Notos

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Notos on a Byzantine fresco
Aristotle compass rose (30 ° division)

Notos ( Greek  Νότος , Latin Notus ) has been the south wind in Greek mythology since Homer (approx. 800 BC) and was worshiped as a deity by the ancient Greeks together with his brothers Euros , Boreas and Zephyros . They are children that of Zeus in Tartarus displaced Titans Astraeus (God dusk) and Eos (goddess of the dawn). Under the name Anemoi (Greek Ἄνεμοι "winds"), Hesiod (approx. 700 BC) in his poetry " Theogony " (around 735) set an early literary monument to the east wind, with the exception of Euros. A personification like his brother Boreas is not recognizable for Notus in the myths.

According to Aristotle , Notos is the namesake for the generalization of the rather warm south and east winds, the Notiae compared to the Boreae , the rather cold north and west winds, as found in the wind system of his work "Meteorologica" (approx. 340 BC).

In general, Notos has been described as gentle and warm. Nevertheless, Notos could bring severe autumn storms in which the farmers feared for their harvest. At the Tower of the Winds in Athens , Notus is depicted as a beardless youth, holding an urn in both hands.

Its counterpart in Roman mythology is the oyster , a Sciroccowind that could bring dense cloud cover, fog or damp heat, and this is how the Roman poet Ovid (43 BC – 17 AD) describes in his book " Metamorphoses " I at the beginning of the "Great Flood" in lines 264–269 how Notus, released by Jupiter, completely unleashed, attacks the human race:

    264   emittitque notum. madidis Notus evolat alis,   [Jupiter] sends Notus, who sets off with a damp wing beat,
    265   terribilem picea tectus caligine vultum;   the terrible face covered in darkness;
    266   barba gravis nimbis, canis fluit and a capillis;   his beard is heavy with rain, it drips like wet dog hair;
    267   fronte sedent nebulae, rorant pennaeque sinusque;   the forehead is clouded, it drips from the chest and wings.
    268   utque manu lata pendentia nubila pressit,   his hand squeezes heavily with low-hanging clouds,
    269   fit fragor: hinc densi funduntur from aethere nimbi;   it thunders and pours from every heavens;

See also

Web links

Commons : Notus  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Greek wind

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Homer described for the first time four wind directions deviating from cardinal points; see Iliad XV, 170 ff.
  2. ↑ Hesiod hides the worst (Euros); see Theogony 379 and 870 .
  3. ↑ Myths do not speak of Notos ...
  4. ^ Aristotle, Meteorologica, Chapter 6
  5. ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses Book I, The Great Flood