January 17: Wedding Month

Boreas, god of the North Wind, had the perfect picture in his head. He would build his happily ever after with the Athenian princess Oreithya. And he really put the effort in. But being the North Wind, subtlety wasn’t his strong point. He blew the nicest phrases in her ear, but she only shivered with cold. He swept her off her feet, and she almost broke her back. He felled a bouquet of trees for her, and she wept for the destruction of the forest. Finally, his patience ran out, he abducted her to a desert mountain peak and overpowered her. Now of course, the Olympian gods, who had ignored the situation so far, had to intervene. Hera shrugged: “It’s in his nature to be harsh, he’s the North Wind after all.” Zeus kept his silence, knowing he too had done some abducting in the past. Hestia felt sorry for the girl, while Hephaistos couldn’t be bothered. Finally, Athena suggested to promote the princess to “goddess of the cold mountain wind”, and arrange for them to marry. So Boreas got his happily ever after. And Oreithya? Not so much.