AURORA

Real Name: Eos (Aurora is her Roman name)

Occupation: Goddess of dawn

Legal Status: Citizen of Olympus

Identity: The general populace of Earth is unaware of  Aurora's existence except as a mythological character.

Other Aliases: Thesan (Etruscan name)

Place of Birth: possibly Olympus

Marital Status: Widowed

Known Relatives: Hyperion (father), Theia (mother) , Helios (brother), Selene (sister), Circe, Pandia, Ersa, Nemea (nieces), Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, Demeter, Hera, Hestia, (cousins), Hercules, Apollo, Ares, Hephaestus, Hermes, Dionysus (nephews), Aphrodite, Artemis, Athena, Persephone, Discord, Helen, Hebe, Eileithyia (nieces), Astraeus (first husband, separated), Boreas, Notus, Eurus, Zephyros, Eosphorus, Phosphorus, Hesperus, Phaethon (sons), Tithonus (second husband), Memnon, Emathion (sons, deceased)

Group Affiliations: The Gods of Olympus 

Base of Operations: Olympus

First Appearance: (name only) Captain Marvel Adventures #18, (unidentified) Thor Annual 1, (actual) Who's Who in the DC Universe III #4

History: Aurora is the daughter of Hyperion and Theia, members of a extra-dimensional race of beings called the Titans, who were worshipped as gods by the Ancient Greeks. Zeus had overthrown the Titans for control of Olympus and several of the Titans were exiled to Tartarus, the most dismal region of the underworld called Hades. Some of the Titans had sided with Zeus in the war with Olympus. Aurora's brother, Helios, the sun-god, had supported Zeus in conquering Olympus and was one of the few to retain his power although he was eclipsed by the god Apollo, who was worshipped by the Ancient Greeks as a god of the sun. 

Helios's sisters, Selene and Eos, became attendants of Artemis, sister of Apollo, and expected to follow vows of chastity along with Artemis. Aurora had been the wife of Astraeus, god of the stars, and gave birth to four sons who became gods of wind. She also fell in love with and abducted the Phocian prince Cephalus, a mortal, to be her lover and bore four more sons, , who became gods of the stars. Her favorite lover was Tithonus, the young brother of King Priam of Troy. She took him to live with her in lands west of Greece and asked from Zeus the secret to allow Tithonus to live forever, but she forgot to ask for a spell to keep Tithonus young. Tithonus became incredibly old and invalid and she turned him into a cicada to relieve his suffering.

As adults, Aurora's mortal sons, Emathion and Memnon became powerful rulers in their father's absence. Emathion became corrupted as King of Arabia and was slain by Hercules, a son of Zeus. Memnon, as ruler of Eithiopeia, lead forces into the Trojan War on the side of his uncle but was slain by Achilles. At Aurora's plea, Zeus granted special honors upon his remains.

Sometime in the Tenth Century BC, after the Olympian Gods stopped seeking active worshippers, Aurora was contacted by the mortal wizard Shazam to contribute energies to a spell to establish a future hero to defend mortal man from problems he foresaw. Shazam had contacted many of the Olympians to donate energies for a male champion, but seeing the need for a possible female champion, he created a back-up spell using energies from Aurora, her sister, Selene, and a few other Olympian goddesses to serve his purpose. In the Twentieth Century, Mary Batson would call upon Shazam to transform her into Mary Marvel, ally to Captain Marvel.

In later years, Aurora was one of the goddesses chosen by Hera to protect the mortals chosen to become the Young Gods. She was also present on Olympus when the Asgardian god Thor came to Zeus for the life energies to restore the Asgardian gods to life after their ordeal with the Celestials. She was among the Olympians sent into the Land of Shades when Typhon, longtime enemy of the Olympian Gods, escaped Tartarus and extinguished the Promethean Flame on Olympus. Pandia was restored to life after Hercules defeated Typhon. Since then, she has lived through the sorceress Circe's attempted destruction of the Olympian Gods and an attack by the Dark Gods, eternal enemies of the Asgardian gods.

Height: 5' 4"
Weight: 325 lbs.
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black

Strength Level: Aurora possesses the normal human strength of an Olympian goddess and can lift (press) almost 25 tons under optimal conditions.

Known Superhuman Powers: Aurora possesses the conventional physical attributes of the Olympian gods. Like all Olympians, she is immortal: she has not aged since reaching adulthood and cannot die by any conventional means. She is immune to all Earthly diseases and is resistant to conventional injury. If she were somehow wounded, her godly life force would enable her to recover with superhuman speed. It would take an injury of such magnitude that it dispersed a major portion of her bodily molecules to cause her a physical death. Even then, it might be possible for a god of significant power, such as Zeus, Poseidon and Apollo or for a number of Olympian gods of equal power working together to revive her. Aurora also possesses superhuman strength and her Olympian metabolism provides her with far greater than human endurance in all physical activities. (Olympian flesh and bone is about three times as dense as similar human tissue, contributing to the Olympians' superhuman strength and weight.)

Aurora has limited powers to tap into and manipulate magic. She can fly through the air, travel between dimensions, change her form and that of other people and objects and cast spells to cause probable but not impossible events to occur. She also contributes part of the mystical spell upon the costumed heroine, Mary Marvel, endowing her with the youth and vitality of an Olympian goddess.

Comments: Aurora has yet to be seen in the Marvel Universe; she has only been active behind the scenes of DC Comics.

Clarifications: Aurora is not to be confused with:  

Last updated: 05/01/06

 

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