Goddess of the dawn in Roman mythology

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

Studying ancient mythology is an exciting experience. The ancient Greeks believed that Mount Olympus was home to a host of gods and goddesses who ruled people and the world. Some were responsible for social spheres (marriage, power, crafts, fertility, war), others for philosophical categories (death, time, life, fate, love, wisdom), others for natural objects and phenomena (day, night, stars, dawn, sea, fire, earth, wind).

Greek and Roman pantheon

Following the Greeks, the same Olympic gods were worshiped by the Romans, who adopted many elements of culture from the Greeks. If we talk about the differences between the ancient Greek and ancient Roman gods, then they are very insignificant and concern only names. For example: Artemis - Diana, Poseidon - Neptune, Athena - Minerva, Zeus - Jupiter, etc.

As for the functions, genealogical trees and relationships of gods and goddesses, all this was completely transferred from Greek mythology to Roman. So the ancient Greek pantheon became the ancient Roman one, changing only the names of the gods and goddesses.

Place of Eos (Aurora) in the family tree

Originally on Olympus12 divine beings lived: 6 men and 6 women. They became the progenitors of the next generations of gods and goddesses. In one of the branches of the family tree, coming from the ancient gods, the goddess of the morning dawn Eos (or, according to the ancient Roman tradition, Aurora) was born. It is believed that all ancient goddesses are carriers of various feminine qualities and traditional roles: mother, wife, daughter.

Eos (Aurora), the goddess of the dawn, is the representative of the third generation of Olympian gods. Her parents were the titan Hyperion and the titanide Theia. Aurora's name comes from the Latin word aura, which means "pre-dawn breeze". Goddess brother - Helios, sister - Selena.

From her marriage with the titan of the starry sky Astraeus, all the night stars were born, as well as all the winds: the formidable and cold Boreas (northern), the fog-bearing Not (southern), the warm and rainy Zephyr (western) and the changeable Eurus (eastern).

Images of the Goddess

The goddess of the dawn is called upon to bring daylight first to Mount Olympus, then to the earth, first to the gods, then to people. The Greeks believed that Eos lives in Ethiopia (on the eastern edge of the Ocean), and enters the sky through a silver gate.

As a rule, the goddess was depicted in a red-yellow (or "saffron") robe and with wings behind her back. Often she flew across the sky on a chariot harnessed by a deuce or a quadriga of white horses (sometimes winged, sometimes not). One of the horses was named Lampos, the other was Phaeton.

Homer called the goddess Eos "beautifully curly" and "pink". Last epithetis explained by the fact that pink stripes appear in the sky before sunrise, similar to the fingers of a hand that Eos (Aurora) stretches forward. The goddess held vessels full of dew in her hands. Above her head shone a halo, a solar disk or a crown of rays. In many images, the Roman goddess of the dawn appears holding a torch in her right hand and flying in front of the chariot of Sol (Helios) - the god of the sun - and leading him.

Sometimes she is depicted flying through the sky on a Pegasus and scattering flowers around her. In Eos Aurora paintings, one can often see a brightening morning horizon and receding night clouds. Ancient myths explain the scarlet or crimson light of dawn by the fact that the beautiful goddess was very passionate, and the sky was embarrassed by the nights that she spent with her beloved young men.

Eos-Aurora and her lovers

Lovefulness, which the goddess of the morning dawn was famous for, manifested itself in her craving for earthly and mortal youths. This weakness was the result of a spell cast on her by another inhabitant of Olympus - the goddess of love Aphrodite, who was seized with anger and jealousy after Eos shared a bed with Ares, Aphrodite's lover. Since then, under the spell, the goddess of the dawn fell in love only with mortals, whose youth and beauty inevitably faded with the years.

Eos and Tethon

Feeling love and passion for the earthly youth was both a blessing and a curse for the immortal Eos. The goddess fell in love, but was not always happy. A sad story is told in the myth of her and her beloved Titon, the son of a Trojanking.

Inflamed with feelings for a beautiful young man, she kidnapped him and transferred him on her heavenly chariot to the eastern edge of the Ocean, to Ethiopia. There, Titon became king, and also the husband of a beautiful goddess, who gave birth to his beloved son, the demigod Memnon.

Being immortal and wanting to prolong her happiness forever, Eos asked the supreme god Zeus to grant immortality to Tithon. However, due to the distraction characteristic of lovers, the pink-faced goddess forgot to clarify that the young man must not only become immortal, but also remain forever young. Because of this fatal mistake, Eos and Tithon's happiness did not last long.

The human age is short compared to the eternity of the life of a deity - soon the head of the beloved was covered with gray hair, and yesterday's youth turned into a decrepit old man. He could no longer be the husband of a goddess, still young and beautiful. At first, Eos suffered greatly from the fact that she could not do anything: after all, she herself asked for eternal life, but not eternal youth for Tithon. Then she got tired of taking care of the immortal old man, and she locked him in the bedroom so as not to see.

According to one version of the myth, Titon was subsequently turned into a cricket by Zeus, who took pity on him, according to another version - by Eos herself, and according to the third version - he dried up over time, being locked away from his eyes, and turned into a cricket to live in old houses and hum your sad song in a creaky voice.

Eos and Cephalus

Another myth tells of the love of a beautifully curly goddess for the mortal youth Cefalu. At first thisthe passion was not mutual, and Cephalus rejected Eos. Struck by his refusal, the goddess lost interest in everything and even ceased to fulfill her daily duty - to see the sun to the sky every morning. The world was ready to plunge into darkness and chaos, but everyone was saved by Cupid, who shot an arrow in the heart of Cephalus. So the goddess found the happiness of mutual love and raised her beloved to her heaven.

Eos (Aurora) - a goddess from ancient mythology, bringing the dawn and leading the sun. Without a doubt, the morning in the view of the ancient Greeks and Romans was considered a very beautiful and poetic time of day, since the goddess was depicted as invariably beautiful and young, as well as amorous and passionate.