Aurora
Aurora (dawn) In Roman mythology, the dawn; daughter of Hyperion and Thia (or Thea); married to Astraeus; mother of the wind and the stars; called Eos by the Greeks. Aurora’s chariot, drawn by white horses, raced across the heavens and caused the constellations to disappear at her approach. The subject is found frequently in Baroque paintings, including works of Carracci, Guercino, and Guido Reni.
In literature, Shakespeare refers to the dawn in A Midsummer Night’s Dream as “Aurora’s harbinger,” (3.2.380), and Spenser in The Faerie Queene (book 1) writes: “And fayre Aurora from the deawy bed / Of aged Thitone gan herselfe to reare.” Thitone is Spenser’s spelling of Tithonus, the old lover of the goddess. Ancient references are found in Homer’s Odyssey (book 10), Vergil’s Aeneid (book 6), and Ovid’s Metamorphoses (book 3).
SOURCE:
Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend, Third Edition – Written by Anthony S. Mercatante & James R. Dow
Copyright © 2009 by Anthony S. Mercatante