Editing Zephyrus (section)

== Mythology ==
=== West Wind ===
[[File:The relief panels on the frieze of the Tower of the Winds. The wind god Zephyrus.jpg|thumb|left|Zephyrus relief from the [[Tower of the Winds]], [[Athens]].|upright=1.15]]

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).<ref name=":brill" /> They are the three wind gods mentioned by [[Hesiod]], as ancient Greeks avoided talking about Eurus.{{sfn|Kerenyi|1951|page=[https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.7346/page/n231/mode/2up?view=theater 205]}} Zephyrus and Boreas were thought to dwell together in a palace in [[Thrace]].{{sfn|Smith|1873|loc=s.v. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DZ%3Aentry+group%3D2%3Aentry%3Dzephyrus-bio-1 Zephyrus]}}

In the ''[[Odyssey]]'' however, they all seem to dwell on the island of [[Aeolia (mythical island)|Aeolia]], as [[Zeus]] has tasked [[Aeolus (son of Hippotes)|Aeolus]] with the job of the keeper of the winds.{{sfn|Myrsiades|2019|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Z2bcDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT104 104]}} Aeolus receives [[Odysseus]] and his wretched crew, and hosts them for a month gracefully.<ref>[[Homer]], ''[[Odyssey]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136%3Abook%3D10%3Acard%3D1 1–45]</ref> 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 to [[Homer's Ithaca|Ithaca]]; 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.{{sfn|Myrsiades|2019|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Z2bcDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT104 104]}} Many years later, right after Odysseus left [[Calypso (mythology)|Calypso]], the sea-god [[Poseidon]] in rage unleashed all four of them to cause a storm and raise great waves in order to drown Odysseus in the sea.{{sfn|Hard|2004|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA100 100]}}

[[File:Rutxhiel_Zéphyr_et_Psyché.jpg|thumb|''Zéphyr rapting Psyché'', 1814 by [[Henri-Joseph Ruxthiel]].|240px]]

In the ''[[Iliad]]'', 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 on [[Patroclus]]'s funeral pyre following his death, as Achilles prayed for their help when the pyre failed to kindle.<ref>[[Homer]], the ''[[Iliad]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134%3Abook%3D23%3Acard%3D192 23.192–225]</ref>{{sfn|Hard|2004|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA48 48]}} In the ''[[Dionysiaca]]'', all four live together with their father Astraeus; Zephyrus plays sweet notes with an [[aulos]] for Demeter when she pays them a visit.<ref>[[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://archive.org/details/dionysiaca01nonnuoft/page/216/mode/2up?view=theater 6.28]</ref>

In the myth of [[Cupid and Psyche|Eros and Psyche]], Zephyrus serves [[Eros]], the god of love, by transporting his bride-to-be, the mortal princess [[Psyche (mythology)|Psyche]] with his soft breeze from the cliff (where she had been left in an oracle's suggestion) to Eros's palace.{{sfn|Kenney|1990|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=bFNK7qX7l9QC&pg=PA49 49]}} 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.{{sfn|Kenney|1990|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=bFNK7qX7l9QC&pg=PA57 57]}} 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.{{sfn|Kenney|1990|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=bFNK7qX7l9QC&pg=PA81 81–83]}}

Zephyrus seems to have had a connection to swans; in [[Philostratus the Elder]]'s works, he joins them twice in their song, once while they are carrying the [[Erotes]] and another when the young [[Phaethon]] is killed driving his father [[Helios]]'s fiery chariot.{{sfn|Roman|Roman|2010|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=tOgWfjNIxoMC&pg=PT533 521]}}{{sfn|Ferrari|2008|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=oXbG_4TRs8QC&pg=PA58 58]}} This apparently symbolizes the belief that swans took to singing when the mild west wind blew.<ref>{{cite book | title = Poetica | volume = 3-6 | publisher = Sanseido International | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=4TlJAAAAYAAJ | page = 51 | date = 1975}}</ref>

=== Other myths ===
[[File:Hyacinthus and Zephyrus 3.jpg|thumb|Zephyr and Hyacinth engaging in [[intercrural sex]] on a red-figure vase (5th century BCE)]]

