Aurora (mythology)

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Aurora (mythology)

Aurora is the Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
word for dawn, the goddess

Goddess

A goddess is a female deity. Often deities are part of a polytheism system that includes several deities in a pantheon .Common associations of goddesses are the Earth goddess, the Mother Goddess, Love goddess, and the hearth goddess, reflecting historical gender roles....
of dawn

Dawn

Dawn is the twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the presence of weak sunlight, while the sun itself is still below the horizon. Dawn should not be confused with sunrise, which is the moment when the leading edge of the sun itself appears above the horizon....
in Roman mythology

Roman mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the Ancient Greece concerning their List of Greek mythological figures#Immortals and Greek hero cult, Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices....
goddess Eos

Eos

Eos is, in Greek mythology, the Titan goddess of the dawn, who rose from her home at the edge of Oceanus, the Ocean that surrounds the world, to herald her brother Helios, the sun....
, though Aurora did not bring with her any resonance of a greater archaic goddess.
Roman mythology
In ancient Roman mythology

Roman mythology

Roman mythology, or more appropriately, Latin mythology, refers to the mythology beliefs of the Italic people inhabiting the region of Latium and its main city, Rome....
Aurora, goddess of the dawn, renews herself every morning and flies across the sky, announcing the arrival of the sun. Her parentage was flexible: for Ovid

Ovid

Publius Ovidius Naso was a Roman Empire poet known as Ovid to the English language-speaking world, who wrote about love, seduction, and Roman mythology transformation....
she could equally be Pallantis, signifying the daughter of Pallas, or the daughter of Hyperion

Hyperion

Hyperion is a Titan in Greek mythology.Hyperion may also refer to:In science:* Hyperion , a moon of SaturnIn technology:...
.

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Roman mythology

In ancient Roman mythology

Roman mythology

Ovid

Hyperion

Hyperion is a Titan in Greek mythology.Hyperion may also refer to:In science:* Hyperion , a moon of SaturnIn technology:...
. She has two siblings, a brother (Sol

Sól

S?l may refer to:*S?l , a goddess associated with the sun in Germanic mythology*Sowilo rune*S?l, Lublin Voivodeship *S?l, Masovian Voivodeship ...
, the sun) and a sister (Luna, the moon), and four children, the Winds

Wind god

There are many different gods of Wind in different religions:*Vayu, the Hindu God of Wind, Hanuman's father:*Anemoi, the Greek wind gods Boreas, Notus, Eurus, and Zephyrus....

Aurora appears most often in Latin poetry with one of her mortal lovers. A myth taken from the Greek Eos by Roman poets tells that one of her lovers was the prince of Troy

Troy

Troy is a legendary city and center of the Trojan War, as described in the Epic Cycle, and especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer....
, Tithonus

Tithonus

In Greek mythology, Tithonus or Tithonos was the lover of Eos, Titan of the dawn. He was a Troy by birth, the son of King Laomedon of Troy by a Naiad named Strymo ....
. Tithonus was a mortal, and would age and die. Wanting to be with her lover for all eternity, Aurora asked Zeus

Zeus

Zeus in Greek mythology is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus and the god of the sky father and List of thunder gods. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull , and oak....
to grant immortality

Immortality

Immortality is the concept of life in a body or soul for an infinite or inconceivably vast length of time.As immortality is the negation of mortality?not dying or not being subject to death?it has been a subject of fascination to human since at least the beginning of history....
to Tithonus. Zeus granted her wish, however Aurora had failed to ask him for eternal youth. As a result, Tithonus ended up aging eternally. Aurora ended up turning her beloved Tithonus into a grasshopper.

Usage in literature and music

From Homer

Homer

Homer is traditionally held to be the author of the ancient Greek language epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, as well as of the Homeric Hymns....
's Iliad
ILiad

The iLiad is an electronic handheld device, or e-book device, which can be used for document reading and editing. Like the Sony Reader or Amazon Kindle, the iLiad makes use of an electronic paper display....
:

Now when Dawn
Eos

Eos is, in Greek mythology, the Titan goddess of the dawn, who rose from her home at the edge of Oceanus, the Ocean that surrounds the world, to herald her brother Helios, the sun....
in robe of saffron
Saffron (color)

Saffron is a shade of Gold yellow resembling color of the tip of the saffron crocus thread, from which the spice saffron is derived....
was hastening from the streams of Okeanos, to bring light to mortals and immortals, Thetis
Thetis

