Aurora (mythology)
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- This article is about the Roman goddess of dawn; for the asteroid, see 94 Aurora.
Aurora is the Latin word for dawn, the goddess of dawn in Roman mythology and Latin poetry. Aurora is comparable to the Greek goddess Eos, though Aurora did not bring with her any resonance of a greater archaic goddess.
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[edit] Roman mythology
In ancient Roman mythology Aurora, goddess of the dawn, renews herself every morning and flies across the sky, announcing the arrival of the sun. She has two siblings, a brother (Sol, the sun) and a sister (Luna, the moon).
A myth taken from the Greek Eos by Roman poets tells that one of her lovers was the prince of Troy, Tithonus. Tithonus was a mortal, and would age and die. Wanting to be with her lover for all eternity, Aurora asked Zeus to grant immortality 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 cicada.
[edit] Usage in literature and music
- Now when Dawn in robe of saffron was hastening from the streams of Okeanos, to bring light to mortals and immortals, Thetis reached the ships with the armor that the god had given her. (19.1)
- But soon as early Dawn appeared, the rosy-fingered, then gathered the folk about the pyre of glorious Hector. (24.776)
- 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.
These lines and the following 12 were used by the experimental electronic band Placement in the song Rosy Skies.
In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (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's Vespertine track, Aurora is described as:
- Treading the glacier head
- Looking hard for moments of shine
- From twilight to twilight
- Aurora
- Goddess sparkle
- Shoot me beyond this suffer
- The need is great
- Aurora
- 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
- Aurora
- Spark the sun off
- Spark the sun off
- Spark the sun off
- Spark the sun off
In Chapter 2 of Walden, Where I Lived and What I Lived for, Henry David Thoreau 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."
[edit] Depiction in art
- Aurora by Guercino (1591-1666)
- Aurora e Titone by Francesco de Mura (1696-1782)
- The Gates of Dawn by Herbert James Draper (1863 – 1920)