In the Rigveda both Va ̄yu and Va ̄ta, but much more often the former,
appear in personified form as divine powers, occasionally in the plural. A few
hymns are devoted wholly to one or other of them (1. 134; 4. 48; 7. 92; 10. 168,
186). Va ̄yu is associated with Indra (e.g. 1. 2. 1–6; 4. 46 f.; 7. 90 f.), Va ̄ta, who
represents a more violent sort of wind, with Parjanya. Va ̄yu rides, sometimes
with Indra, in a chariot drawn by red horses (1. 134. 1, 3, 135. 1–3, etc.).^83
Both Vayu and Va ̄ta are recognized also in the Younger Avesta. One or
other or both tend to appear in litanies among objects of reverence.^84 They are
associated with the bringing of victory or success. Vayu in this role is the
recipient of one entire hymn (Yt. 15). In Sı ̄h ro ̄cak 1. 22 and 2. 22 Va ̄ta is
named and then detailed as ‘(coming) from below (i.e. from the lowlands),
from above, from in front, from behind’, in other words ‘the westerly, the
easterly, the southerly, the northerly’. These Iranian texts confirm Herodotus’
statement (1. 131. 2) that the Persians ‘sacrifice to Sun and Moon and Earth
and Fire and Water and the Winds’.
In Greek the old words for ‘wind’ were lost, though the epic language still
has the verb E(f)ημι and derivatives such as q τη, Eελλα. As the standard
word for ‘wind’,Eνεμο prevailed. Already in Mycenaean Knossos a cult of
the Anemoi is attested (KN Fp 1 + 31). In the classical period there is sporadic
evidence for cults of the Winds, some of them involving animal sacrifice, as
well as for occasional offerings in time of need.^85 Hesiod (Th. 378–80, 870 f.)
recognizes three divine winds, Zephyros, Boreas, and Notos, sons of Astraios
and Dawn, contrasted with the evil, irregular, nameless winds that come from
Typhoeus. Achilles prays to Boreas and Zephyros with libations and promise
of sacrifice (Il. 23. 194–8), and they are represented as anthropomorphic
figures who hear the prayers and respond. Elsewhere in the Iliad (16. 150,
- they are said to have fathered horses, and later Greek and Latin poets
speak of them as riding through the air with horses or perhaps even in horse
form.^86
The old word did survive in Latin; poets personified the Venti, or indi-
vidual winds, in the Greek manner. Evidence for any Roman cult, however, is
scanty and not early. Seafarers traditionally propitiated the Tempestates.^87
- they are said to have fathered horses, and later Greek and Latin poets
(^83) For further particulars see Macdonell (1898), 81–3; Oldenberg (1917), 227 f.; Hillebrandt
(1927–9), ii. 294–8; Oberlies (1998), 217–19.
(^84) Y. 16. 5, 25. 5; Sı ̄h ro ̄cak 1. 21 f., 2. 21 f.; Nya ̄yisˇn 1. 8; cf. also Y. 70. 3, Yt. 10. 9, 11. 16, 21, 12.
4, 13. 47, 14. 2; Vd. 19. 13.
(^85) R. Lantier in Daremberg–Saglio, Dictionnaire des antiquités s.v. Venti, 717 f.; H. Steuding in
Roscher, vi. 513–15; M. P. Nilsson, Geschichte der griechischen Religion i.^3 (Munich 1967), 116 f.
(^86) Cf. H. Lloyd-Jones, CQ 7 (1957), 24 = id., Greek Epic, Lyric, and Tragedy (Oxford 1990),
383 f.
(^87) Venti: Lantier (as n. 85), 718 f.; J. B. Keune in Roscher, vi. 181–3. Tempestates: H. Steuding
in Roscher, v. 360 f. Georg Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Römer (2nd edn., Munich 1912),
228.
264 6. Storm and Stream