Flora (mythology)

Flora
Goddess of flowers and the season of spring
Cosiddetta Flora from the Villa di Arianna in Stabiae near Pompeii, 1st century Roman fresco
Abode	Elysium
Symbols	flower
Festivals	Floralia
Genealogy
Consort	Favonius–Zephyrus
Children	Carpus
Equivalents
Greek equivalent	Chloris
Oscan equivalent	Fluusa

Flora Farnese (Naples), mid-18th century AD

Flora (Latin: Flōra) is a Roman goddess of flowers and of the season of spring – a symbol for nature and flowers (especially the may-flower). While she was otherwise a relatively minor figure in Roman mythology, being one among several fertility goddesses, her association with the spring gave her particular importance at the coming of springtime, as did her role as goddess of youth. She was one of the fifteen deities who had their own flamen, the Floralis, one of the flamines minores. Her Greek counterpart is Chloris.

Etymology

The name Flōra descends from Proto-Italic *flōsā ('goddess of flowers'), itself a derivation from Proto-Italic *flōs ('flower'; cf. Latin flōs, flōris 'blossom, flower'). It is cognate with the Oscan goddess of flowers Fluusa, demonstrating that the cult was known more widely among Italic peoples. The name ultimately derives from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₃ōs ('blossoming').

Festival

Her festival, the Floralia, was held between April 28 and May 3 and symbolized the renewal of the cycle of life, drinking, and flowers. The festival was first instituted in 240 B.C.E, and on the advice of the Sibylline books, she was also given a temple in 238 B.C.E. At the festival, with the men decked in flowers, and the women wearing normally forbidden gay costumes, five days of farces and mimes were enacted – ithyphallic, and including nudity when called for – followed by a sixth day of the hunting of goats and hares. On May 23 another (rose) festival was held in her honor.

Flora's Greek equivalent is Chloris, who was a nymph. Flora is married to Favonius, the wind god also known as Zephyr, and her companion was Hercules.

Flora achieved more prominence in the neo-pagan revival of Antiquity among Renaissance humanists than she had ever enjoyed in ancient Rome.

Music

Flora is the main character of the ballet The Awakening of Flora. She is also mentioned in Henry Purcell's Nymphs and Shepherds.

Sculpture

There are many monuments of Flora, e.g. in Capitoline Museums in Rome (Italy), in Valencia (Spain) and Szczecin (Poland) (see Statue of Flora in Szczecin).

In art

• 
  Ancient Roman mosaic of Flora in the Carthage National Museum
• 
  Flora on a gold aureus of 43–39 BCE
• 
  Detail of Flora from Primavera by Botticelli, c. 1482
• 
  Flora by Titian, 1515
• 
  Idealized Portrait of a Courtesan as Flora by Bartolomeo Veneto, c. 1520
• 
  Flora by Francesco Melzi, c. 1520
• 
  Flora and Zephyr, by Jan Brueghel the Elder and Peter Paul Rubens, 1617
• 
  Flora by Claude Vignon, 1650
• 
  Flora by Rembrandt, 1654
• 
  Flora or Hebe by Alexander Roslin, 18th century
• 
  Flora by Valentine Walter Bromley, 1874
• 
  Flora by Ferdinand Keller, 1883
• 
  Flora by Mosè Bianchi 1890

See also

• Abundantia
• Feronia
• Flora Fountain
• Fauna
• Nymph
• Pomona
• 8 Flora

References

Bibliography

• de Vaan, Michiel (2008). Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages. Brill. ISBN 9789004167971.

Primary

• Ovid, Fasti V.193-212
• Macrobius, Saturnalia I.10.11-14
• Lactantius, Divinae institutions I.20.6-10

External links

• Media related to Flora (dea) at Wikimedia Commons
• "Flora" . The New Student's Reference Work . 1914.
• "Flora" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.
• The Obscure Goddess Online Directory: Flora