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Primavera

"As she talks, her lips breathe spring roses:
I was Chloris, who am now called Flora."

Ovid, Fasti (V.194-195)

In this detail from Botticelli's Primavera, Zephyrus, the west wind, is abducting the nymph Chloris ("green") who, as his bride, becomes the goddess of flowers and the personification of spring. Botticelli (as did the Romans) has transformed this figure from Greek mythology into Flora, her Roman counterpart.

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