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H₂ausos


One of the most important goddesses of reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion is the personification of dawn as a beautiful young woman.

Her name is reconstructed as Hausōs or Ausōs (PIE , an s-stem), besides numerous epithets.

The name *h₂éwsōs is derived from a root "to shine", thus translating to "the shining one". Both the English word and the Latin auster "south" are from a root cognate adjective *h₂ews-t(e)ro-. Also cognate is aurum "gold", from *h₂ews-o-m. The dawn goddess was also the goddess of spring, involved in the mythology of the Indo-European new year, where the dawn goddess is liberated from imprisonment by a god (reflected in the Rigveda as Indra, in Greek mythology as Dionysus and Cronus).

Derivatives of *h₂éwsōs in the historical mythologies of Indo-European peoples include Indian Uṣas, Greek Ἠώς (Ēōs), Latin Aurōra, and Baltic Aušra ("dawn", c.f. Lithuanian Aušrinė). Germanic *Austrǭ is from an extended stem *h₂ews-t(e)ro-.


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