HORAE, in Greek and Latin mythology the Seasons. In the Iliad (v. 749) they are the custodians of the gates of Olympus. I_I the Odyssey, they are represented as bringing round the seasons in regular order. The brief notice in Hesiod (Theog., 901), where they ale called the children of Zeus and Themis, who superintend the operations of agriculture, indicates by the names assigned to them (Eunomia, Dike, Eirene ; i.e., Good Order, Justice, Peace) the extension of their functions from nature to the events of human life, and at the same time invests them with moral attributes.
At Athens they were apparently two in number : Thallo and Carpo, the goddesses of the flowers of spring and of the fruits of summer. In honour of the Horae a yearly festival (Horaea) was celebrated. In later mythology, under Alexandrian influence, the Horae became the four seasons, daughters of Helios and Selene, each represented with the conventional attributes. Subsequently, when the day was divided into 12 equal parts, each of them took the name of Hora.