Page:Greek and Roman Mythology.djvu/49

 THE GREEK GODS 35 the earlier times only Boreas (north), Zephyrus (west), Notus (south), and, somewhat later, Eurus (east), who were considered the sons of Astraeus ( ( starry vault of heaven') and Eos (<dawii ? ). Like the Harpies, they are of a rapacious nature. Boreas, in particular, kidnaped the beautiful Orithyia, the daughter of Erechtheus, from the bank of the Ilissus, a story which perhaps typi- fies the morning rnist being carried off by the wind. The ruler of the winds is Aeolus ('the shifting one 7 ), who dwells on a floating island in the far west, and keeps them confined in a cave. 45. According to the most probable interpretation Hermes (Lat. Mercurius), too, was originally a wind god ; but Avith him, as in the case of Apollo, the relation to his native element was almost entirely obscured by that side of his nature which is concerned purely with human life and customs. So his fundamental signification can be determined only by the agreement of many of his functions with the attributes of the wind and with those of divinities that can be clearly shown to be wind gods. He was the messenger of Zeus, because the wind seems to come from heaven ; and for the same reason he came to be considered the son of the god of the heavens and of Maia, the goddess of the rain clouds, and was said to have been born on Olympus, or in the cave Cyllene (i.e. the cave of the clouds). As messenger he carried the herald's staff (K-qp-vKciov, Lat. caduceus), which had originally the form of a walking stick, or shepherd's staff, but was later usually like a forked branch twisted. 46. On account of the swiftness and power of the wind Hermes became the god of bodily exercise (H. Agonios),