A west wind is a wind that blows from the west, in an eastward direction. In Western tradition, it has usually been considered the mildest and most favorable of the directional winds.
In Greek mythology, Zephyrus was the personification of the west wind and the bringer of light spring and early summer breezes; his Roman equivalent was Favonius. In the myth of Cupid and Psyche, Zephyrus was the attendant of Cupid, who brought Psyche to his master's palace.
Geoffrey Chaucer wrote of the "swete breth" of Zephryus, and a soft, gentle breeze may be referred to as a zephyr, as in Shakespeare's Cymbeline (IV, ii): "They are as gentle / As zephyrs blowing below the violet, / Not wagging his sweet head."
In his novel Fifth Business, renowned Canadian author Robertson Davies makes reference to "the zephyr of May" when describing the warm breeze that comes off the lake.
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Famous quotes containing the words west and/or wind:
“To have a place full of delights and nothing but delights, which one does not have to explain and defend to people who have ideas unsympathetic to one, it is to economize the forces which keep one from ending like the wisteria, from committing the unpardonable sin of doing things with difficulty.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“If there is nothing new on the earth, still the traveler always has a resource in the skies. They are constantly turning a new page to view. The wind sets the types on this blue ground, and the inquiring may always read a new truth there.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)