Chloris

Chloris is the name of several figures in Greek mythology, the best known being the nymph whom Zephyrus carried off and married, who became the Roman goddess of flowers, Flora. Two mortal women of the same name appear in the myths of Pylos and Thebes: Chloris the wife of Neleus and mother of Nestor, and Chloris the daughter of Niobe.

Chloris the Nymph and Flora

The nymph Chloris is known chiefly from Ovid, who has her speak for herself in the Fasti. She says that she was Chloris, a nymph of the Fields of the Blessed, the place where in earlier times, she says, the fortunate had lived, and that the Latin name Flora is her Greek name altered in sound (Ovid, Fasti 5.195–198). In spring, as she wandered, Zephyrus, the west wind, saw her and pursued her, and she could not escape him. Ovid compares the act to Boreas’ carrying off of Orithyia, the daughter of Erechtheus. Zephyrus made amends by making her his wife, and she says she has no complaint about her marriage (Ovid, Fasti 5.199–206).

Mistress of Flowers

As a gift, Zephyrus filled a garden on her dowry lands with flowers and told her to rule over them. Flora says that she was the first to scatter new seeds among the nations, when the earth had only one colour, and the first to make a flower from the blood of the hero of Therapne, that is, Hyacinthus. She also names Narcissus, Crocus, Attis and the son of Cinyras, Adonis, as figures from whose wounds flowers rose through her (Ovid, Fasti 5.207–228).

Flora and Hera

In the same passage Flora tells how she helped Juno, the Roman Hera. Juno was angry that Jupiter had produced Minerva alone, and wanted to bear a child without a husband. Flora promised her a flower from the fields of Olenus, which she says is the only one of its kind in her gardens. A touch of it makes even a barren heifer a mother, and when she touched Juno with it, Juno conceived. Juno travelled to Thrace and the Propontis, and Mars was born, who later gave Flora a place in the city of Romulus (Ovid, Fasti 5.229–260).

Chloris, Wife of Neleus

In the Odyssey, Odysseus sees Chloris among the women of the underworld. She was the youngest daughter of Amphion, son of Iasus, who once ruled the Minyans of Orchomenus, and Neleus married her for her beauty after giving countless gifts. As queen of Pylos, she bore Nestor, Chromius and the proud Periclymenus, and a daughter, Pero, whom Neleus would give only to the man who drove off the cattle of mighty Iphicles from Phylace (Homer, Odyssey 11.281–297). Apollodorus gives Neleus and Chloris a daughter, Pero, and the sons Taurus, Asterius, Pylaon, Deimachus, Eurybius, Epilaus, Phrasius, Eurymenes, Evagoras, Alastor, Nestor and Periclymenus. Heracles killed all of them except Nestor when he sacked Pylos (Apollodorus, Library 1.9.9). Pausanias says that Polygnotus painted her at Delphi, leaning on the knees of Thyia, and calls her an Orchomenian who married Neleus (Pausanias 10.29.5; compare 9.36.8).

Chloris, Daughter of Niobe

Apollodorus identifies the wife of Neleus with the eldest daughter of Niobe and Amphion of Thebes. When Apollo and Artemis killed Niobe’s children because she boasted that she had more children than Leto, Chloris the elder was the only daughter spared (Apollodorus, Library 3.5.6). Pausanias gives a different account. Her original name was Meliboea, and she survived with her brother Amyclas by praying to Leto. She was so pale from fright, for the rest of her life, that she took the name Chloris, the “Pale One” (Pausanias 2.21.9). He adds that Chloris, the only surviving daughter of the house of Amphion, won a victory at the Heraea, the games of the maidens (Pausanias 5.16.4). Apollodorus treats the Chloris of the Odyssey and the daughter of Niobe as one woman, while Homer himself calls her the youngest daughter of Amphion of Orchomenus.

Chloris Sources

Homer, Odyssey 11.281–297; Ovid, Fasti 5.195–260; Apollodorus, Library 1.9.9, 3.5.6; Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.21.9, 5.16.4, 9.36.8, 10.29.5.

See Also: Zephyrus, Hyacinthus, Narcissus, Adonis, Attis, Niobe, Neleus, Nestor, Hera