On some early B.F. vases we find winged beings which may be styled _Boreades_, in conjunction with Harpies, apparently representing the influences of good and evil winds respectively.[975] Zetes and Kalais, the sons of Boreas, will be treated of in the story of the Argonautika.[976] The _Aurae_ or breezes have been identified on a well-known vase in the British Museum,[977] and on an Apulian vase in the same collection is a head undoubtedly intended for Aura.[978] The _Hyades_ or rain-goddesses in two instances extinguish the flames of a funeral pyre at the bidding of Zeus, at the apotheosis of Alkmena[979] and of Herakles[980]; in one of the latter instances they are named Arethusa and Premnusia. They also receive the infant Dionysos.[981] _Echo_ belongs perhaps rather to the Dionysiac cycle, appearing as the beloved of Pan.[982]
II. We may next consider the personifications of =cities and countries=, which are, indeed, in some cases more than merely symbolical figures, being actual goddesses with a definite cult, such as the Nymph Kyrene, who often appears on works of art.[983] On the great Naples vase representing Dareios in a council of war, personifications of _Hellas_ and _Asia_ are placed among the spectator-deities,[984] and the former seems also to be indicated on a similar vase with a battle of Greeks and Persians.[985] On one of the late vases with the subject of Pelops and Oinomaos, a personification of the locality _Olympia_ appears to be similarly present,[986] just as on the Hieron kotyle the personification of Eleusis is included among the Eleusinian and other deities at the sending forth of Triptolemos.[987] The city of _Thebes_ is personified in several instances, especially as a spectator of Kadmos slaying the dragon[988]; also on a “Megarian” bowl with reliefs in the British Museum, the subjects on which are taken from the _Phoenissae_ of Euripides.[989] _Nemea_, the scene of Herakles’ victory over the lion, and of the death of Archermos, is similarly personified as a Nymph in the representations of both subjects,[990] and the town of _Krommyon_ as a Nymph protests against the slaying of the sow by Theseus.[991] The Nymph _Sparta_ occurs once, dismounting from her horse.[992] Two cups of the early B.F. class usually known (from their subjects) as Cyrenaic, bear representations of the Nymph _Kyrene_ (see above)—in one case with Apollo, in the other holding a branch of silphium (the local product) and surrounded by Boreads and Harpies (see above).[993]
