Aurora (mythology)

Aurora (mythology)

In Roman mythology, Aurora is the goddess of the dawn. Her name comes from the Latin word for dawn, and she appears often in Latin literature.

Aurora is similar to other dawn goddesses from different cultures, like the Greek goddess Eos and the Rigvedic goddess Ushas. She is part of a long tradition that goes back to an earlier Indo-European dawn goddess named Hausos.

Many stories and poems feature Aurora, showing her important role in connecting the night to the day and bringing light to the world.

Name

Aurora means "dawn" and is connected to other goddesses of the dawn, like Ēṓs, Uṣas, Aušrinė, Auseklis, and Ēastre. They all stand for the bright morning light.

Roman mythology

In Roman mythology, Aurora brings in the dawn each morning by flying across the sky. She is the goddess of dawn. Some stories say she is the daughter of the powerful Titan Hyperion or of Pallas. She has a brother, Sol, who is the Sun, and a sister, Luna, who is the Moon.

One story tells of Aurora's love for Tithonus, a prince from Troy. Because he would grow old, Aurora asked Jupiter to give him immortality so they could stay together. Jupiter agreed, but Aurora forgot to ask that he also stay young. Tithonus kept aging and became very old. Aurora then turned him into a cicada.

In Roman literature

In Roman stories, the goddess Aurora appears often. The writer Ovid wrote about her. He said that Aurora loved a man from a faraway land. Another writer, Virgil, wrote that Aurora left her bed to bring light to the sky in his poem The Aeneid. Later, a poet named Rutilius Claudius Namatianus wrote that Aurora brought nice weather in his poem De reditu suo.

These stories show how people long ago thought about the dawn and the goddess who brought it.

In popular culture

Aurora has appeared many times in books, poems, plays, and music.

• In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Lord Montague talks about the Sun moving away from Aurora's bed.
• Aurora and Flora, the goddess of spring, are shown together with Neptune in the traditional Irish folk song "Lord Courtown."
• The 18th century African-American poet Phillis Wheatley wrote about Aurora in her poem "On Imagination."
• In Chapter 8 of Charlotte Brontë's Villette, a character named Lucy Snowe compares someone to Aurora.
• Alfred, Lord Tennyson described Aurora in his poem "Tithonus."
• The first of the 50 Spacer worlds in The Caves of Steel and other novels by Isaac Asimov is named after the goddess Aurora. Its capital city is called Eos.
• Icelandic singer Björk sings about the goddess in the song "Aurora" on her Vespertine album.

Depiction in art

Aurora, the Roman goddess of dawn, has inspired many famous artworks. Some notable paintings include Aurora by Guido Reni, Aurora (Artemisia Gentileschi), and Aurora by Guercino. Other works include The Countess de Brac as Aurōra by Jean-Marc Nattier and Aurora e Titone by Francesco de Mura, along with many more beautiful pieces by talented artists.