In the tree from which drops honey sit an eagle, a squirrel and four stags; lying at and gnawing the root is the serpent Nithhöggr, while the squirrel Ratatösker runs up and down endeavouring to cause strife between the serpent and the eagle at the top.
Rising and Setting Symbolised
The Egyptian Horus, the hawk-headed son of Osiris and Isis, symbolised the sun’s path, or the rising sun; Ra the noon-day and Osiris the setting.
Osiris, the husband of Isis, is represented by the moon, and by an eye at the top of fourteen steps and symbolises any waning luminary, as the setting sun or waning moon. Isis, to whose worship the sacred cow was dedicated, symbolises rising, becoming visible, and is represented with two horns on a stem rising from her head.
The ancient Egyptian indulged in the supposition that the swelling of the Nile at the annual innundation occurred on the anniversary of the death of Osiris, and was due to the tears of the lamenting Isis.
Endymion in the Greek tradition is the setting sun, with whom the moon is in love. He was visited and kissed every night by Selene on the Latmian Hills, where he was condemned to sleep, and eternal youth.
Winds Personified
That the Winds as natural forces should become personified is easy to imagine, as in the Roman Æolus, father of Zephyr, the West wind. Aquilo or Boreas, son of Astræus a Titan, and Eos (morning) was the North Wind, and lived in a cave on Mount Hermus in Thrace. The other winds were Notus, (South), Eurus (East), Corus (North-West), Argestës (North-East), Volturnus (South-East), and Aferventus (South-West).
The natural phenomenon of the Echo is embodied in the poetic tradition of a nymph, who, on account of unrequited love for Narcissus, pined away till only her voice remained.