Notus
Notus | |
---|---|
God of the South Wind | |
Astraea | |
Equivalents | |
Roman equivalent | Auster |
In
His Roman equivalent is the god Auster.
Etymology
The Greek noun νότος refers both to the south cardinal direction and the south wind that blows from it.[1] Its ultimate etymology remains unknown, although a pre-Greek origin seems to be the most likely origin.[2]
Family
Notus, like most of the wind gods, the Anemoi was said to be the son of Eos, the goddess of the dawn, by her husband Astraeus, a minor god related to the stars.[3] Thus, he is brother to the five star-gods and the justice goddess Astraea, and half-brother to the mortals Memnon and Emathion, sons of his mother Eos by the Trojan prince Tithonus. Notus has no known consorts, lovers or offspring.
The ancient Greeks distinguished the three types of wind blowing from the south; the first was notos (the one Notus mostly represents) which blew from various directions in winter and was seen as the rain-bringer that obscured visibility, the second was leukonotos ("white notus") which was milder and cleared up the sky, and the third was the hot bringer of dust, identified with sirocco.[4]
Mythology
Notus is one of the three wind-gods mentioned by Hesiod, alongside his brothers Boreas and Zephyrus,[5] the three wind gods seen as beneficial by the ancient Greeks.[6] Unlike his two more prominent brothers however, Notus has very little mythology, and mostly appears in conjugation with his brothers, with too few unique appearances to differate him from the rest.[7]
In his preparation for the Great Deluge, Zeus locked up Boreas and the other cloud-blowing gales, and let Notus free, to rain upon the earth, who let it pour all over the globe, drowning almost everyone.[8]
In the Odyssey the winds seem to dwell on the island of Aeolia, as Zeus has made Aeolus keeper of the winds.[9] Aeolus receives Odysseus and his crew, and keeps them as guests for a month.[10] 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 Notus along with all the other winds as well, who then blow the ships back to Aeolia.[9]
In the
In the Pergamon Altar which depicts the battle of the gods against the Giants, Notus and the other three wind gods are shown as horse-shaped deities who pull Hera's chariot;[15][16] their equine form is also found in Quintus Smyrnaeus's works, where they pull Zeus instead.[17] In the Tower of the Winds, a Roman-era octagonal clock tower in Athens, Notus is depicted in middle relief as a beardless young man emptying a water-filled pointed amphora, symbolizing rain.[18]
In one of his few defining appearances, Notus features in two of the Dialogues of the Sea Gods, a satirical work by
Auster
For the Romans, Notus was identified with the god Auster ("south"), closely associated with the sirocco wind. Like Notus himself, Auster has no big role in mythology. The name, Auster, means south and is the root of words such as Australia, literally "south land."
Genealogy
Notus's family tree[21] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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See also
- Bacab
- Dáinn, Dvalinn, Duneyrr and Duraþrór
- Norðri, Suðri, Austri and Vestri
- Vayu
- List of wind deities
References
- ^ Liddell & Scott 1940, s.v. νότος.
- ^ Beekes 2010, s.v.Νότος.
- . Retrieved April 17, 2023.
- ^ Kerenyi 1951, p. 205.
- . Retrieved April 13, 2023.
- ^ Grimal 1987, p. 312.
- ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.262
- ^ a b Myrsiades 2019, p. 104.
- ^ Homer, Odyssey 1-45
- ^ Nonnus, Dionysiaca 6.28
- ^ Homer, the Iliad 23.192-225
- ^ Hard 2004, p. 48.
- ^ Gantz 1996, p. 705.
- ^ LIMC 617 (Venti)
- ^ Kunze, Max (1988). Der grosse Marmoraltar von Pergamon [The Large Marble Altar of Pergamon] (in German). Berlin: Staatliche Museem zu Berlin. pp. 23–24.
- ^ Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 12.189
- ^ LIMC 363
- ^ Lucian, Dialogues of the Sea Gods 7: South Wind and West Wind I
- ^ Lucian, Dialogues of the Sea Gods 15: South Wind and West Wind II
- ^ Hesiod, Theogony 132–138, 337–411, 453–520, 901–906, 915–920; Caldwell, pp. 8–11, tables 11–14.
- ^ Although usually the daughter of Hyperion and Theia, as in Hesiod, Theogony 371–374, in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes (4), 99–100, Selene is instead made the daughter of Pallas the son of Megamedes.
- Hyginus Astronomica 2.25.1.
- , another Oceanid, Asia was their mother by Iapetus.
- Cleito.
- ^ In Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 18, 211, 873 (Sommerstein, pp. 444–445 n. 2, 446–447 n. 24, 538–539 n. 113) Prometheus is made to be the son of Themis.
Bibliography
- Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- ISBN 978-90-04-17419-1.
- ISBN 978-0-8018-5362-3.
- ISBN 0-631-13209-0.
- Hard, Robin (2004). The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology". ISBN 9780415186360.
- Hesiod, Theogony, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- 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.
- Kerenyi, Karl (1951). The Gods of the Greeks. London, UK: Thames and Hudson.
- Kunze, Max (1994). ISBN 3-7608-8751-1.
- Clarendon Press. Online version at Perseus.tufts project.
- The Clarendon Press, 1905.
- Myrsiades, Kostas (April 5, 2019). Reading Homer's Odyssey. Pennsylvania, USA: ISBN 9781684481361.
- Nonnus, Dionysiaca; translated by Rouse, W H D, III Books XXXVI-XLVIII. Loeb Classical Library No. 346, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1940. Internet Archive.
- Ovid, Metamorphoses, translated by Arthur Golding. London. W. Seres. 1567. Online text at Perseus.tufts project.
- Quintus Smyrnaeus, Quintus Smyrnaeus: The Fall of Troy, translated by A.S. Way, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1913. Internet Archive.