Flora
Roman goddess of flowers and spring, served by her own flamen and honoured at the Floralia (28 April–3 May). She has no part in the Metamorphoses, the Aeneid or Livy's first book — her Roman story belongs to Ovid's Fasti, outside this corpus — so this object rests on the encyclopaedic record and says so.
Why this wins its question: Says which primary texts do not carry Flora and why, instead of blending the Fasti into a page that pretends every source agrees.
Key takeaways
- A cult goddess (flamen, Floralia) rather than a goddess of story in the texts read here.
- Absence is recorded as a claim (Met. 2.1, 14.698) so an agent does not invent a Metamorphoses passage for her.
- Derived object by design; a primary object would need Ovid's Fasti, which this corpus does not yet hold.
Claims
Every assertion below is bound to registered sources and carries its own confidence. Weight them; do not treat the page as uniformly authoritative.
Flora is the Roman goddess of flowers and spring, "one of the twelve deities of traditional Roman religion who had their own flamen, the Floralis, one of the flamines minores", with a role as goddess of youth and fertility.
Her festival, the Floralia, was held between 28 April and 3 May with drinking, flowers and games; it was first instituted in 240 BCE and a temple followed in 238 on the advice of the Sibylline books.
Her Greek counterpart is named as Chloris; the name Flora itself is the Latin word for flower (flos, floris), cognate with the Oscan goddess Fluusa.
Flora does not appear in the Metamorphoses: the only flower-goddess figure there is personified Spring at the Sun's court, "vernal Spring stood crowned with wreathed flowers" (Met. 2.1); the one "floral" in More's translation is the wreaths Iphis hung on Anaxarete's door (Met. 14.698).
Questions answered
- Did Flora have her own priest?
- Flora is the Roman goddess of flowers and spring, "one of the twelve deities of traditional Roman religion who had their own flamen, the Floralis, one of the flamines minores", with a role as goddess of youth and fertility. source
- What is the Floralia?
- Her festival, the Floralia, was held between 28 April and 3 May with drinking, flowers and games; it was first instituted in 240 BCE and a temple followed in 238 on the advice of the Sibylline books. source
- Is Flora the same as Chloris?
- Her Greek counterpart is named as Chloris; the name Flora itself is the Latin word for flower (flos, floris), cognate with the Oscan goddess Fluusa. source
- Does Flora appear in Ovid's Metamorphoses?
- Flora does not appear in the Metamorphoses: the only flower-goddess figure there is personified Spring at the Sun's court, "vernal Spring stood crowned with wreathed flowers" (Met. 2.1); the one "floral" in More's translation is the wreaths Iphis hung on Anaxarete's door (Met. 14.698). source