Zephyrus

The ancient Greek noun {{lang|grc|ζέφυρος}} is the word for the wind that blows from the west.{{sfn|Liddell|Scott|1940|loc=s.v. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=*ze/furos Ζέφυρος]}} His name is attested in Mycenaean Greek as ze-pu₂-ro (Linear B: {{lang|gmy|{{script|Linb|𐀽𐁆𐀫}}}}),{{cite book | last1 = Казанскене | first1 = В. П. | last2 = Казанский | first2 = Н. Н | entry = ze-pu₂-ro | title = Предметно-понятийный словарь греческого языка. Крито-микенский период | url = https://www.academia.edu/40648657 | location = Leningrad (Saint Petersburg), Russia | publisher = Nauka | year = 1986 | page = 64 |language = Russian}} which points to a possible Proto-Hellenic form *Dzépʰuros.{{sfn|Davis|Laffineur|2020|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=AeiyEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA12 12]}} Further attestation of the god and his worship as part of the Anemoi is found in the word-forms {{lang|gmy|{{script|Linb|𐀀𐀚𐀗𐀂𐀋𐀩𐀊}}}}, {{Lang|gmy-latn|a-ne-mo-i-je-re-ja}}, {{lang|gmy|{{script|Linb|𐀀𐀚𐀗𐄀𐀂𐀋𐀩𐀊}}}}, {{Lang|gmy-latn|a-ne-mo i-je-re-ja}}. That is, "priestess of the winds", found on the KN Fp 1 and KN Fp 13 tablets.{{cite web | url = http://minoan.deaditerranean.com/resources/linear-b-sign-groups/a/a-ne-mo/ | title = a-ne-mo | last = Raymoure | first = K. A. | work = Linear B Transliterations | publisher = Deaditerranean. Dead Languages of the Mediterranean | access-date = 2014-03-28 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190212181702/http://minoan.deaditerranean.com/resources/linear-b-sign-groups/a/a-ne-mo/ | archive-date = 2019-02-12 | url-status = dead}}{{cite web | url = https://www2.hf.uio.no/damos/Index/item/chosen_item_id/1 | title = KN Fp 1 + 31}}{{cite web | url = https://www2.hf.uio.no/damos/Index/item/chosen_item_id/13 | title = KN 13 Fp(1) (138)}}{{cite web | url = http://www.hf.uio.no/ifikk/english/research/projects/damos/ | title = DĀMOS: Database of Mycenaean at Oslo – Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas}}

Traditionally, 'Zephyros' has been linked to the word {{lang|grc|ζόφος}} (zóphos) meaning "darkness" or "west". Both in turn have been connected to the Proto-Indo-European root *(h₃)yebʰ-, meaning "to enter, to penetrate" (from which {{lang|grc|οἴφω}} (oíphō), meaning 'to have sex', also derives).{{sfn|Rix|2001|page=[https://archive.org/details/lexikon-der-indogermanischen-verben/page/309/mode/1up?view=theater 309]}} It has been noted however that a development *Hi̯- → ζ- is unlikely, and most evidence in fact points to the contrary.{{sfn|Beekes|2009|page=[https://archive.org/details/etymological-dictionary-of-greek/page/n540/mode/1up?view=theater 499]}}

It could also be of pre-Greek origin, though Beekes is not sure either way.{{sfn|Beekes|2009|page=[https://archive.org/details/etymological-dictionary-of-greek/page/n540/mode/1up?view=theater 499]}} Due to his role as the west wind, his name and various derivatives of it were used to mean 'western',{{sfn|Beekes|2009|page=[https://archive.org/details/etymological-dictionary-of-greek/page/n540/mode/1up?view=theater 499]}} for example the Greek colony of Epizephyrian Locris in southern Italy, west of Greece.

File:Zephyr_and_Flora,_c.1720,_by_Antonio_Corradini,_V&A.JPG.]]

