Eirene (Greek Εἰρήνη, "Peace") is the personification of peace in ancient Greek religion. She is counted among the Horae, the goddesses of the seasons and the natural portions of time, and was honoured especially at Athens, where a state cult and a famous statue celebrated the prosperity that peace makes possible. Her name lives on in the personal names Irene and Irenaeus and in the English word "irenic."
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Eirene (goddess)" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Family
Eirene is one of the Horae, divine personifications associated with the seasons and the right order of time. She is named among the daughters of Zeus and the Titaness Themis.
Her sisters in this group are Eunomia (Good Order) and Dike (Justice), and through Themis she is also linked to the Moirai, the Fates. This lineage ties Eirene to the broader complex of divinities embodying law, justice, and cosmic order.
II.Cult and Worship
Athens developed the most prominent organized worship of Eirene. After their naval victory over Sparta in 375 BC, the Athenians established a cult for Peace and erected altars to her.
Beginning after 371 BC, the Athenians held an annual state sacrifice in her honour to commemorate the Common Peace concluded that year. They also commissioned a votive statue of the goddess for the Agora of Athens, made by the sculptor Cephisodotus the Elder.
III.Iconography
Eirene was depicted in art as a beautiful young woman, often shown with a cornucopia, a sceptre, a torch, or a rhyton.
The celebrated Athenian statue by Cephisodotus portrayed her carrying the child Ploutos, god of plenty and son of Demeter, on her left arm, while her now-missing right hand once held a sceptre. The group served as an allegory of Plenty flourishing under the protection of Peace and as a public appeal to good sense. The bronze original is lost but was reproduced on Athenian vases and coins; Roman marble copies survive, including a noted example in the Munich Glyptothek.