The son of Astraeus and Eos, Zephyros lived in Thrace in a palace with Boreas. Through the power of a harpie named Podage, he fathered two horses named Xanthus and Balius. These horses belonged to the warrior-god Achilles. He was married to Khloris, who represented greenery, and had a son named Karpos, who represented fruit.
The most famous myth involving Zephyros is the tale of his rivalry with Apollo over their love for the boy Hyakinthos. When Zephyros sees Apollo and the boy playing a disc-throwing game together called quoits, he becomes enraged with jealousy. He uses his power over the wind to make it affect the disc and hit the boy in the head. The boy dies from the impact. Apollo, grieving, turns the boy into a flower called a larkspur.
In classical art, Zephyros is usually portrayed as handsome and young. He has wings. On ancient Greek vase art, sometimes there are images of a god with wings embracing a boy and these have been at times identified as the wind god and Hyakinthos. In Greco-Roman art the wind god generally is seen as a personification of springtime. He carries a basket of fruit that has not yet ripened.
Zephyros does take a very beautiful woman by force during one spring. He sees the woman and pursues her as she runs and he overpowers her. In the story she feels he atones for his offense by making her his wife. She does not complain of her new position and even pronounces her enjoyment of the spring, the growing trees and her garden full of fruit. Her husband gives her domain over all flowers. She accepts her place even though he has so greatly wronged her and abused her.