FLORA. — An ancient Italic and Roman goddess; according to Varro, of Sabine origin: indeed, her cult independent of the Roman one is documented at Agnone; at Furfo the calendar has a month called Flosore (Florale). At Rome her cult was undoubtedly ancient. F. mater had her own flamen (fl. Floralis).
Her oldest sanctuary was on the Quirinal. In 241 B.C., at the recommendation of the Sibylline Books, a temple was built for her near the Circus Maximus, inaugurated with games which, beginning in 173 B.C., took on an annual character and were held between the last days of April and the first days of May. The ludi Florales, which perhaps replaced an original movable festival, were known for their licentious character: the prostitutes who staged a mock combat there stripped at the public’s request. The games also included hunts for goats and rabbits, and legumes were thrown to the spectators. These features of the festival, together with the ancient importance of the cult, show that the character of the goddess was not limited to a connection with «Sorientibus frumentis», as the ancient exegetes maintained. F. must in fact have had broader connections with the sphere of fertility and with those divinities with which the cult associates her: her temple stood immediately adjacent to that of the triad Ceres-Liber-Libera; her festive cycle links the month of April, devoted to the festivals of telluric fertility, with May, the month of the Lemuria. The myths too, whose late documentation does not preclude more ancient roots, shed some light on the goddess. It is one of her flowers that makes Juno pregnant by Mars. In another myth F. appears as a prostitute who leaves her possessions to the State, thereby meriting a public cult: a myth parallel to that of Acca Laronzia. These mythical connections with Rome and its origins lend particular significance to the report according to which Rome’s secret name was F.