The Wind of God (1)

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In a passage of Aeschylus’ Persians the Persian Queen observes that a wave of troubles makes people afraid of everything, whereas when the divine power responsible for one’s personal fortunes, the daimon is in fair flow, they trust all too confidently ‘that he will constantly send the same favouring wind of fortune’ (602). In several other tragic passages one finds the idea of good or ill fortune expressed in the image of a wind which is sent or controlled by a divine agent, or of a daimon who comes in the form of a wind, e.g. Seven against Thebes 705-708: ‘With an eventual wind-change of mood, the daimon may perhaps come altered, with gentler blowing.’ In several Babylonian poems of the later second millennium we read of a god’s good or bad wind (šāru ṭābu or lā ṭābu) directed towards an individual. The sufferer of the Theodicy is advised ‘look for the favourable wind of the gods: what you lost over a year, you will recover in a thrice’ (241-242). A number of prayers contain a petition such as ‘may your favourable wind blow upon me’, and the concept is reflected in many Akkadian personal names, such as Ṭāb-šār Ištar, ‘The Wind of Ištar is good’.

Sources (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Aeschylus, Persians 602
Aeschylus, Seven against Thebes 705-708
Theodicy 241-242

Bibliography

Amar Annus

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