An east wind is a
wind
Wind is the natural movement of atmosphere of Earth, air or other gases relative to a planetary surface, planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heatin ...
that originates in the
east
East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that ea ...
and blows in a westward direction. This wind is referenced as symbolism in culture, mythology, poetry, and literature.
In culture and mythology
In
Islam
Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
, the east wind
Saba holds religious significance as it is said to have assisted Prophet
Muhammad
Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...
in the
Battle of the Trench, and makes frequent appearances in the
Quran
The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...
.
In
Chinese culture
Chinese culture () is one of the Cradle of civilization#Ancient China, world's earliest cultures, said to originate five thousand years ago. The culture prevails across a large geographical region in East Asia called the Sinosphere as a whole ...
, east wind (; Dōngfēng) is often used as a metaphor for the driving force or momentum of revolution and progress. The
People's Liberation Army
The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the military of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Republic of China (PRC). It consists of four Military branch, services—People's Liberation Army Ground Force, Ground Force, People's ...
thus uses "east wind" (
Dongfeng) as the name of its tactical missile series.
In
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...
,
Eurus, the east wind, was the only wind not associated with one of the three
Greek seasons. Eurus is also the only one of these four
Anemoi
In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, the Anemoi () were wind gods who were each ascribed a cardinal direction from which their respective winds came (see Classical compass winds), and were each associated with various nature, ...
not mentioned in Hesiod's ''
Theogony
The ''Theogony'' () is a poem by Hesiod (8th–7th century BC) describing the origins and genealogy, genealogies of the Greek gods, composed . It is written in the Homeric Greek, epic dialect of Ancient Greek and contains 1,022 lines. It is one ...
'' or in the ''
Orphic Hymns''.
In
Egyptian mythology
Egyptian mythology is the collection of myths from ancient Egypt, which describe the actions of the Egyptian pantheon, Egyptian gods as a means of understanding the world around them. The beliefs that these myths express are an important part ...
,
Henkhisesui is the god of the east wind. He was depicted as a man with the head of a Ram.
In
Roman mythology
Roman mythology is the body of myths of ancient Rome as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans, and is a form of Roman folklore. "Roman mythology" may also refer to the modern study of these representations, and to th ...
the east wind was represented by
Vulturnus.
In Native American
Iroquois
The Iroquois ( ), also known as the Five Nations, and later as the Six Nations from 1722 onwards; alternatively referred to by the Endonym and exonym, endonym Haudenosaunee ( ; ) are an Iroquoian languages, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Ind ...
culture, the east wind is said to be brought by O-yan-do-ne, the Moose spirit,
whose breath blows grey mist and sends down cold rains upon the earth.
The
Authorized King James Version
The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version (AV), is an Early Modern English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by ...
of the English
Old Testament
The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...
makes some seventeen references to the east wind. In Chapter 41 of Genesis, the
Pharaoh's dream, which is interpreted by
Joseph, describes seven years of grain blasted by the east wind. In Chapters 10 and 14 of Exodus,
Moses
In Abrahamic religions, Moses was the Hebrews, Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of slavery in the The Exodus, Exodus from ancient Egypt, Egypt. He is considered the most important Prophets in Judaism, prophet in Judaism and Samaritani ...
summons the east wind to bring the locusts that plague
Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
and to part the
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...
so that the Children of Israel can escape Pharaoh's armies. Several other references exist, most associating the east wind with destruction. Often, this is destruction of the wicked by God.
[Gen. 41:6, 23, 27; Ex. 10:13; 14:21; Job 15:2; 27:21; 38:24; Ps. 48:7; 78:26; Isa. 27:8; Jer. 18:17; Ezek. 17:10; 19:12; 27:26; Hosea 12:1; 13:15; Jonah 4:8; Hab. 1:9 ]
See also
*
Flakpanzer IV "Ostwind" ("East Wind"), a German anti-aircraft vehicle from the Second World War
*
North wind
A north wind originates in the north and blows in a southward direction. The wind has had historical and literary significance, since it often signals cold weather and seasonal change in the Northern hemisphere.
Mythology
*In Greek mythology, ...
*
Polar easterlies
*
South wind The south wind is the wind that originates from the south and blows north.
South Wind may also refer to:
* ''South Wind'' (film), 2018 Serbian film
* ''South Wind'' (TV series), 2020 Serbian TV series
* , 2021 Serbian film
* , 2022 Serbian TV s ...
*
West wind
A west wind is a wind that originates in the west and blows in an eastward direction.
Mythology and literature
In European tradition, it has usually been considered the mildest and most favorable of the directional winds.
In ancient Greek ...
*
Dongfeng (disambiguation)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:East Wind
Greek mythology
Winds
ja:東風