stringtranslate.com

Horae

Dionysus leading the Horae (Neo-Attic Roman relief, 1st century)

In Greek mythology, the Horae (/ˈhɔːriː/), Horai (/ˈhɔːraɪ/) or Hours (Ancient Greek: Ὧραι, romanized: Hôrai, lit. 'Seasons', pronounced [hɔ̂ːrai̯]) were the goddesses of the seasons and the natural portions of time.

Etymology

The term hora comes from the Proto-Indo-European *yóh₁r̥ ("year").[1]

Function

A detail of Horae Serenae by Edward Poynter (1894)

The Horae were originally the personifications of nature in its different seasonal aspects, but in later times they were regarded as goddesses of order in general and natural justice. "They bring and bestow ripeness, they come and go in accordance with the firm law of the periodicities of nature and of life", Karl Kerenyi observed, adding "Hora means 'the correct moment'."[2] Traditionally, they guarded the gates of Olympus, promoted the fertility of the earth, and rallied the stars and constellations.

The course of the seasons was also symbolically described as the dance of the Horae, and they were accordingly given the attributes of spring flowers, fragrance and graceful freshness; for example, in Hesiod's Works and Days, the fair-haired Horai, together with the Charites and Peitho crown Pandora—she of "all gifts"—with garlands of flowers.[3] Similarly Aphrodite, emerging from the sea and coming ashore at Cyprus, is dressed and adorned by the Horai,[4] and, according to a surviving fragment of the epic Cypria,[5] Aphrodite wore clothing made for her by the Charites and Horai, dyed with spring flowers, such as the Horai themselves wear.

Names and numbers

The number of Horae varied according to different sources, but was most commonly three: either the trio of Thallo, Auxo, and Carpo (goddesses of the order of nature), or Eunomia (goddess of good order and lawful conduct) and her sisters Dike (goddess of Justice) and Eirene (goddess of Peace).

The earlier Argive Horae

In Argos, two Horae, rather than three, were recognised, presumably winter and summer: Auxesia (possibly another name for Auxo) and Damia (possibly another name for Carpo).[6]

In late euhemerist interpretations, they were seen as Cretan maidens who were worshipped as goddesses after they had been wrongfully stoned to death.

The classical Horae triads

The earliest written mention of Horai is in the Iliad where they appear as keepers of Zeus's cloud gates.[7] "Hardly any traces of that function are found in the subsequent tradition," Karl Galinsky remarked in passing.[8] They were daughters of Zeus and Themis, half-sisters to the Moirai.[9][10]

The Horai are mentioned in two aspects in Hesiod[11] and the Homeric Hymns:[12]

First triad

Marble reliefs of two Horae, Acropolis Museum, Athens.

Of the first, more familiar, triad associated with Aphrodite and Zeus is their origins as emblems of times of life, growth (and the classical three seasons of year):

At Athens, two Horae: Thallo (the Hora of spring) and Carpo (the Hora of autumn), also appear in rites of Attica noted by Pausanias in the 2nd century AD.[13][14] Thallo, Auxo and Carpo are often accompanied by Chione, a daughter of Boreas (the god/ personification of the North Wind) and Orithyia/ Oreithyia (originally a mortal princess, who was later deified as a goddess of cold mountain winds), and the goddess/personification of snow and winter. Along with Chione, Thallo, Auxo, and Carpo were a part of the entourage of the goddess of the turn of the seasons, Persephone.

Second triad

An allegory of the peace and happiness of the state; depicted are Dike (justice), Eunomia (order) and, in the center, Eirene (peace).The painting is by Jacob Jordaens

Of the second triad associated to Themis and Zeus for law and order:

Third triad

The last triad of Horae was identified by Hyginus:[14]

The Four Seasons

Nonnus in his Dionysiaca mentions a distinct set of four Horae, the daughters of Helios. Quintus Smyrnaeus also attributes the Horae as the daughters of Helios and Selene, and describes them as the four handmaidens of Hera.[15][16] The seasons were personified by the ancients, the Greeks represented them generally as women but on some antique monuments they are depicted as winged children with attributes peculiar to each season.[17] The Greek words for the four seasons of year:

Here Spring appears with flowery chaplets bound.
Here Summer in her wheaten garland crown'd;
Here Autumn the rich trodden grapes besmear.
And hoary Winter shivers in the rear.

