Aurora is the Roman name for the Goddess of the Dawn. Her mythology and attributes are the same as the Greek Eos, and She does not seem to have any specifically Roman mythology. Her name simply means “the dawn, daybreak, or sunrise”, and in time the word came to signify the East as well as the peoples from the Eastern lands. Her name may be related to Latin aurum, meaning “gold”, through the shared idea of brightness. Ovid tells of Her in his Metamorphoses: he describes Her as being ever-young, and the first to awake, so that She may bring the light of day in Her chariot which She rides into the sky ahead of the Sun. She has a purple mantle that spreads out behind Her as She rides; and She is said to scatter roses and flowers before Her.

An aurora is of course also the name for the phenomenon of the northern (or southern) lights, great displays of shifting colors in the skies of the far north and south. They are generally said to look like shifting curtains or veils of light, evoking Aurora’s purple cloak blowing behind Her as She rides across the sky.