cf. 1. 113. 7); the Dawns spread out their lovely garments to the wind (1. 134.
4). In Homer Dawn is called κροκο ́ πεπλο, ‘saffron-robed’, and in a later
poetανηφο ́ ρο, ‘wearing fine raiment’ (Antimachus fr. 152 Matthews). In
the Latvian songs Saule and her daughter(s) are dressed in fabrics of silk,
silver, or gold.^88 Saule also wears shoes of gold (LD 33951, 33992 = Jonval
nos. 226, 155), which parallels Sappho’s χρυσοπδιλο ΑOω, ‘gold-
sandalled Dawn’ (fr. 103. 10, 123).
Us
̇
as is not shy of displaying her beauty. She comes before men like a girl
with no brothers, like one who goes on stage, and she uncovers her bosom like
a courtesan (RV 1. 124. 7, cf. 92. 4; 5. 80. 6; 6. 64. 2).
Like a girl proud of her body you go, goddess, to the god who desires (you);^89
a smiling (sam
̇smáyama ̄na ̄) young woman, shining forth from the east you bare your
breasts.
Good-looking, like a young woman adorned by her mother, you bare your body for
beholding. (1. 123. 10 f.)The verb smayate‘smiles’ is used of her also at 1. 92. 6, and of ‘the
two Us
̇
asa ̄’ (i.e. Us
̇as and her sister, = Dawn and Night) at 3. 4. 6. In the
former passage, as in 1. 123. 10, the smile is clearly erotic, enticing. It has
been suspected that this seductive smiling was once a feature of the Greek
Dawn goddess too, and that Aphrodite took over from her the epithet
φιλομμειδ , as she may have taken over the title ∆ι: θυγα ́ τηρ.^90 The
Greek μειδια ́ ω is from the same root as the Vedic smi.
Us
̇
as throws on embroidered garments nr
̇tu ̄ ́r iva, like a dancer (RV 1. 92. 4).
Eos has χορο, dancing-places, in the east where she has her house and where
the sun rises (Od. 12. 4). This must allude to dance performances witnessed
by mankind. Saule is described dancing in her gilded shoes on a silver hill.^91
Eos’ house (ο!κα, neuter plural) may be put beside the mythical eastern
mountain of the Avesta called Usˇidam-, ‘Dawn-house’ (Yt. 1. 28, 31; 19. 2,
(^88) Jonval nos. 137, 157, 298, 307, 349 =LD 33783, 33934, 33866, 33948, 33891; compared with
the Homeric ,Ηd κροκο ́ πεπλο by Mannhardt (1875), 219. The counterpart of Dawn’s
bright garment is Night’s dark mantle (RV 4. 13. 4, cf. 1. 115. 4; Eur. Ion 1150), sometimes
pictured as embroidered with the stars (AV 19. 49. 8, reading náks
̇
atra ̄n
̇
y with Whitney; [Aesch.]
Prom. 24). Cf. West (1997), 579 f.
(^89) This is the Sun, cf. 1. 69. 1, 9, 92. 11, 115. 2; 4. 5. 13; 7. 9. 1, 10. 1, 75. 5, 76. 3; 10. 3. 3.
(^90) D. D. Boedeker, Aphrodite’s Entry into Greek Epic (Leiden 1974), 23–6, 30–42; cf. W. Sonne,
ZVS 10 (1861), 351, 361 n. 1. Perhaps the strange ‘golden Aphrodite’ (χρυσH) is to be explained
on the same lines; cf. above on Dawn’s golden colouring, and Boedeker, 22 f. In Homeric
formula Eos is χρυσο ́ θρονο, ‘gold-throned’. It is conceivable that this originally meant ‘gold-
patterned’ (from θρο ́ να), referring to Dawn’s robe, and that after reinterpretation as ‘gold-
throned’ the epithet was then extended to other goddesses such as Hera. Saule and her daughter
wear shawls woven with gold thread (LD 33790 = Jonval no. 513).
(^91) LD 33992 = Jonval no. 155. These comparisons were drawn by Mannhardt (1875), 99.
- Sun and Daughter 221