them have no apparent relevance to the present context, as when in a Hittite
narrative the Earth, ‘daughter of the Sun-god’, asks to be fed in the morning
and is given groats(?) by the Sun; or when we hear in the Edda that the Sun
will give birth to a daughter as fair as herself to take her place after Ragnarøk;
or when Albanian legend tells of a daughter of the Sun and Moon who is the
dew and who helps a hero in his fight against a female dragon of rain and
drought.^124
We find matter of greater interest among the Ossetic Nart legends. In one
story the hero Soslan pursues a shining golden hart whom he sees at sunrise
in a reed-bed. She is in fact Aziruxs (‘this light’), the daughter of the Sun. He
tracks her down, and after performing some difficult tasks he wins her in
marriage. In another episode, while he is out hunting, she is abducted by
the prince of the stronghold Xisa. When he finds out what has happened,
he assembles the Nart army and goes and lays siege to the stronghold. They
are unable to take it and return home downcast, but a second expedition is
successful and Aziruxs is recaptured.^125
Astronomical interpretationsCommon threads in the traditions about the Daughter of the Sun are (a) her
association with the Twin Horsemen, and (b) rivalry for her hand, which
sometimes leads to vicissitudes: she is given to someone other than she was
originally promised to, or the wedding feast is interrupted, or she is abducted
afterwards. In the Indian and Baltic traditions the Moon is implicated in these
contretemps, in the latter also the Morning Star. We have the sense that the
stories are romantic interpretations of astronomical phenomena. At times
when Venus or the moon is visible at dawn, their positions change from day
to day, and an intrigue might easily be read into their movements.
The Baltic and Slavonic songsters are particularly given to putting the
heavenly luminaries in personal and domestic relationships. The Morning
and Evening Stars are the Moon’s horses (Jonval nos. 280 f.). In Slovak fancy
the Zori, or morning and evening twilights, daughters of God, with the
Morning Star, serve the Sun and harness his white horses.^126 In Lithuanian
songs the Morning Star lights the fire for the Sun, daughter of God, and the
(^124) KBo iii. 38 recto 3′; H. Otten, Eine althethitische Erzählung um die Stadt Zalpa (Studien zu
den Bog ̆azköy-Texten 17; Wiesbaden 1973), 37; Va f þ r úðnismál 47, Gylf. 53; M. Lambertz, Albane-
sische Märchen (Sitz.-Ber. Wien. Ak., Linguistische Abteilung 12, 1922), 77; id. (1973), 471 f.,
486 f.
(^125) Sikojev (1985), 110–28, 187–9; cf. 184, 202–5, 286 f.
(^126) Mannhardt (1875), 305.
- Sun and Daughter 233