Definition:
Boreas is the Greek name of the personification of the North Wind. He was a son of Astraios (Titan god of the stars and planets) and Eos (Dawn).
Boreas had a special relationship with Athens during the Persian Wars. Advised by the Delphic Oracle to call on their son-in-law to help them against the fleet of the Persian king Xerxes, the Athenians interpreted this to mean Boreas. [Read Why was Boreas the son-in-law of the Athenians?
189. There is a story reported that the Athenians had called upon Boreas to aid them, by suggestion of an oracle, because there had come to them another utterance of the god bidding them call upon their brother by marriage to be their helper. Now according to the story of the Hellenes Boreas has a wife who is of Attica, Oreithuia the daughter of Erechththeus. By reason of this affinity, I say, the Athenians, according to the tale which has gone abroad, conjectured that their "brother by marriage" was Boreas, and when they perceived the wind rising, as they lay with their ships at Chalkis in Euboea, or even before that, they offered sacrifices and called upon Boreas and Oreithuia to assist them and to destroy the ships of the Barbarians, as they had done before round about mount Athos. Whether it was for this reason that the wind Boreas fell upon the Barbarians while they lay at anchor, I am not able to say; but however that may be, the Athenians report that Boreas had come to their help in former times, and that at this time he accomplished those things for them of which I speak; and when they had returned home they set up a temple dedicated to Boreas by the river Ilissos.
Herodotus Book 7.189
Boreas was the father of two of the Argonauts:
"And swift came two who dwelt beneath the strong foundations of Pangaion's height [a Thrakian mountain]; for gladly with a joyful heart their father Boreas, sovereign of the winds, commanded Zetes and Kalais to the task, those heroes whose backs on either side bear fluttering wings of purple."[Theoi] Pindar, Pythian Ode 4. 180 ff (trans. Conway)
Examples:
Hyperborea, the land beyond Boreas, is the winter abode of the god Apollo.