Zephyrus, like the rest of the wind gods Anemoi (Boreas, Eurus and Notus), was said to be the son of Eos, goddess of the dawn, by her husband and first cousin Astraeus, a minor god related to the stars.Hesiod, Theogony [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0130%3Acard%3D371 378], Hyginus [https://topostext.org/work/206#0.2 Preface]; Apollodorus [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+1.2.4&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022 1.2.3]; Nonnus, Dionysiaca [https://archive.org/details/dionysiaca01nonnuoft/page/216/mode/2up?view=theater 6.28] The poet Ovid dubs the four of them 'the Astraean brothers' in reference to their paternity.Ovid, Metamorphoses 14.545

He is thus brother to the rest of Eos and Astraeus's children, namely the five star-gods and the justice goddess Astraea. His mortal half-brothers include Memnon and Emathion, sons of his mother Eos by the Trojan prince Tithonus. The Athenian playwright Aeschylus in his fifth-century BC play Agamemnon writes that Zephyrus is the son of the goddess Gaia (the mother earth). The father, if one exists at all, is not named.Aeschylus, Agamemnon [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0004%3Acard%3D681 690]

File:Oberhausen - Gasometer - Der schöne Schein - Primavera (Botticelli) 03 ies.jpg by Sandro Botticelli, ca. 1470s–1480s, oil on canvas.]]

In Greek tradition, Zephyrus became the consort of Iris, the goddess of the rainbow and messenger of the gods. According to Nonnus, a late-antiquity poet, together they became the parents of Pothos,Nonnus, Dionysiaca [https://archive.org/details/dionysiaca03nonnuoft/page/396/mode/2up?view=theater 47.340] the god of desire, and according to Alcaeus of Mytilene (a six-century BC poet from the island of Lesbos), of Eros as well, though he is more commonly a son of Ares and Aphrodite.Alcaeus of Mytilene fragment 149 [Page, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=4uhBArQUknYC&pg=PA82 82].] In the same passage, Zephyrus is described as having golden hair.

By the Harpy Podarge (who is Iris's sister) he became the father of Balius and Xanthus, the two fast, talking horses that were given to Achilles,{{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]}}{{sfn|Grimal|1987|loc=s.v. [https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofclas00grim/page/73/mode/2up?view=theater Balius]}} when he mated with her while she was grazing on a meadow near the banks of the Ocean, implied in the form of a mare.{{sfn|Hard|2004|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA58 58]}} Quintus Smyrnaeus also says that by a Harpy he had Arion, the talking horse.Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy [https://archive.org/details/falloftroy00quin/page/208/mode/2up?view=theater 4.569] Like with the case of Eros, Arion's more common parentage is different, in this case the Olympians Demeter and Poseidon.{{cite encyclopedia | title = Areion | date = 2006 | access-date = May 28, 2023 | url = https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/brill-s-new-pauly/areion-e133590 | last = Graf | first = Fritz | location = Columbus, Ohio | translator = Christine F. Salazar | doi= 10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e133590 | publisher = Brill Reference Online | encyclopedia = Brill's New Pauly | editor-first1 = Hubert | editor-last1 = Cancik | editor-first2 = Helmuth | editor-last2 = Schneider| url-access = subscription }}

In some sources Zephyrus has a son named Carpus ("fruit") by a nymph Hora, who drowned in the Maeander river when the wind drove a wave right into his face, driving his lover Calamus into despair, who went on to take his life.Servius On Eclogues [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2007.01.0091%3Apoem%3D5%3Acommline%3D48 5.48]; Nonnus, Dionysiaca [https://archive.org/details/dionysiaca01nonnuoft/page/384/mode/2up?view=theater 11.385–481]{{cite encyclopedia | translator = Christine F. Salazar | url = https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/brill-s-new-pauly/carpus-e609540?s | date = 2006 | access-date = April 14, 2023 | first1 = Alexandra | last1 = Frey | location = Hamburg | first2 = Menso | last2 = Folkerts | publisher = Brill Reference Online | encyclopedia= Brill's New Pauly | title = Carpus | doi = 10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e609540 | editor-first1 = Hubert | editor-last1 = Cancik | editor-first2 = Helmuth | editor-last2 = Schneider| url-access = subscription }}{{sfn|Forbes Irving|1990|pages=278–279}} According to Pseudo-Oppian, he also became the genitor of tigers by an unnamed consort.Oppian, Cynegetica [https://archive.org/details/oppiancolluthust00oppiuoft/page/34/mode/2up?view=theater 1.320], [https://archive.org/details/oppiancolluthust00oppiuoft/page/142/mode/2up?view=theater 3.350]

