Horae

In Greek mythology, the goddesses of the seasons, two to four in number. In Homer's Iliad they simply guarded the gates of Olympus, but they brought round the seasons in his Odyssey. Later Hesiod named them as Dike (justice), Eunomia (good order), and Irene (peace); daughters of Zeus and Themis, the personification of order, and guardians of the processes of agriculture.

Classical Athens recognized two Horae: Thallo, goddess of flowers and spring, and Carpo, goddess of the fruits of summer; their festival was the Horaea. In late Greek mythology, the Horae were the four seasons, daughters of the sun god Helios and Selene, goddess of the Moon.

When the day was divided into 12 equal parts, they were called hora, the origins of the English ‘hour’.