— Ovid, Metamorphoses 2.34

Modern influence

Nicolas Poussin has represented the four seasons by subjects drawn from the Bible: Spring is portrayed by Adam and Eve in paradise: Summer, by Ruth gleaning: Autumn, by Joshua and Caleb bearing grapes from the promised land; and Winter, by the deluge.

In more modern representations the seasons are often surrounding Apollo: Spring, as Flora, crowned with flowers, and in a shaded green drapery over a white robe: Summer, standing under the lion in the zodiac, with a gold-coloured drapery over a white gauze vestment, the edges of which are tinged by the yellow rays of the sun, holding a sickle, having near her a wheat-sheaf; Autumn, as a Bacchante, in a violet-coloured garment, pressing grapes with one band into a golden cup, which she holds in the other; and Winter as an aged person, placed in the shade at a great distance from the god.[18][19]

The Hours

The Hours by Edward Burne-Jones (1882)

Finally, a quite separate suite of Horae personified the twelve hours (originally only ten), as tutelary goddesses of the times of day. The hours run from just before sunrise to just after sunset, thus winter hours are short, summer hours are long:

The nine Hours

According to Hyginus, the list is only of nine, borrowed from the three classical triads alternated:[20]

The ten or twelve Hours

Apollo with the Hours by Georg Friedrich Kersting (1822)

A distinct set of ten[21] or twelve Hours is much less known[22] and they are described as daughters of Chronos (Time):[23]

The twenty-four Hours

The last set of hours of the day and night is allegorically represented in the following:[24]

Notes

  1. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2009). Etymological Dictionary of Greek. Brill. p. 1681.
  2. ^ References to the Horai in classical sources are credited in Karl Kerenyi's synthesis of all the mythology, The Gods of the Greeks 1951, pp. 101f and passim (index, "Horai").
  3. ^ Hesiod, Works and Days 74-75
  4. ^ Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 6.5-13
  5. ^ Epic Cycle Fragments, Cypria fr. 4 as cited in Athenaeus, 15.682 d, f
  6. ^ Pausanias, 9.35.1
  7. ^ Homer, Iliad 5.749-51
  8. ^ Galinsky, Karl (July 1992). "Venus, Polysemy, and the Ara Pacis Augustae". American Journal of Archaeology. 96 (3): 459. doi:10.2307/506068. JSTOR 506068. S2CID 191395407.
  9. ^ Hanfmann, G.M.A. (1951). The Seasons Sarcophagus at Dumbarton Oaks. Cambridge, Massachusetts.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  10. ^ Machaira, V. (1990). Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, vol. 5.1. pp. 502f. ISBN 3-7608-8751-1.
  11. ^ Hesiod, Theogony 901 ff.
  12. ^ Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, 6.2 ff & to Pythian Apollo, 3.186 ff
  13. ^ Pausanias, 9.35.2
  14. ^ a b Hyginus, Fabulae 183
  15. ^ Hammond, "SELENE", pp. 970–971
  16. ^ Quintus Smyrnaeus, 10.336 ff. pp. 442–443
  17. ^ Murray, John (1833). A Classical Manual, being a Mythological, Historical and Geographical Commentary on Pope's Homer, and Dryden's Aeneid of Virgil with a Copious Index. Albemarle Street, London. p. 256.
  18. ^ Virgil, Georgics 1.145
  19. ^ Horace, Ode 7. b. iv
  20. ^ Hyginus, Fabulae 183
  21. ^ Hyginus, Fabulae 183
  22. ^ Nonnus, Dionysiaca 41.263
  23. ^ Nonnus, Dionysiaca 12.15
  24. ^ Murray, John (1833). A Classical Manual, being a Mythological, Historical and Geographical Commentary on Pope's Homer, and Dryden's Aeneid of Virgil with a Copious Index. Albemarle Street, London. pp. 172–174.

References

External links

Look up Thallo, Auxo, or Carpo in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.