A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.1914

c5.1914

USHAS. The dawn, the ἠώς of the Greeks and Aurora of the Latins. She is the daughter of heaven and sister of the Ādityas. This is one of the most beautiful myths of the Vedas, and is enveloped in poetry. Ushas is the friend of men, she smiles like a young wife, she is the daughter of the sky, she goes to every house, she thinks of the dwellings of men, she does not despise the small or the great, she brings wealth; she is always the same, immortal, divine, age cannot touch her; she is the young goddess, but she makes men grow old. “All this,” adds Max Müller, “may be simply allegorical language. But the transition from Devī, ‘the bright,’ to Devī, the goddess, is so easy; the daughter of the sky assumes so readily the same personality which is given to the sky, Dyaus, her father, that we can only guess whether, in every passage, the poet is speaking of a bright apparition or of a bright goddess, of a natural vision or a visible deity.” She is called Ahanā and Dyotanā, ‘the illumer.’