Boreas is the Greek god of the cold north wind, of storms, and of winter. Though usually understood as the north wind, Roman writers such as Aulus Gellius and Pliny the Elder identified him with a northeast wind, equating him with the Roman Aquilo (or Septentrio). He was commonly depicted as a winged old man, or sometimes a vigorous young man with shaggy hair and beard, holding a conch shell and wearing a billowing cloak. His most famous myth is the abduction of Oreithyia, an Athenian princess.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Boreas (god)" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Description
Boreas was said to be the son of Eos, goddess of the dawn, and Astraeus, a minor star-god. He thus belonged to the Anemoi, the wind gods, and was a brother of Eurus, Notus, and Zephyrus, as well as of various star-gods and of the justice goddess Astraea.
The god was closely associated with horses, storms, and winter. According to myth he fathered twelve magical colts by transforming into a stallion and mating with the mares of Erichthonius, king of Dardania; these horses could supposedly run across grain fields without trampling the plants. Pliny the Elder suggested that mares might conceive foals from the North Wind without a stallion. The Greeks believed Boreas's home lay in Thrace, and both Herodotus and Pliny described Hyperborea, the land 'Beyond the North Wind,' a northern realm whose inhabitants lived in happiness with extraordinarily long lifespans.
According to some accounts, Boreas fathered three giant Hyperborean priests of Apollo by Chione. Pausanias reported that Boreas had snakes instead of feet, though artistic depictions typically showed him with winged human feet. Ancient art generally portrayed him as a bearded older man.
II.Mythology: Oreithyia
Boreas abducted Orithyia, an Athenian princess, from the river Ilisos. He at first pleaded for her affections, but when unsuccessful he reverted to his characteristically violent temperament: he wrapped her in a cloud, seized her as she danced along the riverbank, and ravished her. Their union produced two sons, the Boreads Zethes and Calais, who sailed with the Argonauts, and two daughters, Chione and Cleopatra.
After this abduction the Athenians regarded Boreas as a relative by marriage. When Xerxes threatened Athens, the people prayed to Boreas, who was said to have raised winds that destroyed 400 Persian ships, and a cult was established in Athens in 480 BCE in gratitude. Similar aid was recorded at Megalopolis (against Laconia) and at Thurii (against Syracuse), the latter granting Boreas citizenship and land.
The abduction was a popular subject in Athenian art both before and after the Persian Wars, appearing often on vase paintings that showed a bearded man in a tunic, with shaggy hair that is sometimes frosted and spiked. The scene was dramatized in Aeschylus's lost play Oreithyia.
III.Mythology: Other love affairs
In some versions of the story of Hyacinthus, Boreas replaces his brother Zephyrus as the wind-god who harbors unrequited love for the beautiful Spartan prince, who preferred Apollo.
In other accounts Boreas fathered Butes and was a lover of the nymph Pitys. Both Pan and Boreas vied for Pitys; to impress her Boreas uprooted trees with his strength, but Pan merely laughed. When Pitys chose Pan, the angered Boreas chased her down and threw her from a cliff, killing her; Gaia, in pity, transformed her body into a pine tree. During the voyage of the Argo, Zetes and Calais described Apollo as 'beloved of our sire,' perhaps implying a romantic connection.
King Erichthonius of Troy possessed three thousand mares. Boreas fell in love with them and, taking the form of a dark-maned stallion, mated with them and fathered twelve colts. William Smith noted that this was commonly explained as a figurative way of expressing the extraordinary swiftness of those horses.
IV.Mythology: Other traditions
Boreas appears in the oldest tale about the creation of the cypress tree: to honor his dead daughter Cyparissia he planted the cypress, continuing the pattern of wind gods appearing in plant mythology.
When the goddess Leto, pregnant with Artemis and Apollo, was about to give birth, Zeus ordered Boreas to carry her to Poseidon, who guided her to the island of Ogygia where she could safely bear the twins, since Hera had forbidden all lands from sheltering Leto.
In an Aesop fable, Boreas and his uncle Helios, the sun god, argued over who was stronger and wagered that whoever could force a traveler to remove his cloak would win. Boreas tried first but failed, for his harsh winds only made the man wrap his cloak tighter; Helios then shone brightly until the overheated traveler removed his cloak, teaching that persuasion surpasses force.
According to Pausanias, Boreas granted Musaeus of Athens the gift of flight. And when Sirius, the dog star, burned fiercely after being rejected by Opora, a minor harvest goddess, Boreas ordered his sons to deliver Opora to Sirius while he cooled the earth with cold blasts.
V.Aquilo (Septentrio)
Boreas's Roman equivalent was Aquilo, a wind blowing from the north and slightly the east and associated with winter. Virgil wrote of the icy winter that roughened the waves with northern gales (aquilonibus).
The Romans sometimes used the name Septentrio for the directly northern wind, a term referring to the seven stars of the Plough or Big Dipper. This name gave rise to the pre-modern compass point Septentrionalis.
VI.Outside Greco-Roman culture
Greek deities appeared abundantly in Greco-Buddhist art, including Boreas with his velificatio, the billowing cloak. Through the Greco-Buddhist Wardo/Oado and the Chinese Feng Bo or Feng Po ('Uncle Wind'), Boreas became the Japanese wind god Fujin.