File:The relief panels on the frieze of the Tower of the Winds. The wind god Zephyrus.jpg, 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). 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, as Zeus has tasked 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.Homer, Odyssey [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136%3Abook%3D10%3Acard%3D1 1–45] 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 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, 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.|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.Homer, the Iliad [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134%3Abook%3D23%3Acard%3D192 23.192–225]{{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.Nonnus, Dionysiaca [https://archive.org/details/dionysiaca01nonnuoft/page/216/mode/2up?view=theater 6.28]

In the myth of Eros and Psyche, Zephyrus serves Eros, the god of love, by transporting his bride-to-be, the mortal princess 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.{{cite book | title = Poetica | volume = 3-6 | publisher = Sanseido International | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=4TlJAAAAYAAJ | page = 51 | date = 1975}}

File:Hyacinthus and Zephyrus 3.jpg on a red-figure vase (5th century BCE)]]

In his most notable myth, Zephyrus fell in love with a beautiful Spartan prince named Hyacinthus, who nevertheless rejected himLucian, 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] 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-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.{{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}} The flower most likely to have been the ancient hyacinth is the larkspur, while other candidates include the iris and gladiolus italicus.{{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}}}} 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.Servius, On the Aeneid [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0053%3Abook%3D3%3Acommline%3D680 3.680]{{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}} 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 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 and how she was loved and got turned into a heifer by Zeus in order to hide from his jealous wife Hera,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] while in the second, Zephyrus enthusiastically recounts the scene he has just witnessed of how Zeus transformed into a bull, tricked another princess, the Phoenician Europa, into riding him, transported her to Crete and then mated with her while Notus expresses his jealousy and complains of seeing nothing noteworthy.

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]

File:Pergamon-Altar - Pferde 3.jpg

Like all the other wind gods, Zephyrus is represented in ancient Greek art with wings,{{cite book | first = John | last = Boardman | title = The Athenian Red-Figure Vases: The Archaic Period | publisher = Thames & Hudson | location = London, UK | isbn = 9780500201435 | date = 1985 | page = 230}} due to which he is sometimes hard to distinguish from Eros, another winged youthful god, though tellingly unlike Zephyrus Eros is not depicted pursuing males.{{sfn|Gantz|1996|page=[https://archive.org/details/early-greek-myth-a-guide-timothy-gantz/page/94/mode/2up?view=theater 94]}} In ancient vases, he is most commonly pursuing the young Hyacinthus or already holding him in his arms in an erotic and sexual manner; on a red-figure vase in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Zephyrus's erect penis thrusts into the folds of the young man's clothes as they fly together,{{sfn|Dover|1989|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=fstPVlTPBRQC&pg=PA98 98]}} while vase 95.31 from the same museum depicts intercrural sex between the two.{{sfn|Beazley|1918|page=[https://archive.org/details/atticredfigured00beazgoog/page/n114/mode/2up?view=theater 98]}} Various other vases also show scenes of Zephyrus grabbing and seizing Hyacinthus.{{sfn|Dover|1989|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=fstPVlTPBRQC&pg=PA75 75]}}{{sfn|Dover|1989|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=fstPVlTPBRQC&pg=PA93 93]}}

On the Tower of the Winds, a clocktower/horologion in the Roman agora of Athens, the frieze depicts Zephyrus alongside seven more of the wind gods above the sundials. Zephyrus is presented as a beardless youth carrying a cloak full of flowers.{{cite journal | last1 = Noble | first1 = Joseph V. | last2 = de Solla Price | first2 = Derek J. | title = The Water Clock in the Tower of the Winds | journal = American Journal of Archaeology | date = 1968 | volume = 72 | issue = 4 | pages = 345{{ndash}}355 | doi = 10.2307/503828 | jstor = 503828 | s2cid = 193112893 | url = https://www.jstor.org/stable/503828 | issn = 0002-9114| url-access = subscription }}

