Aurora (mythology)

Aurora is the Latin word for dawn, and the goddess of dawn in Roman mythology and Latin poetry. Her Greek equivalent is Eos.

Quotes

• The lively lark stretched forth her wing,
  The messenger of morning bright,
  And with her cheerful voice did sing
  The day’s approach, discharging night,
    When that Aurora, blushing red,
    Descried the guilt of Thetis’ bed.
  • Edward de Vere, The Paradise of Dainty Devices (1576)

• As faire Aurora in her morning gray,
    Deckt with the ruddie glister of her love
          Is faire Samela;
  • Robert Greene, Menaphon (1589)

• Her cheekes are like the blushing clowde
  That beautefies Auroraes face,
  • Thomas Lodge, "Rosalyndes description"
  • Rosalynde (2nd ed., 1592)

• O happy Tithon! if thou know’st thy hap,
    And valuest thy wealth, as I my want,
    Then need’st thou not—which ah! I grieve to grant—
  Repine at Jove, lull’d in his leman’s lap:
    That golden shower in which he did repose—
      One dewy drop it stains
      Which thy Aurora rains
      Upon the rural plains,
    When from thy bed she passionately goes.
  Then, waken’d with the music of the merles,
    She not remembers Memnon when she mourns:
    That faithful flame which in her bosom burns
  From crystal conduits throws those liquid pearls:
    Sad from thy sight so soon to be removed,
      She so her grief delates.
      —O favour’d by the fates
      Above the happiest states,
    Who art of one so worthy well-beloved!
  • Earl of Stirling, Aurora (1604)

• Mercury: I’le rowle me in Auroras Dew,
  • Aurelian Townshend, Albion’s Triumph, a Masque (1631)

• See how Aurora throws her fair
  Fresh-quilted colours through the air:
  • Robert Herrick, "Corinna’s going a-Maying"
  • Hesperides (1648)

• Whose head, befringed with bescattered tresses,
  Shows like Apollo’s when the morn he dresses,
  Or like Aurora when with pearl she sets
  Her long, dishevell’d, rose-crown’d trammelets:
  • Robert Herrick, "The Description of a Woman"
  • Poems not included in Hesperides
  • Variants: "blesses" for "dresses" (MS.)

• The darlings of Aurora’s bed,
  • Richard Crashaw, "The Weeper"

• The Morning Curtains now are drawn,
  And now appears the blushing dawn;
  Aurora has her Roses shed,
  To strew the way Sol’s steeds must tread.
  • Charles Cotton, "Morning Quatrains"

• Once more the old mysterious glimmer steals
  From thy pure brows, and from thy shoulders pure,
  And bosom beating with a heart renew’d.
  Thy cheek begins to redden thro’ 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 loosen’d manes,
  And beat the twilight into flakes of fire.
  • Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Tithonus" (1860)