Zephyrus

God of the gentle West Wind, the breeze of spring that clears the sky and quickens the flowers. With Boreas and Notus he is a son of Astraeus and Eos, the Dawn (Hes. *Theog.* 378–380). Among the wind-gods he is the mildest, though myth also gives him a darker turn: in one tradition his jealous gust drove Apollo's discus against the youth Hyacinthus and killed him. He was said to dwell in the west, and with the Harpy Podarge to have sired the immortal horses of Achilles, Xanthus and Balius (Hom. *Il.* 16.148–151).