On the Pergamon Altar, which depicts the battle of the gods against the Giants (known as the Gigantomachy), Zephyrus and the other three wind gods are shown in the shape of horses who pull the chariot of the goddess Hera in the eastern frieze of the monument;LIMC [http://ark.dasch.swiss/ark:/72163/080e-73ac4ebff2462-9 617 (Venti)]{{cite book | first = Max | last = Kunze | title = Der grosse Marmoraltar von Pergamon | trans-title = The Large Marble Altar of Pergamon | publisher = Staatliche Museem zu Berlin | language = German | location = Berlin | date = 1988 | pages = 23–24}} the equine forms of the Anemoi are also found in Quintus Smyrnaeus's works, where the four brothers pull Zeus's chariot instead.Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy [https://archive.org/details/falloftroy00quin/page/500/mode/2up?view=theater 12.189]

Ancient cult of the wind gods is attested in several ancient Greek states.{{sfn|Farnell|1909|page=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.56576/page/415/mode/2up?view=theater 416]}} According to the geographer Pausanias, the Winds were jointly worshipped in the town of Titane, in Sicyon, where the local priest offered sacrifice to them,{{sfn|Farnell|1909|page=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.56576/page/417/mode/2up?view=theater 417]}}Pausanias, Description of Greece [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+2.12.1&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160 2.12.1] and in Coronea, a town in Boeotia.Pausanias, Description of Greece [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160%3Abook%3D9%3Achapter%3D34%3Asection%3D3 9.34.3] It is also known that the citizens of Laciadae in Attica had erected an altar for Zephyrus.Pausanias, Description of Greece [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+1.37.2&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160 1.37.2] According to a fragment doubtfully attributed to the fifth-century BC poet Bacchylides, a Rhodian farmer named Eudemus built a temple in honour of the west wind god, in gratitude for his help.{{cite journal | last1 = Silver | first1 = Isidore | date = 1945 | title = Du Bellay and Hellenic Poetry | url = https://www.jstor.org/stable/459286 | journal = PMLA | publisher = Cambridge University Press | volume = 60 | issue = 4 | jstor = 459286 | pages = 949–50 | doi = 10.2307/459286 | s2cid = 163633516 | access-date = May 25, 2023| url-access = subscription }}

File:Sandro Botticelli - The Birth of Venus (detail) - WGA2772.jpg from Sandro Botticelli's The Birth of Venus.]]

Zephyrus's Roman equivalent was called Favonius (the "favouring") who held dominion over plants and flowers, however 'Zephyrus' was also commonly used by Romans. Some later authors would also describe him as having wings in his head.{{sfn|Smith|1873|loc=s.v. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DU%3Aentry+group%3D5%3Aentry%3Dventi-bio-1 Venti]}} The Roman poet Horace writes:Horace, Odes 3.7.

{{Verse translation|quid fles, Asterie, quem tibi candidi

primo restituent vere Favonii?|Why do you weep, Asterie, for the man whom the bright west winds

will restore to you at the beginning of spring?|lang=la}}

Unlike Greek authors, Roman writers held that Zephyrus/Favonius married not Iris but rather a local vegetation and fertility goddess named Flora (identified and linked by Ovid with a minor Greek nymph named Chloris and her legend{{sfn|Grimal|1987|loc=s.v. [https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofclas00grim/page/165/mode/2up?view=theater Flora]}}) after abducting her while she tried to run away and escape him; he gave her dominion over flowers, thus making amends for his violence and abduction of her.{{cite encyclopedia | encyclopedia = Brill's New Pauly | publisher = Brill Reference Online | url = https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/brill-s-new-pauly/zephyrus-e12216400 | doi = 10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e12216400 | last = Rausch | first = Sven | location = Hamburg | title = Zephyrus | date = 2006 | editor-first1 = Hubert | editor-last1 = Cancik | editor-first2 = Helmuth | editor-last2 = Schneider | translator = Christine F. Salazar | access-date = April 13, 2023| url-access = subscription }}Ovid, Fasti [https://archive.org/details/ovidsfasti00oviduoft/page/274/mode/2up?view=theater 5.195–212]

