Racism In Society

The overall meaning of the painting will remain a mystery if one is unfamiliar with certain underlying texts. No naive understanding is possible; no innocent eye would be able to contribute significantly to a full identification of the individuals portrayed here without having first read certain literary sources.

[The figure on the far left is] Mercury, the messenger of the gods …[who] was reputed to drive away the winter winds and was regarded as the harbinger of spring. More detailed information on his activities and on his snake-entwined rod may be found in Virgil's Aeneid, where he is described as a god dividing the winds and the clouds with his wand.

"Then he took his wand; the wand with which he calls the pale souls forth from the Nether World and sends others down to grim Tartarus, gives sleep, and takes sleep away, and unseals eyes at death. So shepherding the winds before him with his wand, he swam through the murk of the clouds."

The flying [boy] . . . is Amor, easily recognizable by his bow, arrows, and quiver as well as by his blindfold. Amor (known to the Greeks as Eros), the "winged son" of Mars and Venus, was the god of passionate love, described by Apuleius in the story of Amor and Psyche:

"rash enough and hardy, who by his evil manners, condemning all public justice and law, armed with fire and arrows, running up and down in the nights from house to house, and corrupting the lawful marriages of every person, does nothing (and yet he is not punished) but that which is evil."

The young woman placed directly below Amor is his mother, Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. The group of young women dancing to her right are identifiable above all because they are three in number. These are the Three Graces, who frequently appear in the company of Venus and their guide Mercury. Precisely the same configuration of Venus and Amor, the Three Graces, and Mercury is found in a well-known ode by the Roman poet Horace. In the second stanza, he not only describes the same figures but also refers to the Graces' loose clothing:

"Venus, queen of Cnidos and Paphos,

abandon your beloved Cyprus and move

to the lovely shrine of Glycera, who summons you

with clouds of incense.

Your ardent boy must hurry along with you,

and Nymphs and Graces with their loose girdles,

and Youth, so uncongenial without you,

and Mercury."

[…] Botticelli decorated the young woman stepping forward, to the right of Venus, with

. . . flowers and blossoms. They cover her gown, adorn her hair and her neckline, encircle her high waistline, and fill a fold low on the front of her dress. They correspond to the equally numerous flowers in the meadow where the scene is set, and make it more than likely that this young woman is Flora. This archaic Italian goddess of flowers and blossoms, of spring and of "good hope" for women is described together with Venus, Amor, and another god, Zephyrus, by Lucretius in his philosophical didactic poem De Rerum Natura:

"On come Spring and Venus, and Venus's winged harbinger [Amor] marching before, with Zephyr and mother Flora a pace behind him strewing the whole path in front with brilliant colors and filling it with scents."

"... and the leafy dwellings of birds and verdant plains, striking soft love into the breasts of all creatures, thou dost cause them greedily to beget their generations after their kind. Since therefore thou alone dost govern the nature of things, since without thee nothing comes forth into the shining borders of light, nothing joyous and lovely is made..."

The goddess of spring, Flora, in fact owes her existence to a metamorphosis. Originally she was a nymph known by the Greek name of Chloris until she was touched by warming spring breezes in the shape of Zephyrus, the god of the west wind. This metamorphosis is described in Ovid's Fasti, a verse description of the months of the Roman calendar. One spring day the virgin nymph Chloris is wandering about in the open. When Zephyrus spots her, she flees; but he is far stronger and finally overpowers her.

“I who now am called Flora was formerly Chloris. […] Twas spring, and I was roaming; Zephyr caught sight of me; I retired; he pursued and I fled; but he was stronger. […] However, he made amends for his violence by giving me the name of bride, and in my marriage-bed I have nothing to complain of. I enjoy perpetual spring. […] In the fields that are my dower, I have a fruitful garden, fanned by the breeze and watered by a spring of running water. This garden my husband filled with noble flowers and said, “Goddess, be queen of flowers.” Often did I wish to count the colors in the beds, but could not; the number was past counting.”