The Horae of the Seasonsīut there is another, more commonly known triad of Horae also mentioned in both Homeric Hymns and the works of Hesiod. The city boasted a bronze statue of the goddess holding the infant Plutos (the god of plenty), symbolic of the notion that Prosperity survives and grows under the protection of Peace. She was worshipped prominently in Athens, particularly after the Athenians defeated Sparta in the Peloponnesian War during the 4 th century BC.

She is commonly depicted as a young woman holding a cornucopia, torch, or scepter. The last of this triad was Eirene, or Peace (called Pax in her Roman incarnation). Notably, she was frequently depicted on Athenian vases as a companion of Aphrodite, as a representation of the importance of lawful obedience in marriage. She was invoked in numerous sources as a goddess of order in both civil and personal contexts. Where her sister was concerned with fair rulings according to the law, Eunomia’s province was the construction of the law itself, of governance and the social stability a legal framework provides. Eunomia, the Hora of LawĮunomia, on the other hand, was the personification of law and order. But a more direct legacy came when the Romans copied the ancient Greeks’ theological homework, revising Dike as the goddess Justicia – whose image as “Lady Justice” adorns courthouses across the Western world to this day. Hesiod would expound on this depiction in Works and Days, and it recurs heavily in the works of Sophocles and Euripides in the 5 th century BC.ĭepicted as a maiden of eternal youth, Dike was one of the numerous figures associated with the constellation Virgo. Dice, the Hora of Moral Justiceĭike was the goddess of human justice, of legal rights and fair rulings, who abhorred liars and corruption. But these three Horae goddesses were much more firmly associated with notions like peace, justice, and good order like their mother Themis.

These daughters of Zeus were still seen as being associated with the sky and the heavenly constellations, which makes sense given their connection to the orderly passage of time.Īnd these Horae all generally had an association with Spring, with at least a few vague connections between them and plant growth. This is not to say that these three sisters had no associations with the passing seasons or nature. And with Themis being the personification of order and moral justice in Greek mythology, it’s no surprise that these three goddesses were seen in a similar light in ancient Greece. This is one of the two recognized (and very different) Triads of the Horae. From this marriage (Zeus’ second) were born the three goddesses Eunomia, Dike, and Eirene as well as the Fates Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. Homer’s contemporary, the Greek poet Hesiod, gave a more detailed account of the Horae in his Theogony, in which Zeus married Themis, the Greek goddess of justice and daughter of Uranus and Gaia. Beyond Homer’s initial reference are a host of sometimes-conflicting descriptions giving us a varying number and nature of Hours, many of whom still have echoes in art and culture. The first surviving mention of them is in the Iliad, in which Homer gives few specifics except to describe them as the keepers of Heaven’s gates who also tend to Juno’s horses and chariot – roles that seem to vanish later. Even their general associations take on different flavors depending on the time, place, and source. Rather, like a particularly volatile band, their lineup has changed significantly depending on specifically where and when you look across the landscape of Greek mythology. The Horae have never been a consistent group of goddesses. And while whole volumes have been written about the whole throng of them, there’s a less-talked about group of goddesses that have bled down into our modern cultural background that deserves a bit of mention – the Horae, or Hours, goddesses of the seasons and the progression of time. The Greek gods and goddesses are numerous, ranging from the familiar Zeus to more obscure deities such as Ersa (goddess of the morning dew) down to more nebulous personifications like Hybris and Kakia.

Green stuffed horae