There can, I think, be no hesitation in deriving Ζέφυρος from ζόφος.
It may be well to remind the reader that ζόφος is the same word in
substance with κνέφας and νέφος[558].
[558] Buttmann. Lexil. voc. κέλαινος.
Thus the north-west is his cradle. But he is so closely associated
with Thrace and with Boreas, the former being his residence, and
the latter[559] his companion, that though he may mean any wind
from west up to north, we must consider him as usually leaning from
the north-west towards the north, while he properly belongs to the
north-west rather than any other given point of the compass.
[559] Il. xxiii. 214.
The position of Boreas is the best defined of all the winds of Homer.
He cannot come from any point to the west of due north: for all that
space is appropriated to Zephyr. He is equally well defined on the
other side. For he blows from Thrace, both generally, as in Il. ix.
5, and particularly on the Plain of Troy[560]. I hold to be of no
authority, as fixing the direction of this wind, the Boreas which
carries the pseudo-Ulysses from Crete to Egypt[561]: for there Homer
is already beyond the Inner World, and he only knows the position of
Egypt from Phœnician report. But we have other trustworthy indications
from within the sphere of Greek nautical knowledge, in his carrying
Hercules from Ilium to Cos[562], in his preventing a voyage from Crete
to Ilium[563], and in the fate of Ulysses, who, in rounding Malea,
is carried off by Boreas to the westward of Cythera[564]. All these
operations can be performed only by a wind blowing from the quarter
between east and north-east.
[560] Il. xxiii. 214, as above.
[561] Od. xiv. 253.
[562] Il. xiv. 255. xv. 26.
[563] Od. xix. 200.
[564] Od. ix. 81.
Putting together these indications, I think we must conclude that the
Boreas of Homer is a wind to the east of north. But it seems plain that
he does not embrace nearly the whole quadrant from north to east. For,
like and even more than Zephyr on the other side of the pole, he has a
leaning towards the polar side, and, in the absence of more particular
marks, Homer should be taken to mean by him a N.N.E. wind, that is, a
wind ranging principally or wholly from N. to N.E.
I take the line Il. ix. 5, which many have treated as a difficulty, for
a sound and valuable geographical indication. Boreas and Zephyr blow
from Thrace. To a Greek, say at Mycenæ, Thrace, which reaches from the
Adriatic to the Euxine, covers more than ninety degrees of the horizon.
It is from within those ninety degrees that every Boreas, and probably
every Zephyr, of Homer can be shown to blow. These are facts which
we may hold in deposit, ready for service in the explanation of the
movements of the Outer Geography.
And along with them we must keep in mind the Homeric affinity and
sympathy established between Boreas and Zephyr. It is so considerable,
and they are especially in such local proximity, that practically
we should not go far wrong were we to say Homer divides the whole
circumference of his horizon into three nearly equal arcs of 120
degrees, more or less. The first of these, beginning from due west,
is given to Zephyr and to Boreas. The next, reaching to within 30° of
the South Pole, to Eurus: and the third, embracing the residue of the
circle, to Notus.
~_Points of the Compass for Notus and Eurus._~
Notus is the great southern wind, Eurus being comparatively of little
account. Now, one of the chief _data_ applicable to determining the
direction of these winds is the passage Il. ii. 144-6. Here they are
described as disturbing the Icarian Sea, which was within the sphere of
Greek navigation. Now the position of that sea, on the coast of Asia
Minor to the south of Samos, shows,