The As ́vins are asked to come with the chariot yásya yóge duhita ̄ ́ ja ̄ ́yate Diváh
̇
,
‘at whose harnessing the daughter of Dyaus is born’ (10. 39. 12). As noted
in the last chapter, ‘daughter of Dyaus’ (or if one prefers, ‘of Heaven’) is a
frequent and distinctive title of Us
̇
as, paralleled by Lithuanian Die ̃vo dukrýte ̇
as a title of the Sun-goddess and in pre-Homeric Greek, quite probably, by
Diwós thugáte ̄ras a title of *Ha ̄wo ̄s. All that remains in Homer of Eos’
relationship to Zeus is her formulaic epithet δ4α.^84 All that remains of her
being ‘born’ is her epithet (ριγνεια‘early-born’. But a welcome parallel
from the West is supplied by the story of the birth of St Brigit, related above.
Though born and reborn, Dawn never dies. She partakes of the general
divine condition of being unageing and immortal: ajára ̄ amr ́
̇
ta ̄ (RV 1. 113.
13); ámartiya ̄ (1. 30. 20; 3. 61. 2). The cognate Eμβροτο is used of her by
Bacchylides (17. 42) and an anonymous epic poet (Choerilus fr. °23. 12
Bernabé=SH 904. 12).
Her most obvious characteristic is that she gives light. In Od. 14. 502 φα ́ ε
δC χρυσο ́ θρονο ,Η. (and also in Hesychius φ 146 φα ́ ντα· λα ́ μποντα)
we have an old root verb whose Vedic cognate bha ̄ is regularly used of Us
̇
as or
the Us
̇
asah
̇: RV 3. 6. 7 Us
̇ó vibha ̄tı ̄ ́r ánu bha ̄si pu ̄rvı ̄ ́h
̇‘you shine in accord with
the many shining Dawns’; 3. 61. 2 ví bha ̄hi‘shine forth’; 6. 65. 2 bha ̄nty
Us
̇
ásah
̇‘the Dawns shine’, etc. Similarly in Avestan, Vd. 19. 28 usˇi ... ba ̄mya
‘shining dawn’; hence Manichaean Middle Persian ,wsˇy b,m, Pahlavi usˇba ̄m
‘daybreak, morning’.^85 Various adjectives derived from this root are applied to
Dawn in Greek: φαειν , φαινλι, φαεσμβροτο, etc.
In one of the Homeric Hymns (31. 2) an otherwise unknown Euryphaessa
appears as the mother of the Dawn, the Moon, and the Sun. As Campanile
has pointed out, the name may reflect an old poetic formula, for in RV 1. 92. 9
(cf. 6. 64. 2) it is said of Us
̇
as that she urviya ̄ ́ ví bha ̄ti, ‘shines out widely’:
here we have the same lexical elements as in ε1ρ7 φα-. Campanile postulates
a pre-Homeric formula ,Αd ε1ρυφα ́ ασσα (< bheh 2 -n
̊
t-ih 2 ), from which
Euryphaassa or -phaessa became an independent name in the same way as
Erigeneia does. The Dawn could be said to be mother of the Sun, as in RV 7.
- 3 Us
̇
áso vibha ̄tı ̄ ́h
̇| ájı ̄janan Su ̄ ́riyam
̇, ‘the shining Dawns have given birth
to Su ̄ rya’.^86 But then, we must suppose, it was forgotten that Euryphaessa was
Dawn, and she became her mother too.
Hesiod (Th. 451, cf. 755) uses the phrase φα ́ ο πολυδερκο ,Ηο , ‘the
(^84) The corresponding Vedic word is used of Night and Dawn together when they are called
yós
̇
an
̇
e diviyé or divyé yós
̇
an
̇
e, ‘the two heavenly maidens’ (RV 7. 2. 6; 10. 110. 6). Because of their
equal alternation they are often treated as sisters (1. 113. 3, 124. 8; 7. 71. 1, etc.), although Night
would not be called daughter of Dyaus.
(^85) Gershevitch (1959), 291.
(^86) E. Campanile, Études Indo-Européennes 6 (1987), 17–24.
- Sun and Daughter 219