Boreas
（
Βορέας). In Greek mythology, the North Wind, son of
Astraeus and Eos, brother of Zephyrus, Eurus, and Notus. His home was in the Thracian
Salmydessus, on the Black Sea, whither he carried Orithyia from the games on the Ilissus, when
her father, Erechtheus, king of Athens, had refused her to him in marriage. Their children
were Calaïs and Zetes, the so-called Boreades, Cleopatra , the wife of Phineus, and
Chioné, the beloved of Poseidon. (See
Eumolpus.) It was this
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Boreas. (Relief from the Tower of the Winds at Athens.)
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relationship which was referred to in the oracle given to the Athenians, when the
fleet of Xerxes was approaching, that “they should call upon their
brother-in-law.” Boreas answered their prayer and sacrifice by destroying a part of
the enemy's fleet on the promontory of Sepias, whereupon they built him an altar on the banks
of the Ilissus.
