In Greek mythology, Calais (Ancient Greek: Κάλαϊς) was one of the Boreads, the two winged "wind brothers" who were the sons of Boreas, the north wind, and Oreithyia, the Athenian princess. Together with his brother Zetes he was an Argonaut, and the pair are best known for rescuing the seer Phineus by driving away the Harpies. Their place of origin was Thrace, the home of their father, and tradition variously holds that they were killed by Heracles on the island of Tenos.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Boreads" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Description
Zetes and Calais possessed notably delicate and graceful hair that was said to grant them the ability to fly, though some accounts describe them as having actual wings. The brothers took immense pride in the length of their curls, and through boasting about these locks they became airborne. They are described as having dusky wings that gleamed with golden scales.
II.Mythology
As sons of the north wind, the brothers possessed supernatural gifts: either moving as fast as the wind or being capable of flight, with wings positioned either on their feet or on their backs depending on the version. According to Ovid's Metamorphoses, their divine nature manifested in adulthood, when wings sprouted from their backs.
The Boreads served as Argonauts and played a crucial role in rescuing Phineus from the Harpies. They drove the monsters away without killing them, honoring a request from Iris, the goddess of the rainbow, who promised that Phineus would suffer no further harpy trouble. In gratitude, Phineus revealed to the Argonauts how they could pass through the Symplegades. Iris turned the Boreads back at the Strophades, the 'Islands of Turning,' which take their name from this event.
According to Phanocles, Calais was beloved by the legendary singer Orpheus in one tradition; Orpheus sang of his desire for Calais, which angered the Thracian women, who eventually killed the musician while he wandered thinking of Calais.
Heracles caused the brothers' deaths on the island of Tenos, as revenge for their having convinced the Argonauts to leave him behind while he searched for Hylas in Mysia. Alternatively, some sources indicate that they perished while pursuing the Harpies, being fated to die if they failed to catch their prey; in certain versions the exhausted Harpies drop into the sea and their pursuers fall likewise.
Calais is traditionally said to have founded Cales in Campania.
III.Genealogy
The Boreads were the twin sons of Boreas and Oreithyia, daughter of King Erechtheus of Athens. They were brothers of Chione and of Cleopatra, the wife of Phineus, king of Thrace.
According to a rare variant in Tzetzes, the blind and elderly Phineus had two daughters, Eraseia and Harpyreia, who lived wasteful, libertine lives; eventually abandoned to poverty and famine, they were snatched away by Zetes and Calais and vanished thereafter.
In one version, Zetes married Aëdon, who suspected that he had fallen in love with a hamadryad nymph and was unfaithful, and who believed that their son Aëtylus knew of and assisted in the deception. In her anger Aëdon killed their son upon his return from hunting, and Aphrodite transformed the mother into a nightingale, forever mourning her child. This story may conflate Zetes with Zethus, who is traditionally Aëdon's actual husband.