hey
"brewed the winds". Their demon lovers were Ecke, "he who causes
fear"; Vasolt, "he who causes dismay"; and the scornful Dietrich in
his mythical character of Donar or Thunor (Thor), the thunderer.

Another Sumerian storm demon was the Zu bird, which is represented
among the stars by Pegasus and Taurus. A legend relates that this
"worker of evil, who raised the head of evil", once aspired to rule
the gods, and stole from Bel, "the lord" of deities, the Tablets of
Destiny, which gave him his power over the Universe as controller of
the fates of all. The Zu bird escaped with the Tablets and found
shelter on its mountain top in Arabia. Anu called on Ramman, the
thunderer, to attack the Zu bird, but he was afraid; other gods appear
to have shrunk from the conflict. How the rebel was overcome is not
certain, because the legend survives in fragmentary form. There is a
reference, however, to the moon god setting out towards the mountain
in Arabia with purpose to outwit the Zu bird and recover the lost
Tablets. How he fared it is impossible to ascertain. In another
legend--that of Etana--the mother serpent, addressing the sun god,
Shamash, says:

Thy net is like unto the broad earth;
Thy snare is like unto the distant heaven!
Who hath ever escaped from thy net?
Even Zu, the worker of evil, who raised the head
of evil [did not escape]!

_L.W. King's Translation._

In Indian mythology, Garuda, half giant, half eagle, robs the Amrita
(ambrosia) of the gods which gives them their power and renders them
immortal. It had assumed a golden body, bright as the sun. Indra, the
thunderer, flung his bolt in vain; he could not wound Garuda, and only
displaced a single feather. Afterwards, however, he stole the moon
goblet containing the Amrita, which Garuda had delivered to his
enemies, the serpents, to free his mother from bondage. This Indian
eagle giant became the vehicle of the god Vishnu, and, according to
the _Mahabharata_, "mocked the wind with his fleetness".

It would appear that the Babylonian Zu bird symbolized the summer
sandstorms from the Arabian desert. Thunder is associated with the
rainy season, and it may have been assumed, therefore, that the
thunder god was powerless against the sandstorm demon, who was chased,
however, by the moon, and finally overcome by the triumphant sun when
it broke through the darkening sand drift and brightened heaven and
earth, "netting" the rebell