Some analysts have suggested that Carpus, the son Zephyrus had by Hora/a Hora (season goddess), is supposed to have been actually mothered by Flora/Chloris instead, although this is not confirmed in any ancient text.{{sfn|Guirand|Graves|1987|page=[https://archive.org/details/newlarousseencyc00robe/page/137/mode/2up?view=theater 138]}}

{{chart top|Zephyrus's family treeHesiod, Theogony [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+132 132–138], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+337 337–411], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+453 453–520], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+901 901–906, 915–920]; Caldwell, pp. 8–11, tables 11–14.|collapsed=no}}

{{chart/start}}

{{chart|}}

{{chart| | | | | | | | | | | |URA |y|GAI |~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|y|PON|URA=Uranus|GAI=Gaia|PON=Pontus}}

{{chart|,|-|v|-|-|-|v|-|-|-|-|-|v|-|^|-|v|-|-|-|-|-|-|.| | | |!}}

{{chart|!|OCE |y|TET | | | |HYP |y|THE | | | | |CRI |y|EUR|OCE=Oceanus|TET=Tethys|HYP=Hyperion|THE=Theia|CRI=Crius|EUR=Eurybia}}

{{chart|!| |,|-|^|-|.| | | |,|-|-|-|+|-|-|-|.| | | |,|-|-|^|v|-|-|-|.}}

{{chart|!|RIV | |OCE | |HEL | |SEL | |EOS |y |AST | |PAL | |PER |RIV=The Rivers|OCE=The Oceanids|HEL=Helios|SEL=SeleneAlthough usually the daughter of Hyperion and Theia, as in Hesiod, Theogony [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+371 371–374], in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes (4), [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=HH+4+99&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0138 99–100], Selene is instead made the daughter of Pallas the son of Megamedes.|EOS=Eos|AST=Astraeus|PAL=Pallas|PER=Perses}}

{{chart|!| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |,|-|-|-|+|-|-|-|.}}

{{chart|!| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |ZEP | |ASR | |PLA |ZEP=ZEPHYRUS
Anemoi|ASR=AstraeaAstraea is not mentioned by Hesiod, instead she is given as a daughter of Eos and Astraeus in Hyginus Astronomica [https://topostext.org/work/207#2.25.1 2.25.1].|PLA=Stars}}

{{chart|!| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |}}

{{chart|)|-|-|-|-|-|v|-|-|-|v|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|v|-|-|-|.| | | |}}

{{chart|!| | | | |CRO |y|RHE | | | | | | | |COE |y|PHO | | |COE=Coeus|PHO=Phoebe|CRO=Cronus|RHE=Rhea}}

{{chart|!| |,|-|v|-|v|-|^|-|v|-|v|-|.| | | | | |,|-|^|-|.| | | }}

{{chart|!|HES |!|HER | |HAD |!|ZEU | | | |LET | |AST | |HES=Hestia|HER=Hera|HAD=Hades|ZEU=Zeus|LET=Leto|AST=Asteria}}

{{chart|!| | | |!| | | | | | | |!| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |}}

{{chart|!| | |DEM | | | | | |POS | | | | | | | | | | | | | |DEM=Demeter|POS=Poseidon}}

{{chart|!| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |}}

{{chart|`|-|-|-|-|v|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|v|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|.}}

{{chart| | | | |IAP |y|CLY | | | | | |MNE |~|y|~|ZEU |~|y|~|THE |IAP=Iapetus|CLY=Clymene (or Asia)According to Hesiod, Theogony [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+507 507–511], Clymene, one of the Oceanids, the daughters of Oceanus and Tethys, at Hesiod, Theogony [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+351 351], was the mother by Iapetus of Atlas, Menoetius, Prometheus, and Epimetheus, while according to Apollodorus, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022%3Atext%3DLibrary%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D2%3Asection%3D3 1.2.3], another Oceanid, Asia was their mother by Iapetus.|MNE=Mnemosyne|ZEU=(Zeus)|THE=Themis}}