In his most notable myth, Zephyrus fell in love with a beautiful Spartan prince named [[Hyacinth (mythology)|Hyacinthus]], who nevertheless rejected him<ref>[[Lucian]], ''[[Dialogues of the Gods]]'' [http://lucianofsamosata.info/wiki/doku.php?id=home:texts_and_library:dialogues:dialogues-of-the-gods#section14 14: Apollo and Hermes]</ref> and became the lover of another god, [[Apollo]].{{sfn|Forbes Irving|1990|pages=280–281}} One day when the prince and Apollo were playing at  [[discus throw|discus-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.{{efn|The flower that the ancient Greeks believed Hyacinthus turned into was not however what is today known as the hyacinth, as the ancient description does not match.<ref>{{Citation | last = Raven | first = J. E. | year = 2000 | title = Plants and Plant Lore in Ancient Greece | location = Oxford | publisher = Leopard Head Press | isbn = 978-0-904920-40-6 | pages = 26–27}}</ref> The flower most likely to have been the ancient hyacinth is the [[Delphinium|larkspur]], while other candidates include the [[Iris (plant)|iris]] and [[gladiolus italicus]].<ref>{{cite book | pages = [https://books.google.com/books?id=FlbjDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA71 71–76] | title = Roots and Routes: Poetics at New College of California | first1 = Patrick James | last1 = Dunagan | first2 =  Marina | last2 = Lazzara | first3 =  Nicholas James | last3 = Whittington | publisher = Vernon Press | date = 2020 | location = [[Delaware]], United States | isbn = 978-1-64889-052-9 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=FlbjDwAAQBAJ}}</ref>}} In some versions, Zephyrus is supplanted by his brother Boreas as the wind-god who bore a one-sided love for the beautiful prince.{{sfn|Smith|1873|loc= s.v. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DH%3Aentry+group%3D17%3Aentry%3Dhyacinthus-bio-1 Hyacinthus]}} 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.{{sfn|Forbes Irving|1990|pages= 280–281}} 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.{{sfn|Hard|2004|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA58 58]}}{{sfn|Forbes Irving|1990|pages= 280–281}}

On another occasion, another beautiful youth named [[Cyparissus]] ("cypress") and Zephyrus became lovers.<ref>[[Servius (grammarian)|Servius]], ''On the Aeneid'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0053%3Abook%3D3%3Acommline%3D680 3.680]</ref><ref>{{cite web | author = Rosemary M. Wright | title = A Dictionary of Classical Mythology: Summary of Transformations | website = mythandreligion.upatras.gr | url = http://mythandreligion.upatras.gr/english/m-r-wright-a-dictionary-of-classical-mythology/ | access-date = January 3, 2023 | publisher = [[University of Patras]]}}</ref> The youth, wanting to preserve his beauty, fled to Mount Cassium in [[Syria]], where he became transformed into a cypress tree.{{sfn|Forbes Irving|1990|pages=260–261}}{{sfn|Hard|2004|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA571 571]}} This myth, which might be of Hellenistic origin, seems to have been modeled after that of Apollo and [[Daphne]].{{sfn|Hard|2004|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA571 571]}} 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.{{sfn|Forbes Irving|1990|pages=260-261}} 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.{{sfn|Forbes Irving|1990|pages=260–261}}

Zephyrus also features in some of the dialogues by the satirical author [[Lucian]] of [[Samsat|Samosata]]; in the ''Dialogues 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 princess [[Io (mythology)|Io]] and how she was loved and got turned into a heifer by Zeus in order to hide from his jealous wife [[Hera]],<ref>[[Lucian]], ''Dialogues of the Sea Gods'' [http://lucianofsamosata.info/wiki/doku.php?id=home:texts_and_library:dialogues:dialogues-of-the-sea-gods#vii 7: South Wind and West Wind I]</ref> while in the second, Zephyrus enthusiastically recounts the scene he has just witnessed of how Zeus transformed into a bull, tricked another princess, the [[Phoenicia]]n [[Europa (mythology)|Europa]], into riding him, transported her to [[Crete]] and then mated with her while Notus expresses his jealousy and complains of seeing nothing noteworthy.<ref>
[[Lucian]], ''Dialogues of the Sea Gods'' [http://lucianofsamosata.info/wiki/doku.php?id=home:texts_and_library:dialogues:dialogues-of-the-sea-gods#xv 15: South Wind and West Wind II]</ref>