[[dawn]] | [[ambiguity]] *** > The Dawn goddess while unaging and therefore ever beautiful herself, ages us and brings death with every showing. || |-|-| Greek | [[homeric-hymn-to-aphrodite218-38]] `+motif-dawn-has-lovers` Indic | [[rv1.92.10]]<br>[[ts4.3.11.5]] West describes it as a "tragic contrast between her and us"==[[west2007]]:225== Serith explains that this ambiguity is both (1) a bittersweet meditation on mortality; and (2) a cosmic one: ==[[serith-xausos]]== > "Although a beautiful maiden, Xáusōs is not all sweetness and light. Dawn is ambivalent. It is neither night nor day. The dark has been safely navigated, but the light is not yet here. And it might not come. Xáusōs is the keeper of the gates of dawn. Will she open them? There is always the chance that she might not. And even when she does come, her gift is ambivalent. Each day brings us closer to death. Xáusōs is a goddess to be welcomed, but with care. > > The ambiguity has another source. Since dawn is neither night nor day, it's between one thing and another. It doesn't really belong; despite taking part in the Xártus, and even being an important part of its operation, it doesn't really belong to the Xártus, because it doesn't have a definite identity. It thus shares in both the promise and danger of Chaos. As a result, dawn rituals express some hopeful thinking and try to work a little magic. Through them it will be the promise we get, not the danger. Even with the ambiguity, Xáusōs is an upholder of order, of the Xártus. Uṣas (together with her sister, Night) is a "shining mother of order [Ṛta]" ([[rv1.142.7]]; in Macdonell, 1897, 129). The sun does rise, and as long as we continue our own proper behavior it will continue to do so." She is the life of all living creatures, the impeller of action and breath, the foe of chaos and confusion, the auspicious arouser of cosmic and moral order [Ṛta](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E1%B9%9Ata "Ṛta"). ==David Kinsley (1988). [_Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tradition_](https://archive.org/details/hindugoddessesvi0000kins). University of California Press. pp. [7](https://archive.org/details/hindugoddessesvi0000kins/page/7)–8.W. J. Wilkins (2003). [_Hindu Gods and Goddesses_](https://books.google.com/books?id=f0XpDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA48). Courier. pp. 48–52.== ## Biblio [[west2007]]:224-5 [[serith-xausos]] [[w-oflaherty1980]]:136