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*Hausos (h2aus-os-) is the reconstructed name of a theoretic Proto-Indo-European goddess associated with dawn.
Etymogically connected deities
Indo-European deities developed from the theoretic *Hausos include Vedic Ushas, Slavic Zorya (not a cognate word), Greek Eos, Roman Aurora and Lithuanian Aušra.
Also cognate is the term za ustra "early morning" in Old Church Slavonic.
If the Germanic goddess Eostre was historically venerated, a relation to her has also been proposed.[who?]
As a love goddess, she was also called *Wenos "lust" (c.f. Venus, Vanadis, Vanir).
Conjectured part in a solar myth
The Romans equated the Roman goddess Mater Matuta with Eos. Mythographer Georges Dumézil accepts this and from known fragments of the Matralia ritual, Dumézil conjectures that Hausos' mythological role was as the aunt and foster mother of the Helios, the personified sun in Greek mythology. The hypothetical myth is as follows:
| “ | The Dawn's sister is Nyx (night), who is the Sun's mother. The Night always suffers a bloody death (dawn) while giving birth to the Sun. The Dawn nurses her infant nephew Solar Hero, while the Sun rests on the horizon, and then raises him up into the sky and sends him off on his grand journey across the heavens, after which he also suffers a bloody death (sunset). | ” |
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