66). Saule too has a house; by its doors may be seen the horses of the Son(s) of
God, who court Saule’s daughter (LD 33801, 34000 = Jonval nos. 351, 350).
Saule is urged to hurry and open the door to the suitors (34014 = J. 138 var.
1). In other versions ‘the house of Saule’ is replaced by ‘the house of God’
(Dievs) (33799 f. = J. 139, 352). As already mentioned in the last chapter, the
verse ‘by the doors of the house of God’,pie Dievin ̧a namdure ̄m or nama
durı ̄m, is lexically comparable with the Vedic dva ̄ ́rau Diváh
̇
, ‘doors of
Heaven’, which Us
̇
as opens with her light (RV 1. 48. 15, cf. 113. 4). Later
Classical poets also have Dawn opening heavenly doors or gates.^92
In another hymn the Dawns are said to have opened the doors of the
cow-pen of darkness (4. 51. 2). Dawn and Night in the Rigveda are sisters
(n. 84), and the poets celebrate their alternation (1. 62. 8, 95. 1, 96. 5). Dawn
drives her sister away (1. 92. 11, cf. 123. 7; 10. 172. 4); Night in turn does
likewise (10. 127. 3).
Bright with bright calf the white one has come; the black one has vacated her seats for
her.
Cognate, immortal, consecutive, Day and Night, alternating colour, move on.
The same road is the sisters’, endless: in turn they travel it by divine ordinance.
They collide not, stay not, well-regulated, Night and Dawn, of one mind but divergent
hue. (1. 113. 2; cf. 124. 8)
Hesiod has a strikingly similar passage about the house of Night,
where Night and Day approaching
greet one another as they cross the great threshold
of bronze: the one goes in, the other comes out,
and never the house holds both of them within,
but always one of them outside the house
is ranging over the earth, while the other inside the house
waits until the time comes for her to go,
the one carrying far-seeing light (φα ́ ο πολυδερκ) for men on earth,
the other with Sleep in her arms, the brother of Death ––
Night the baleful, shrouded in clouds of mist. (Th. 748–57)Parmenides claims personally to have journeyed out from the house of Night,
riding in a chariot driven by the Daughters of the Sun (UΗλια ́ δε κο ραι, B
- 9). As they left the house of Night they pushed the veils back from their
faces, like Us
̇
as uncovering her bosom. ‘There stand the gates of the paths of
Night and Day, kept apart by a lintel and a stone threshold... Dike of the
many atonements holds their keys of exchange.’ As a further parallel for this
imagery we may recall again the Irish story of St Brigit, born as her mother
(^92) Ov. Met. 2. 112–14; Quint. Smyrn. 2. 666. Some earlier Greek source may lie behind these.
222 5. Sun and Daughter