East wind

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An east wind is a wind that originates in the east and blows west. In Greek mythology, Eurus, the east wind, was the only wind not associated with any of the three Greek seasons, and is the only one of these four Anemoi not mentioned in Hesiod's Theogony or in the Orphic Hymns.

There is an intentional community called the East Wind Community located in the Missouri Ozarks. They took their name from a quote by Mao, which was along the lines of "The East Wind shall prevail over the West."

[edit] Literary references

In Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Garden of Paradise", it is the East Wind who takes the hero to visit the eponymous garden.

In J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, the East Wind, like most other things dealing with the east, is viewed as a thing of evil. In Book III (which appears in The Two Towers), after Aragorn and Legolas have sung a lament for Boromir involving invocations of the other three winds, the following dialogue takes place:

“

"You left the East Wind to me," said Gimli, "but I will say naught of it."

"That is as it should be," said Aragorn. "In Minas Tirith they endure the East Wind, but they do not ask it for tidings. ..."

”

In George MacDonald's At the Back of the North Wind, on the other hand, the East Wind is described as more mischievous than strictly evil; the North Wind comments, "...[O]ne does not exactly know how much to believe of what she says, for she is very naughty sometimes..."