The Gates of Dawn
And what a dawn it is!
The Artists, in Very Short Terms
Herbert James Draper was an English Victorian painter, and lived from 1863–1920. His paintings often depict grandiose and sensual motives from mythology and old legends. Draper achieved considerable success in the years around 1900, but despite his technical skills, he subsequently fell out of fame when figurative art went out of fashion.
Aurora, The goddess of Dawn
What we see in the painting, The Gates of Dawn, executed in ca. 1900, is a rather beautiful, quite confident, woman, standing at her gate, looking firmly at a point outside of the painting. But who was she really?
According to legend, Aurora was the daughter of the Titan Hyperion (god of heavenly light) and the Titan Theia(goddess of light). She was the sister of Helios, the god of the sun, and Selene, the goddess of the moon. Aurora was said to ride her chariot across the sky every morning, announcing the arrival of the sun and the beginning of a new day. She is the equivalent to the goddess Eos in Greek mythology.
Aurora is often depicted as a beautiful woman with rosy fingers and golden hair. She wore a long, flowing robe and a crown of roses. In some myths, she was said to have wings like a bird, which allowed…
