Anyone in the ad industry who still doesn’t know that Aurora is the Roman goddess of Dawn was probably fast asleep throughout the first half of the month of March.

With the Aurora Awards announced for the 11th of March (but forcibly postponed to the 17th due to freakish rain conditions on the day), the Dawn Group released a series of ads aimed at setting the scene for what was to become ‘the Night of the Auroras.’ A night that was certainly about winning, but even more about honouring a profession that had come of age.

The ad campaign in effect played on three themes. One, what the Auroras represented for the advertising profession; two, the experience of the night itself and three – the meaning of Aurora.

Aurora, in fact has many incarnations. In Greek mythology she is known as Eos, whilst in South Asia she is often referred to as Sehar, while the Latin Aurora translates into the English – Dawn.

When it comes to Dawn, there is no better representation than the statue of Dawn by Michelangelo that lies in the New Sacristy of the Medici Chapel in the Church of San Lorenzo in Florence. Adorning the tomb of one of the Medici princes, the sculpture of Dawn is counterbalanced by another sculpture – that of Dusk. But whereas Dusk is shown as an older man nodding off to sleep, Michelangelo’s Dawn is shown slowly awakening from a deep slumber. This statue of Dawn is universally considered by art historians to be Michelangelo’s most successful and sensitive sculpture and one endowed with a great deal of symbolism. Dawn, the harbinger of the new, is the face of optimism.

However, Dawn in her Aurora incarnation is a somewhat more frivolous creature. She wakes up every morning to open the eastern gateways of heaven to her brother Helios, the Sun god. She is also sister to Selene, the Moon goddess, all three being the children of Hyperion, the god of Light and of Thaiea, Lady of the Shining Blue Sky.

Clad in purple and white, Aurora carries a pitcher of dew in each hand and pours it upon a universe of flowers, slowly awakening the world, and with it, bringing enlightenment and creativity to mortals.

Hardly monogamous, Aurora had many husbands, one being Astraeus, the god of the wind, and from this union came Aurora’s four sons: Boreas, the wind of the North, bringer of the cold winter air; Zephyr, the wild wind of the West, bringer of the spring and early summer breezes; Eurus, who brings warmth and rain from the East; and Notus, the South wind, a wet, storm-bringing wind of summer.

Is all revealed now? Boreas (FMCG)? Zephyr (Durables & Services)? Eurus (Social Marketing & Community Services) and Notus (Institutional Achievement)? For this is how the Aurora Awards have been categorised.

But moving on with the mythology…

Emerging from the four corners of the world, the four winds bring many benefits to us mere mortals; they organise human labour, chart the sea lanes and define the cycle of the seasons.

Aurora, albeit a goddess, was prone to human foibles and there are a number of rather revealing anecdotes pertaining to her. One tells the tale of her lover, Tithonus, a mortal and the son of the King of Troy.

As the tale goes, Aurora madly in love with Tithonus, begs Zeus to grant him immortality. The disapproving Zeus obliges, but withholds the gift of everlasting youth.

The years pass and (the now immortal) Tithonus ages into frailty, soon losing his ability to move, a turn of events that quite exasperates the eternally young and alluring Aurora. Finally, no longer able to stand the quasi-immobilised Tithonus’ feeble rantings, she turns him into a grasshopper and sets him free to roam (or hop across) the universe.

Hopefully, on the Night of the Auroras, no one was turned into a grasshopper. However, it might be safe to say that the advertising profession left armed with the motivation to produce works that would please Aurora at the next Aurora Awards for Excellence in Advertising. And as they say… see you in 2010!