01 · The stories
Myths & defining acts
In Ovid's Fasti she explains that she was the nymph Chloris until Zephyrus pursued and married her, transformed her into Flora, and gave her a garden where she scattered the first flowers over the earth; she also gave Juno a magic flower that let her conceive Mars without Jupiter.
02 · Sacred lineage
Family & relations
Roman: wife of Zephyrus / Favonius, the west wind, who gave her dominion over flowers. Greek: Chloris, a nymph associated with the Elysian Fields.
03 · Places of devotion
Abode & sacred sites
A garden of perpetual spring in the care of the west wind; a temple near the Circus Maximus, Rome.
04 · Two traditions
Greek & Roman perspectives
Chloris
Chloris is a minor nymph rather than a major goddess; the identification with Flora is largely a literary equation made by Roman poets, above all Ovid.
Flora
A genuinely ancient Roman and Sabine deity with one of the oldest priesthoods (the flamen Floralis). Her festival, the Floralia (28 April - 3 May), was a boisterous spring holiday of flowers, coloured clothes, games and famously licentious stage shows, with hares and goats released.
05 · Extensive analysis
A closer reading
Flora is a modest but very old Italian goddess whose domain is the moment when plants bloom - not the fruit or grain itself, but the blossom that must come first - which made her quietly important to farmers and vine-growers as well as gardeners. Her spring festival was one of the few in the Roman calendar with a reputation for uninhibited fun. Roman poets tidied her into the Greek world by identifying her with the flower-nymph Chloris and giving her a courtship myth with the west wind.
06 · Sources
From the archive
Text from Gods · greek_roman_gods, row 48. Imported 10 September 2026.