Silver-footed Thetis , disposer or "placer" , is encountered in Greek mythology mostly as a sea nymph, one of the fifty Nereids, daughters of the ancient one of the seas with shape-shifting abilities who survives in the historical vestiges of most later Greek myths as Proteus ....
reached the ships with the armor that the god had given her. (19.1)

But soon as early Dawn appeared, the rosy
Rose (color)

Rose is the color halfway between red and magenta on the HSV color space, on which it is at hue angle of 330 degrees.Rose has 67% red and 33% blue ....
-fingered, then gathered the folk about the pyre
Pyre

A pyre is a structure, usually made of wood, for burning a body as part of a funeral rite. As a form of cremation, a body is placed upon the pyre which is then set on fire....
of glorious Hector
Hector

In Greek mythology, Hector , or Hektor, is a Troy prince and one of the greatest fighters in the Trojan War. He is the son of Priam and Hecuba, descendant of Dardanus, who lived under Mount Ida, and of Tros, the founder of Troy....
. (24.776)

From Virgil

Virgil

Publius Vergilius Maro was a classical Roman poet, best known for three major works?the Bucolics , the Georgics and the Aeneid?although several Appendix Vergiliana are also attributed to him....
's Aeneid
Aeneid

The Aeneid is a Latin Epic poetry written by Virgil in the late 1st century BC that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy who traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Rome....
:

Aurora now had left her saffron bed,

And beams of early light the heav'ns o'erspread,

When, from a tow'r, the queen, with wakeful eyes,

Saw day point upward from the rosy skies.

In Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English people poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist....
's Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is a Shakespearean tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young "Star-crossed" whose untimely deaths ultimately unite their feuding families....
(I.i), Montague says of his lovesick son Romeo

But all so soon as the all-cheering sun

Should in the furthest east begin to draw

The shady curtains from Aurora's bed,

Away from the light steals home my heavy son...

In the poem "Tithonus" by Lord Alfred Tennyson, Aurora is described thus:

Once more the old mysterious glimmer steals

From thy pure brows, and from thy shoulders pure,

And bosom beating with a heart renewed.

Thy cheek begins to redden through the gloom,

Thy sweet eyes brighten slowly close to mine,

Ere yet they blind the stars, and the wild team

Which love thee, yearning for thy yoke, arise,

And shake the darkness from their loosened manes,

And beat the twilight into flakes of a fire

In singer-songwriter Björk

Björk

Bj?rk Gu?mundsd?ttir is an Icelandic singer-songwriter, composer, actor and record producer, whose work includes seven solo albums and two film soundtracks....
's Vespertine
Vespertine

Vespertine, released in August 2001, is an album by the Icelandic singer/songwriter/musician Bj?rk. It sees Bj?rk creating an introverted, quiet world of swirling microbeats and personal lyrics....
track, Aurora is described as:

Aurora

Goddess sparkle

A mountain shade suggests your shape

I tumble down on my knees

Fill my mouth with snow

The way it melts

I wish to melt into you

In Chapter 2 of Walden

Walden

Walden by Henry David Thoreau is one of the best-known non-fiction books written by an United States. Published in 1854, it details Thoreau's sojourn in a cabin near Walden Pond, amidst woodland owned by his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson, near Concord, Massachusetts....
, Where I Lived and What I Lived for, Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau was an United States author, poet, Natural history, tax resistance, development criticism, surveyor, historian, philosophy, and leading Transcendentalism....
states:

Every morning was a cheerful invitation

to make my life of equal simplicity,

and I may say innocence, with Nature herself.

I have been as sincere a worshipper of Aurora as the Greeks.

I got up early and bathed in the pond;

that was a religious exercise,

and one of the best things which I did.

Depiction in art

Aurora by Guercino (1591 - 1666)
Aurora e Titone by Francesco de Mura
Francesco de Mura

Francesco de Mura was an Italy painter of the late-Baroque period, active mainly in Naples and Turin. His late work reflects the style of neoclassicism....
(1696 - 1782)
The Gates of Dawn by Herbert James Draper
Herbert James Draper

Herbert James Draper was an English painter in the Victorian era. He studied art at the Royal Academy in London and undertook several educational trips to Rome and Paris between 1888 and 1892....
(1863 – 1920)
Aurora and Cephalus by Pierre-Narcisse Guérin
Pierre-Narcisse Guérin

Pierre-Narcisse, baron Gu?rin , France Painting, was born in Paris.A pupil of Jean-Baptiste Regnault, he carried off one of the three grands prix offered in 1796, in consequence of the competition not having taken place since 1793....
(1774 - 1833)

Aurora (mythology)

Roman mythology

Usage in literature and music

Depiction in art

External links