flora

Flora (mythology)

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Topics in Roman mythology
Important Gods:
Jupiter Mars Quirinus Vesta Juno Fortuna	Minerva Mercury Vulcan Ceres Venus Lares
Roman Kingdom
Religion in ancient Rome
Flamens
Roman, Greek, and Etruscan mythologies compared
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Other Rustic Gods:
Bona Dea Carmenta Camenae Dea Dia Convector	Flora Lupercus Pales Pomona Egeria

In Roman mythology, Flora was a goddess of flowers and the season of spring. 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. Her festival, the Floralia, was held in April or early May and symbolized the renewal of the cycle of life, marked with dancing, drinking, and flowers. Her Greek equivalent was Chloris. Flora was married to Favonius, the wind god, and her companion was Hercules. Due to her association with plants, her name in modern English also means plant life.^{[citation needed]}

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

One of the fairies in the Sleeping Beauty (1959 film) is named Flora after this goddess.

[edit] References

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

Flora or Hebe Marie Louise Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun	Flora Louise Abbéma 1913	Goddess Flora depiction Rembrandt van Rijn, 1634	Portrait of Flora Rembrandt van Rijn, 1635
Detail of Flora from Primavera by Botticelli, c. 1482