A vocabulary of landscape — a landscape of words
1367 entries
eurus
Eurus is the Greek name for the east wind, or in some accounts the southeast, and it is one of the four principal winds along with Boreas from the north, Notus from the south, and Zephyrus from the west. In Greek weather lore, Eurus brought warmth and rain and was considered the least reliable of the four. Later systems expanded the set to eight and then to twelve.
Etymology
The word is the Greek for east wind and its further origin is unsettled, though it may connect to a word for dawn, since east is the direction the sun comes from. The Greeks treated the winds as individuals with parentage and temperament rather than as directions on a compass, and the Romans took the whole cast over, which is why Latin poetry uses the same names.
Notes
The Tower of the Winds in Athens, built in the first century BC, is an octagonal marble building with a carved relief of each of the eight winds on the face pointing the way it blows from, each shown as a figure carrying what it brings. It held a water clock and sundials, and it is the oldest surviving structure built to represent the weather.