The earliest written mention of horai is in the Iliad where they appear as keepers of Zeus's cloud gates. The number of Horae varied according to different sources, but was most commonly three, either the trio of Thallo, Auxo and Carpo, who were goddesses of the order of nature or Eunomia, Diké, and Eirene, who were law-and-order goddesses. Similarly Aphrodite, emerging from the sea and coming ashore at Cyprus, is dressed and adorned by the Horai, and, according to a surviving fragment of the epic Cypria, Aphrodite wore clothing made for her by the Charites and Horai, dyed with spring flowers, such as the Horai themselves wear. 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. 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. "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: " Hora means 'the correct moment'." Traditionally, they guarded the gates of Olympus, promoted the fertility of the earth, and rallied the stars and constellations.
They were originally the personifications of nature in its different seasonal aspects, but in later times they were regarded as goddessess of order in general and natural justice.
In Greek mythology the Horae ( / ˈ h ɔː r iː / or / ˈ h ɔː r aɪ /) or Hours ( Greek: Ὧραι, Hōrai, pronounced, "seasons") were the goddesses of the seasons and the natural portions of time.
Dionysus leading the Horae ( Neo-Attic Roman relief, 1st century).
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