3 Rather Proper Mythical Goddesses Flora - Symbols of Spring by Rembrandt (1606-1669)

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606-1669) - Portrait of Hendrickje Stofells as Goddess Flora

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606-1669) - Portrait of Saskia as Goddess Flora

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606-1669) - Portrait of Saskia as Goddess Flora

In Rome, 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. 

According to myth, Flora is married to Favonius, the wind god also known as Zephyr, and her companion was Hercules.  It is possible that Flora achieved more prominence in the neo-pagan revival of Antiquity among Renaissance humanists than she had enjoyed in ancient Rome.

See:

 Ovid, Fasti, Book 4; T.P. Wiseman, The Myths of Rome (University of Exeter Press, 2004).

 Robert Turcan, The Gods of Ancient Rome (Routledge, 2001; originally published in French 1998)

 H.H. Scullard, Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic (Cornell University Press, 1981)

 William Warde Fowler, The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic (London, 1908)