Hausos
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*Hausos (h2aus-os-) was the goddess of dawn in Proto-Indo-European religion.
Cognate deities in later related religions include Vedic Ushas, Greek Eos, Roman Aurora, Lithuanian Aušra (Germanic Eostre is dubious). As a love goddess, she was also called *Wenos "lust" (c.f. Venus, Vanadis). Also cognate is Old Church Slavonic za ustra "early morning".
As did the Romans, Georges Dumézil equates the Roman goddess Mater Matuta with Eos, and from known fragments of the Matralia ritual, Dumézil conjectures that Hausos' mythological role was as the aunt and foster mother of the Sun. The Sun's mother and the Dawn's sister is Nyx (night), who always dies in childbirth. The Dawn first nurses the infant Solar Hero, while the Sun rests on the horizon, and then raises him up into the sky and sends him off on his grand journey across the heavens. Although most other astonomical interpretations of early mythology are now discredited, this myth may still be worth consideration.
See also: Earendel.
