Hausos

*Hausos (h₂aus-os-) is conjectured to be the name of goddess of dawn in Proto-Indo-European religion.

Similar sounding names, of similar deities

Cognate deities in later related religions include Vedic Ushas, Slavic Zora, Greek Eos, Roman Aurora, Lithuanian Aušra.

Also cognate is za ustra, "early morning" in Old Church Slavonic.

If the Germanic goddess Eostre was historically venerated, a relation to her has also been proposed.

As a love goddess, she was also called *Wenos "lust" (c.f. Venus, Vanadis, Vanir).

Conjectured part in a solar myth

The Romans equated the Roman goddess Mater Matuta with Eos. Mythographer Georges Dumézil accepts this and from known fragments of the Matralia ritual, Dumézil conjectures that Hausos’ mythological role was as the aunt and foster mother of the Sun. The hypothetical myth is as follows:

The Dawn's sister is Nyx (night), who is the Sun's mother. The Night always suffers a bloody death (dawn) while giving birth to the Sun. The Dawn nurses her infant nephew Solar Hero, while the Sun rests on the horizon, and then raises him up into the sky and sends him off on his grand journey across the heavens, after which he also suffers a bloody death (sunset).

Most other astonomical interpretations of early mythology are now discredited, after being popular in the early 20th century, but this myth may still be worth consideration.

See also

• Aurora (Roman)
• Aušra (Lithuanian)
• Aurvandil (Germanic)
• Eos (Greek)
• Eostre (Germanic, controversial)
• Ushas (Vedic)
• Zora (Slavic)ca:Hausos