InGreek mythology and religion, Eurus (Ancient Greek: Εὖρος, romanized: Euros, lit. 'east wind') is the god and personification of the east wind, although sometimes he is also said to be southeast specifically.[1] He is one of the four principal wind gods, the Anemoi, alongside Boreas (north wind), Zephyrus (west wind) and Notus (south wind). Eurus is featured rarely in ancient literature, appearing together with his three brothers as part of a whole if at all, and virtually has no individual mythology of his own. Often he is excluded entirely, leaving Boreas, Zephyrus and Notus to represent the Anemoi. His Roman equivalent is the god Vulturnus.
The Greek noun εὖρος refers to the wind that blows from the east.[2] Its ultimate etymology is not clear, although it has been connected to the Greek words for dawn (Ancient Greek: ἠώς) and aura (Ancient Greek: αὔρα).[2]
Early attestation of Eurus and wind-related worship is found in the Mycenaean Greek words a-ne-mo-i-je-re-ja (Linear B: 𐀀𐀚𐀗𐀂𐀋𐀩𐀊) and a-ne-mo i-je-re-ja (Linear B: 𐀀𐀚𐀗𐄀𐀂𐀋𐀩𐀊), that is, "priestess of the winds", found on the KN Fp 1 and KN Fp 13 tablets.[3][4] In post-Greek Dark Ages times, traces of Eurus's worship as part of the Four Winds is found in TitaneinCorinthia where a sanctuary to the Winds stood,[5]Sparta where Eurus was described as the ‘saviour of Sparta,'[6]Coronea where they had an altar,[7] and Attica.
Eurus is traditionally the god of the east or south-east wind.[1][8] He has been both described as rain-bringing and a dry type of wind.[6]
Eurus, unlike the three other principal wind gods, is often skipped by ancient authors. He is the only one not to be mentioned by Hesiod at all, who makes the three beneficial winds the children of Eos (the dawn goddess) and Astraeus, and says that all the other, non-beneficial for humanity winds are the sons of Typhon.[1][9] Instead of Eurus, Hesiod only speaks of "Argestes" for the fourth, which could also refer to Apeliotes occasionally (the god of the southeast wind).[10] Similarly, he is the only one among the four who does not have an Orphic Hymn sang in his honour. It is thus Nonnus, a fifth century AD author from Panopolis who made Eurus one of the Eos-born wind gods in his Dionysiaca.[11]
In his few appearances in mythology, Eurus is usually paired with Notus, the south wind, like Zephyrus is paired with Boreas.[8] Like Notus[12] and unlike Zephyrus/Boreas, Eurus has little to no mythology of his own, and only appears as part of a whole when the Anemoi feature in some tale. Eurus has no known lovers or children.
In the Odyssey the winds seem to dwell on the island of Aeolia, as Zeus has made Aeolus keeper of the winds.[13] Aeolus receives Odysseus and his crew, and keeps them as guests for a month.[14] As they part, Aeolus gives Odysseus a bag containing all the winds, except for Zephyrus; although warned not to open the bag, Odysseus's crewmates however foolishly open the bag, thinking it to contain some treasure, and set free Eurus along with all the other winds as well, who then blow the ships back to Aeolia.[13] Sometime later, he and Notus strand Odysseus on Thrinacia, the island of the sun-god Helios, for an entire month, following their departure from the island of Circe.[15] After Odysseus left Calypso, the sea-god Poseidon in anger let loose all four of them, Eurus included, to cause a storm and raise great waves in order to drown him.[16]
In the Dionysiaca, he and his confirmed brothers live with their father Astraeus; Eurus serves nectar in cups when Demeter pays a visit.[11]
In the Pergamon Altar, which depicts the battle of the gods against the Giants, Eurus and the other three wind gods are shown in the shape of horses who pull Hera's chariot;[17][18] traces of their equine form are also found in Quintus Smyrnaeus's works, where they pull Zeus's chariot instead.[19]
For the Romans, Notus was identified with the god Vulturnus ("he from Vultur", a mountain in Apulia, perhaps related to the world "vulture"), closely associated with dry and warm weather.[6] He was also called Africanus (meaning "he from Africa") occasionally, due to the dry type of east wind the ancients knew.[20]
^Kunze, Max (1988). Der grosse Marmoraltar von Pergamon [The Large Marble Altar of Pergamon] (in German). Berlin: Staatliche Museem zu Berlin. pp. 23–24.
^Although usually the daughter of Hyperion and Theia, as in Hesiod, Theogony371–374, in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes (4), 99–100, Selene is instead made the daughter of Pallas the son of Megamedes.
^Astraea is not mentioned by Hesiod, instead she is given as a daughter of Eos and Astraeus in HyginusAstronomica2.25.1.
Homer, The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PhD in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Homer; The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
Lactantius Placidus, Lactantii Placidi qui dicitur Commentarios in Statii Thebaida it Commentarium in Achilleida recensuit, translated by Ricahrd Jahnke, 1898, B. G. Tevbneri, Lipsiae.
Pausanias, Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