{{chart| |,|-|-|-|v|-|^|-|v|-|-|-|.| | | | | | |!| | | | | |!}}

{{chart|ATL | |MEN | |PRO | |EPI | | | | |MUS | | | |HOR |ATL=AtlasAccording to Plato, Critias, [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0059.tlg032.perseus-eng1:113d 113d–114a], Atlas was the son of Poseidon and the mortal Cleito.|MEN=Menoetius|PRO=PrometheusIn Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 18, 211, 873 (Sommerstein, pp. [http://www.loebclassics.com/view/aeschylus-prometheus_bound/2009/pb_LCL145.445.xml 444–445 n. 2], [http://www.loebclassics.com/view/aeschylus-prometheus_bound/2009/pb_LCL145.467.xml 446–447 n. 24], [http://www.loebclassics.com/view/aeschylus-prometheus_bound/2009/pb_LCL145.539.xml 538–539 n. 113]) Prometheus is made to be the son of Themis.|EPI=Epimetheus|MUS=The Muses|HOR=The Horae}}

{{chart/end}}

{{chart bottom}}

File:William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) - Flora And Zephyr (1875).jpg|Flora and Zephyr by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, oil on canvas.

File:Hermitage hall 241 - 33 - Luigi Bienaimé - Zephyrus.jpg|Statue of Zephyrus in Hermitage Hall.

File:Mosaico de Océano (48928130318).jpg|Zephyrus and Boreas surround Oceanus in a mosaic from Portugal.

File:John Gibson-group of statues-Hermitage.jpg|Zephyrus, Psyche and Eros, statue by John Gibson.

File:Zephyr, Greek god of the west wind.jpg|Zephyrus, 1878 engraving.

File:Łazienki - Pałac Myślewicki - 05.jpg|Statue of Zephyrus in Poland.

File:Antonio Balestra - Zephyrus, Flora and Cupid.jpg|Zephyrus, Flora and Cupid by Antonio Balestra.

File:Boucher - Venus mit Bacchus, Ariadne und Zephir, 12168.png|Zephyrus with Venus, Ariadne and Bacchus, eighteenth century.

File:Hyacinthus and Zephyrus 2.jpg|Zephyrus and Hyacinthus red-figure, 440–420 BC.

File:Hyacinthus and Zephyrus.png|Hyacinthus and Zephyrus. Attic Red Figure Kylix. Attributed to Manner of Douris Painter, 500–450 B.C.

File:Antonio_Bonazza-Zephyrus-Upper_Gardens_of_Peterhof.jpg|Statue of Zephyrus in the gardens of Peterhof.

File:Ca'_Rezzonico_-_Zefiro_e_Flora_(Inv.103)_-_Sebastiano_Ricci.jpg|Zéphyr et Flore by Sebastiano Ricci, oil on canvas.

File:Zephyrus,_the_west_wind;_in_the_summer_brings_very_sultry_weather,_but_in_the_spring_is_pleasant,_warm,_and_favorable_to_-_Stuart_James_&_Revett_Nicholas_-_1762.jpg|Engraving of Zephyrus.

File:Tiepolo,_Giovanni_Battista_-_The_Triumph_of_Zephyr_and_Flora_-_1734-35.jpg|Zéphyr et Flore, by Giambattista Tiepolo, ca. 1730–1735 in Ca' Rezzonico, Venice.

{{portal|Ancient Greece|Ancient Rome|Mythology}}

• Bacab
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• Norðri, Suðri, Austri and Vestri
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• List of wind deities

{{notelist}}

{{reflist}}

{{refbegin|30em}}

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{{refend}}

{{commons category|Zephyrus}}

• [https://www.theoi.com/Titan/AnemosZephyros.html ZEPHYRUS from the Theoi Project]
• [https://iconographic.warburg.sas.ac.uk/category/vpc-taxonomy-000533 The Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (images of Zephyrus)]
• [https://iconographic.warburg.sas.ac.uk/category/vpc-taxonomy-000533 Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (ca 40 images of Flora and Zephyrus)]

{{Greek religion}}

{{Greek mythology (deities)}}

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