| Boreas | |
|---|---|
God of the north wind, storms, and winter | |
| Member of theAnemoi | |
 Greco-Buddhist fragment of the god Boreas with billowing cloak (velificatio) overhead.Hadda, Afghanistan. | |
| Abode | Sky,Mount Olympus |
| Symbol | Conch shell |
| Genealogy | |
| Parents | Astraeus andEos |
| Siblings | Winds (Eurus,Notus andZephyrus),Eosphorus, the Stars,Memnon,Emathion,Astraea |
| Consort | Oreithyia |
| Children | Boreads,Chione,Cleopatra,Butes,Haemus,Upis, Cyparissia, twelve colts |
| Equivalents | |
| Roman | Aquilo |
Boreas (/ˌbɔːri.əs/,UK:/ˌbɒri.əs/,UK:/ˌbɒri.æs/,[1]Βορέας,Boréas; alsoΒορρᾶς,Borrhâs)[2] is the Greek god of the coldnorth wind, storms, and winter. Although he was normally taken as the north wind, the Roman writersAulus Gellius andPliny the Elder both took Boreas as a northeast wind, equivalent to the Roman godAquilo orSeptentrio.[3] Boreas is depicted as being very strong, with a violent temper to match. He was frequently shown as a winged old man or sometimes as a young man with shaggy hair and beard, holding aconch shell and wearing a billowing cloak.[3] Boreas's most known myth is his abduction of the Athenian princessOreithyia.
Boreas, like the rest of the wind gods, was said to be the son ofEos, the goddess of the dawn, by her husbandAstraeus, a minor star-god.[4] He is thus brother to the rest of theAnemoi (the wind gods), the five star-gods and the justice goddessAstraea.
Boreas was closely associated with horses, storms, and winter. He was said to have fathered twelve colts, after taking the form of a stallion, to the mares ofErichthonius, king ofDardania. 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, andHerodotus and Pliny both describe a northern land known asHyperborea "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 ofApollo byChione.Pausanias wrote that Boreas hadsnakes instead of feet, though in art he was usually depicted with winged human feet. In ancient art, he is usually depicted as a bearded older man.
Boreas was said to have kidnappedOrithyia, anAthenian princess, from theIlisos. 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—theBoreads, Zethes and Calais, who were part of the crew of theArgo asArgonauts[5][6]—and two daughters—Chione andCleopatra.
From then on, the Athenians saw Boreas as a relative by marriage. When Athens was threatened byXerxes, 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.[7] A similar event had occurred twelve years earlier, and Herodotus writes:[8]
Two other cases of Boreas being honored by Greek states for similar assistance have been described, inMegalopolis (againstLaconia) and inThurii (againstSyracuse). The latter case had Boreas being granted citizenship and a land plot.[9]
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 inAeschylus's lost playOreithyia.
In some versions ofHyacinthus's story, Boreas supplants his brotherZephyrus as the wind-god that bore a one-sided love for the beautiful Spartan prince, who preferred Apollo over him.[10]
In other accounts, Boreas was the father ofButes (by another woman) and the lover of the nymphPitys. In one story, both Pan and Boreas vied for Pitys's affections, and tried to make her choose between them. To impress her, Boreas uprooted all the trees with his might. Pan only laughed, and Pitys chose him instead of Boreas. Angry, Boreas chased Pitys down and threw her off a cliff, killing her. Gaia, pitying the girl, changed her dead body into a pine tree.[11]
During the journey of theArgo,Argonauts Zetes and Calais, Boreas's sons, describe Apollo as "beloved of our sire", perhaps implying a romantic connection between the two gods.[12]
KingErichthonius of Troy had in his possession three thousand mares. Boreas fell in love with them as they pastured in the grasslands, and took the form of a dark-maned stallion in order to mate with them. Thus he fathered twelve colts on these mares.[13][14] In the words ofWilliam Smith, this was "commonly explained as a mere figurative mode of expressing the extraordinary swiftness of those horses."[14]
Boreas is featured in the oldest tale concerning the creation of the cypress tree; the myth goes that in order to honour his dead daughter Cyparissia, Boreas planted a new tree, the cypress. The inclusion of Boreas in the story continues the pattern of a wind god appearing in the story of a plant (like he does in the story of Pitys, or Zephyrus in the stories ofCyparissus and Hyacinthus).[15][16]
When the goddessLeto, pregnant withArtemis and Apollo, was due, Boreas was ordered by Zeus to bring her toPoseidon, who in turn led her to the island ofOgygia where she could give birth to the twins, as Zeus' wifeHera had ordered all places and land to shun Leto.[17]
In anAesopfable, Boreas and his uncleHelios the sun godargued about which one between them was the strongest god. They agreed that whoever was able to make a passing traveller remove his cloak would be declared the winner. Boreas was the one to try his luck first; but no matter how hard he blew, he could not remove the man's cloak, instead making him wrap his cloak around him even tighter. Helios shone bright then, and the traveller, overcome with the heat, removed his cloak, giving him the victory (the moral being that persuasion is better than force).[18]
According toPausanias, Boreas blessedMusaeus with the gift of flight.[19]
WhenSirius, the dog star, began to burn hot after he could not have his belovedOpora, a minor goddess connected to the harvest, Boreas dealt with the intense heat by ordering his sons to deliver Opora to Sirius, while he cooled the earth down with blast of cold wind.[20]
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TheRoman equivalent of Boreas wasAquilo.[21][non-primary source needed] This north (and slightly east) wind[22] was associated with winter. The poetVirgil writes:[23]
Interea magnum sol circumvolvitur annum,
et glacialis hiemps aquilonibus asperat undas.
Now had the sun rolled through the year's full circle,
and the waves were rough with icy winter's northern gales[24]
For the wind which came directly from the north the Romans sometimes used the nameSeptentrio, which refers to the seven (septem) stars of thePlow or Big Dipper constellation. The name "Septentrio" gave rise to the pre-modern compass pointSeptentrionalis.[25]
Greek deities were abundantly used inGreco-Buddhist art, so too Boreas and itsvelificatio depiction element. Boreas became the Japanese wind godFujin through the Greco-BuddhistWardo/Oado and ChineseFeng Bo/Feng Po ("Uncle Wind"; among various other names).[26][27][28]
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