Weatherwatch: Myths behind the capricious god of the north wind

The ancient Greeks personified the north wind as the god Boreas, and his chill breezes were a sign of the imminent arrival of winter. Boreas was depicted as a winged man in a billowing cloak holding a conch shell. He had a notoriously bad temper that produced violent storms, and he shipwrecked Odysseus and Hercules. But in some cities, Boreas was a hero and saviour. When a Persian fleet threatened Athens in about 480BC, an oracle instructed the Athenians to pray to the winds. According to Herodotus, “from clear and windless weather” a storm blew up out of the north that lasted for three days. The storm was said to have destroyed virtually all the Persian ships, causing the invasion to fail. The Athenians gave thanks by building a temple to Boreas and celebrating an annual festival, Boreasmus. Little is known about the event except that it included feasting. When it comes to saving cities, Boreas was a bronze age superhero. He protected Megalopolis from an invasion by the Spartans and destroyed a fleet from Syracuse that threatened Thuria. Both cities gave thanks by building temples, and Thuria granted the deity honorary citizenship. It might seem odd to celebrate Boreas’s wintery blasts, but as the saying goes, it is an ill wind that blows nobody any good.