In Greek mythology and religion, Notus is the god of the south wind and one of the Anemoi (wind-gods), sons of the dawn goddess Eos and the star-god Astraeus. A desiccating wind of heat, Notus was associated with the storms of late summer and early autumn, wetness, and mist, and was seen as a rain-bringer. Unlike his more notable brothers Boreas and Zephyrus, he has little unique mythology of his own. His Roman counterpart is Auster.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Notus" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Family
In Hesiod's Theogony, Notus is the son of Eos and Astraeus, sibling of the other winds Zephyrus and Boreas (and, in fuller lists, Eurus), as well as of the stars and the justice goddess Astraea. Through Eos he is also half-brother to the mortals Memnon and Emathion. He has no known consorts, lovers, or offspring in surviving tradition.
II.Character of the south wind
Ancient Greeks distinguished several southern winds: notos itself, a rain-bringer that obscured visibility in winter; leukonotos ("white Notus"), milder and clearing; and a hot, dusty blast identified with the sirocco. Notus mostly represents the first of these. Hesiod counts him with Boreas and Zephyrus among the beneficial winds; Eurus, by contrast, was often treated as inauspicious.
III.Mythology
Notus rarely acts alone. In Ovid's account of the Great Deluge, Zeus locks up Boreas and the other cloud-blowing gales and lets Notus pour rain over the earth. In the Odyssey the winds dwell on Aeolia under Aeolus; when Odysseus's crew open the bag of winds, Notus and the others drive the ships back. Later he and Eurus strand Odysseus on Thrinacia for a month.
In the Iliad, Iris finds the winds dining together when she summons Boreas and Zephyrus to kindle Patroclus's pyre. Lucian's Dialogues of the Sea Gods pairs Notus with Zephyrus in satirical conversations about Io and Europa. In Nonnus's Dionysiaca the brothers live with Astraeus, and Notus serves water from a jug when Demeter visits.
IV.Iconography and Auster
Notus appears rarely in art. On the Tower of the Winds in Athens he is shown as a beardless youth emptying a pointed amphora of water, symbolizing rain. On the Pergamon Altar the four Anemoi appear as horse-shaped deities pulling Hera's chariot.
The Romans identified him with Auster, likewise a south wind closely associated with the sirocco and with little independent mythology. The name Auster is the root of words such as Australia ("southern land").