Primavera

There are many stories in Greek mythology about figures named Chloris . Some clearly refer to different characters; other stories may refer to the same Chloris, but disagree on... details. Chloris was a Nymph associated with spring, flowers and new growth. Her Roman equivalent was the goddess Flora. She was abducted by Zephyr, the god of the west wind. Meliboea was one of Niobe and Amphion's fourteen children , and the only one spared when Artemis and Apollo killed the Niobids in retribution for Niobe's insult to their mother Leto, bragging that she had many children and Leto had only two. Meliboea was so frightened by the ordeal, she turned permanently pale, changing her name to Chloris . This Chloris is referred to in Homer's Odyssey . She was later to marry Neleus and become queen in Pylos. They had several sons including Nestor, Alastor and Chromius and a daughter Pero.
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Mercury was a messenger who wore winged sandals, and a god of trade, thieves, and travel, the son of Maia Maiestas and Jupiter in Roman mythology. His name is related to the... Latin word merx , mercari , and merces . In his earliest forms, he appears to have been related to the Etruscan deity Turms, but most of his characteristics and mythology were borrowed from the analogous Greek god, Hermes. Latin writers rewrote Hermes' myths and substituted his name with that of Mercury. However, there are at least two myths that involve Mercury that are Roman in origin. In Virgil's Aeneid, Mercury reminds Aeneas of his mission to found the city of Rome. In Ovid's Fasti, Mercury is assigned to escort the nymph Larunda to the underworld. Mercury, however, fell in love with Larunda and made love to her on the way; this act has also been interpreted as a rape. Larunda thereby became mother to two children, referred to as the Lares, invisible household gods.
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Venus is a Roman goddess principally associated with love, beauty, sex, fertility, prosperity and military victory. She played a key role in many Roman religious festivals. From... the third century BC, the increasing Hellenization of Roman upper classes identified her as the equivalent of the Greek goddess Aphrodite which in turn is the copy and the equivalent of the Phoenician goddess Astarte. Roman mythology made her the divine mother of Aeneas, the Trojan ancestor of Rome's founder, Romulus. Venus has been described as perhaps "the most original creation of the Roman pantheon", and "an ill-defined and assimilative" native goddess, combined "with a strange and exotic Aphrodite". Venus embodies sex, beauty, enticement, seduction and persuasive female charm among the community of immortal gods; in Latin orthography, her name is indistinguishable from the Latin noun venus , from which it derives.
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In Roman mythology, Flora was a goddess of flowers and the season of spring. While she was otherwise a relatively minor figure in Roman mythology, being one among several... fertility goddesses, her association with the spring gave her particular importance at the coming of springtime. 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 but on the advice of the Sibylline books she was given another temple in 238 B.C.E. Her Greek equivalent was Chloris, who was a nymph and not a goddess at all. Flora was married to Favonius, the wind god, and her companion was Hercules. Her name is derived from the Latin word "flos" which means "flower." In modern English, "Flora" also means the plants of a particular region or period. Flora achieved more prominence in the neo-pagan revival of Antiquity among Renaissance humanists than she had ever enjoyed in ancient Rome. She is the main character of the ballet The Awakening of Flora.
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In Greek mythology, a Charis is one of several Charites  /ˈkærɨtiːz/ , goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, human creativity and fertility. They... ordinarily numbered three, from youngest to oldest: Aglaea , Euphrosyne , and Thalia . In Roman mythology they were known as the Gratiae, the "Graces". In some variants Charis was one of the Graces and was not the singular form of their name. The Charites were usually considered the daughters of Zeus and Eurynome, though they were also said to be daughters of Dionysus and Aphrodite or of Helios and the naiad Aegle. Other possible names of their mother by Zeus are Eurydome, Eurymedousa, and Euanthe. Homer wrote that they were part of the retinue of Aphrodite. The Charites were also associated with the Greek underworld and the Eleusinian Mysteries. The river Cephissus near Delphi was sacred to them. Although the Graces usually numbered three, according to the Spartans, Cleta, not Thalia, was the third, and other Graces are sometimes mentioned, including Auxo, Charis, Hegemone, Phaenna, and Pasithea.
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A west wind is a wind that blows from the west, in an eastward direction. In Western tradition, it has usually been considered the mildest and most favorable of the directional... winds. In Greek mythology, Zephyrus was the personification of the west wind and the bringer of light spring and early summer breezes; his Roman equivalent was Favonius. In the myth of Cupid and Psyche, Zephyrus was the attendant of Cupid, who brought Psyche to his master's palace. Geoffrey Chaucer wrote of the "swete breth" of Zephryus, and a soft, gentle breeze may be referred to as a zephyr, as in Shakespeare's Cymbeline : "They are as gentle / As zephyrs blowing below the violet, / Not wagging his sweet head.
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