates foolishly open the bag, thinking it to contain treasure, and set free all the other winds, blowing the ships back to Aeolia.[24] Many years later, right after Odysseus leftCalypso, the sea-godPoseidon in rage unleashed all four of them to cause a storm and raise great waves in order to drown Odysseus in the sea.[26]
In theIliad, Zephyrus is visited by his wife Iris in his home as he dines with his wind brothers. He wishes to summon him and Boreas to blow onPatroclus's funeral pyre following his death, as Achilles prayed for their help when the pyre failed to kindle.[27][28] In theDionysiaca, all four live together with their father Astraeus; Zephyrus plays sweet notes with anaulos for Demeter when she pays them a visit.[29]
In the myth ofEros and Psyche, Zephyrus servesEros, the god of love, by transporting his bride-to-be, the mortal princessPsyche with his soft breeze from the cliff (where she had been left in an oracle's suggestion) to Eros's palace.[30] Later, he also helps rather reluctantly Psyche's two sisters transport the same way to the palace as well, when Psyche wishes to see them again.[31] After Eros abandons Psyche over her betrayal, both sisters take advantage of the situation and each independently goes to the cliff (having both been lied to by Psyche that Eros wished to maker her his new wife), calling for Eros to make them his bride, and Zephyrus to take them to the palace. But this time Zephyrus does not act when they jump, and thus they both fall to their deaths, torn limb to limb and made food for the birds of prey and wild beasts below.[32]
Zephyrus seems to have had a connection to swans; inPhilostratus the Elder's works, he joins them twice in their song, once while they are carrying theErotes and another when the youngPhaethon is killed driving his fatherHelios's fiery chariot.[33][34] This apparently symbolizes the belief that swans took to singing when the mild west wind blew.[35]
In his most notable myth, Zephyrus fell in love with a beautiful Spartan prince namedHyacinthus, who nevertheless rejected him[36] and became the lover of another god,Apollo.[37] One day when the prince and Apollo were playing atdiscus-throwing, Zephyrus deflected the course of Apollo's discus, redirecting it right onto Hyacinthus's head and fatally wounding him. Hyacinthus' blood then became a new flower, the hyacinth.[a] In some versions, Zephyrus is supplanted by his brother Boreas as the wind-god who bore a one-sided love for the beautiful prince.[40] Zephyrus's role in this myth reflects his connection to flowers and springtime as the gentle west wind, who, in spite of his traditional gentleness, is nonetheless a harsh lover, like all the winds.[37] Not every version of this tale features Zephyrus, however, and his participation is a secondary narrative; in many of them he is absent, and Hyacinthus's death stems from a genuine accident on Apollo's part.[17][37]
On another occasion, another beautiful youth namedCyparissus ("cypress") and Zephyrus became lovers.[41][42] The youth, wanting to preserve his beauty, fled to Mount Cassium inSyria, where he became transformed into a cypress tree.[43][44] This myth, which might be of Hellenistic origin, seems to have been modeled after that of Apollo andDaphne.[44] It also, along with Zephyrus's role in Hyacinthus's story, fits the pattern–also fit by his brother Boreas–of a wind god appearing in the story of the origin of a plant.[43] In all other narratives, however, Zephyrus is absent, and the role of Cyparissus's divine partner is filled by Apollo; furthermore, Cyparissus is transformed into a cypress by Apollo at his own request after accidentally killing his own pet deer, which caused him much sorrow.[43]
Zephyrus also features in some of the dialogues by the satirical authorLucian ofSamosata; in theDialogues of the Sea Gods, he appears in two dialogues with his brother Notus, the god of the south wind. In the first, they discuss the Argive princessIo and how she was loved and got turned into a heifer by Zeus in order to hide from his jealous wifeHera,[45] while in the second, Zephyrus enthusiastically recounts the scene he has just witnessed of how Zeus transformed into a bull, tricked another princess, thePhoenicianEuropa, into riding him, transported her toCrete and then mated with her while Notus expresses his jealousy and complains of seeing nothing noteworthy.[46]
Like all the other wind gods, Zephyrus is represented in ancient Greek art with wings,[47] due to which he is sometimes hard to distinguish from Eros, another winged youthful god, though tellingly unlike Zephyrus Eros is not depicted pursuing males.[48] In ancient vases, he is most commonly pursuing the young Hyacinthus or already holding him in his arms in an erotic and sexual manner; on a red-figure vase in theBoston Museum of Fine Arts, Zephyrus's erect penis thrusts into the folds of the young man's clothes as they fly together,[49] while vase 95.31 from the same museum depicts intercrural sex between the two.[50] Various other vases also show scenes of Zephyrus grabbing and seizing Hyacinthus.[51][52]
On theTower of the Winds, a clocktower/horologion in the Roman agora of Athens, the frieze depicts Zephyrus alongside seven more of the wind gods above the sundials. Zephyrus is presented as a beardless youth carrying a cloak full of flowers.[53]
On thePergamon Altar, which depicts the battle of the gods against theGiants (known as the Gigantomachy), Zephyrus and the other three wind gods are shown in the shape of horses who pull the chariot of the goddess Hera in the eastern frieze of the monument;[54][55] the equine forms of the Anemoi are also found inQuintus Smyrnaeus's works, where the four brothers pull Zeus's chariot instead.[56]
Ancient cult of the wind gods is attested in several ancient Greek states.[57] According to the geographerPausanias, the Winds were jointly worshipped in the town ofTitane, inSicyon, where the local priest offered sacrifice to them,[58][59] and inCoronea, a town inBoeotia.[60] It is also known that the citizens ofLaciadae inAttica had erected an altar for Zephyrus.[61] According to a fragment doubtfully attributed to the fifth-century BC poetBacchylides, aRhodian farmer named Eudemus built a temple in honour of the west wind god, in gratitude for his help.[62]
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Zephyrus's Roman equivalent was calledFavonius (the "favouring") who held dominion over plants and flowers, however 'Zephyrus' was also commonly used by Romans. Some later authors would also describe him as having wings in his head.[63] The Roman poetHorace writes:[64]
quid fles, Asterie, quem tibi candidi | Why do you weep, Asterie, for the man whom the bright west winds |
Unlike Greek authors, Roman writers held that Zephyrus/Favonius married not Iris but rather a local vegetation and fertility goddess namedFlora (identified and linked by Ovid with a minor Greek nymph namedChloris and her legend[65]) after abducting her while she tried to run away and escape him; he gave her dominion over flowers, thus making amends for his violence and abduction of her.[1][66]
Some analysts have suggested that Carpus, the son Zephyrus had by Hora/a Hora (season goddess), is supposed to have been actually mothered by Flora/Chloris instead, although this is not confirmed in any ancient text.[67]
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