Note 783 — Chapter VII · THE ATMOSPHERE

.sp 1

“Arthous, Boreas, Boreae contrarius Auster,

Sol oriens Eurum, vespera dat Zephyrum.

Constringit Boreas, pluvius fert humidus Auster,

Clara dies Euro, flos alitur Zephyro.

Auctumno Boreas, aestati convenit Eurus;

Auster hyemsque madent; ver Zephyrusque tepent.”

—Symbolum electorum, II, 1.

See also Giraldus Cambrensis, Top. Hiber., I, 3, on Zephyr and Eurus, and I, 6, on Corus, the violent northwester which uproots or bends over trees in the west of Ireland. Corus was the favoring wind for voyagers from England to France, according to Willibald, an eighth century ecclesiastic, associate of Boniface, in his Vita Bonifatii, 5 (Migne, Pat. lat., vol. lxxxix, col. 613). Alexander Neckam (loc. cit.) and Bernard Sylvester (loc. cit.) make Eurus a stormy wind. Neckam says that it disturbs the waters and is unwelcome to travelers; Zephyr, on the other hand, spreads the fields with flowers.