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| Greek Mythology - The Horae | ||||
| The Horae (Hours) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Twelve Horae were goddesses of the twelve hours of the day and probably also of the twelve months of the year. They oversaw the path of the sun-god Helios as he travelled across the sky, dividing the day into its portions.
The Ancient Greeks did not have hours of fixed length as we do today, instead they divided the hours of daylight into twelve portions, each identified by the position of the sun in the sky. Because of this the length of an hour varied between the longer days of summer and shorter ones of winter. The twelve Horai were not always clearly distinguishable from the three Horai of the seasons, who were also described as overseeing the paths of the sun, so I have shown both here. The early Greeks only recognised three seasons (Spring, Summer and Winter), not the four seasons we have today. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Three Seasonal Horae
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Other useful resources:
Wikipedia - Greek Mythology Greek Mythology Link Theoi Project | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
