For night’s swift dragons cut the clouds full fast,
And yonder shines Aurora’s harbinger,
At whose approach ghosts, wandering here and there
Troop home to churchyards. Damnèd spirits all
That in crossways and floods have burial,
Already to their wormy beds are gone.
– William Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 3, Scene 2. Puck says to Oberon that they must do the job of reversing the magic spells quickly because dawn is coming soon. He describes how the moon goddess Diana is speeding across the night sky in her dragon-drawn chariot. The morning star, harbinger of the goddess of dawn Aurora, is already shining. At the star’s approach the ghosts that wander in the night march back into their graveyards, says Puck. The morning star is actually the planet Venus, the brightest object in the night sky other than the moon.