Evening Star prepares her bed. The Moon married the Sun in the first spring-
time, but wandered off and fell in love with the Morning Star; Perkunas was
angry, and clove him with his sword.^127
But what does the Daughter of the Sun represent? In some of the Baltic
songs she alternates in different versions with Saule herself, though in other
songs they are separate individuals. In one Lithuanian song the Morning Star
(Ausˇrine ̇, fem.) is called daughter of the Sun.^128 But this is clearly not a fixed
equation. It is impossible in Latvian, where the Morning Star is masculine.
One Vedic passage suggests Su ̄rya ̄’s identification with the Dawn,^129 but
otherwise there is no overlap between what is said about the one, the
daughter of Su ̄ rya, and the other, the daughter of Dyaus. She seems never-
theless to have a connection with the solar glow or glare. A post-Vedic sys-
tematizer says of Su ̄ rya’s wife, ‘they call her Us
̇
as before sunrise, Su ̄rya ̄ when
midday reigns, but Vr
̇
s
̇a ̄kapa ̄yı ̄ at the setting of the sun’ (Br
̇haddevata ̄ 2. 9–10,
cf. 7. 120 f.). Such a formula is inapplicable to the Vedic material, but it
implies a sense that Su ̄rya ̄ signified something like the sun’s effulgence.
As a creature of surpassing beauty the Sun’s daughter naturally aroused
desire among the celestials. But we cannot attach any exact astronomical
meaning to her liaisons, any more than we can to the journeyings of the
As ́vins, whose chariot she joins, or of the Dioskouroi. The twin brothers
have sometimes been identified with the Morning and Evening Stars.^130 But
these can never appear at the same time, or on the same day, or even in the
same month.
Ritual aspectsWe have noted that the solar festivals are characterized by imitation on earth
of what happens in heaven. The sun is held aloft, transported by horse or
ship, rolled down from hilltop to water. Certain features of the mythology
surrounding the Daughter of the Sun also have their counterpart in seasonal
festive custom. But here, perhaps, it is not a matter of imitating phenomena
observed in the sky, but rather of projecting earthly sports into the sky, with
myth reflecting ritual.
(^127) Rhesa (1825), 92, 282; Schleicher (1857), 215 nos. 1–2, cf. no. 3. Cf. Jonval no. 301: Saule
(var.: Pe ̄rkons) clove the Moon with his sword because he had abducted Auseklis’fiancée.
(^128) Rhesa (1825), 220–2; Schleicher (1857), 216 no. 4.
(^129) RV 7. 75. 5, where Su ̄ ́riyasya yós
̇
a ̄‘Su ̄ rya’s young woman’ and Us
̇
as stand in parallel.
(^130) As ́vins: von Schroeder (1914–16), ii. 445–7; Oldenberg (1917), 209–13; contra, Hille-
brandt (1927–9), i. 39 f. Dioskouroi: Stat. Silv. 4. 6. 15 f.; Serv. Aen. 6. 121; F. G. Welcker,
Griechische Götterlehre (Elberfeld 1857–63), i. 606; Mannhardt (1875), 309; von Schroeder
(1914–16), ii. 451–3; Ward (1968), 15–18.
234 5. Sun and Daughter