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Flora (mythology)

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Roman goddess of flowers and spring

Flora
Goddess of flowers and spring
1st-century fresco from the Villa di Arianna inStabiae, depicting Flora or an allegory of spring
Abode	Elysium
Symbols	flower
Festivals	Floralia
Genealogy
Consort	Favonius–Zephyrus
Children	Carpus
Equivalents
Greek	Chloris

Flora (Latin:Flōra) is aRoman goddess of flowers andspring.^[1] She was one of the twelve deities of traditionalRoman religion who had their ownflamen, theFloralis, one of theflamines minores. Her association with spring gave her particular importance at the coming of springtime, as did her role as goddess of youth.^[2] She is one of severalfertility goddesses and a relatively minor figure inRoman mythology. HerGreek counterpart isChloris.

Etymology

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The nameFlōra descends fromProto-Italic*flōsā ('goddess of flowers'), itself a derivation from Proto-Italic*flōs ('flower'; cf.Latinflōs,flōris 'blossom, flower').^[3] It iscognate with theOscan goddess of flowersFluusa, demonstrating that the cult was known more widely amongItalic peoples. The name ultimately derives fromProto-Indo-European*bʰleh₃ōs ('blossoming').^[3]

Festivals and temples

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Main article:Floralia

Flora's festival, theFloralia, was held between April 28 and May 3 and was celebrated with drinking, flowers, and entertainments (ludi).^[4] The festival was first instituted in 240 BCE, and on the advice of theSibylline books, she was also givena temple in 238 BCE. At the festival, with the men decked in flowers, and the women wearing normally forbidden gay costumes, five days offarces andmimes were enacted –ithyphallic,^[5] and including nudity when called for^[6] – followed by a sixth day of the hunting of goats and hares.^[7] On May 23 another flower festival was held, theRosalia.^[4]

Interpretatio graeca

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Flora'sGreek equivalent is the nymphChloris,^[8] whose myths were assimilated to Flora in mythological narratives (interpretatio graeca). The Hellenized Flora was married toFavonius, the wind god also known as Zephyr, and her companion wasHercules. According to the legend, Flora ran away from Favonius, but he caught her, married her and gave her dominion over the flowers.^[9]

In the classical tradition

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Music

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Flora is the main character of the 1894 balletThe Awakening of Flora.

In painting

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Detail of Flora fromPrimavera byBotticelli, c. 1482
Flora byTitian, 1515
Idealized Portrait of a Courtesan as Flora byBartolomeo Veneto, c. 1520
Flora byFrancesco Melzi, c. 1520
Flora and Zephyr, byJan Brueghel the Elder andPeter Paul Rubens, 1617
Flora byClaude Vignon, 1650
Flora byRembrandt, 1654
Flora or Hebe byAlexander Roslin, 18th century
Flora byValentine Walter Bromley, 1874
Flora byFerdinand Keller, 1883
Flora byMosè Bianchi, 1890

Sculpture

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There are many monuments to Flora, for example inRome (Italy),Valencia (Spain), and Szczecin (Poland).

statue of Flora atOrangerie Kassel, around 1703
Flora Farnese (Naples), mid-18th century AD
Statue of Flora inSzczecin, Poland, 1730.

References

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^"Flora". Myth Index. Archived fromthe original on 2016-05-03.
^H. Nettleship ed.,A Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1891) p. 238
^^a ^bde Vaan 2008, pp. 227–228.
^^a ^bGuirand, Felix; Aldington, Richard; Ames, Delano; Graves, Robert (December 16, 1987).New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology. Crescent Books. p. 201.ISBN 0517004046.
^P/ Green ed.,Juvenal: The Sixteen Satires (1982) p. 156
^H. J. Rose,A Handbook of Latin Literature (1967) p. 151
^H. Nettleship ed.,A Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1891) p. 238
^Smith,s.v. Chloris (3).
^Grimal, Pierre (1987).The Dictionary of Classical Mythology. Translated by A. R. Maxwell-Hyslop. New York, USA: Wiley-Blackwell. p. 165.ISBN 0-631-13209-0.