She fell madly in love with him and asked Zeus to let him stay asleep forever, remaining eternally young and beautiful (in some traditions, it was Endymion himself who requested this unending sleep). Myth Early History Selene was the daughter of the titans, Hyperion and Theia, sister to Helios (the sun) and Eos (dawn). Selene is a Goddess in herself, but she is often associated with Artemis, the archer Goddess. Selene herself most often wore a crown of gleaming silver, which matched her silver chariot. 3 (cited in the scholia on Apollonius of Rhodes Argonautica 4.57). As the most important and visible features in the sky, the people of ancient Greece thought that Selene, goddess of the moon, and her brother Helios, god of the sun, were the ones responsible for the movement of the two celestial bodies across the sky. 245 M-W; Pherecydes, FHG 1 frag. 2. Lilaeon. It did not take long for Zeus to notice something was amiss. [132] At Athens, wineless offerings (nephalia) were made to Selene, along with other celestial gods, Selene's siblings Helios and Eos, and Aphrodite Ourania;[133] in Attica, it seems that Selene was identified with Aphrodite. [59] Though the moon chariot is often described as being silver,[60] for Pindar it was golden. Selene saw him as she passed overhead and fell deeply in love. Selenes siblings and Selene herself carried on their fathers legacy by shining light from the heavens upon the earth. Her name was spelt differently in the different dialects of the Greeks but the meaning was the same. This is a relatively late text. "Not I alone then stray to the Latmian cave, nor do I alone burn with love for fair Endymion; oft times with thoughts of love have I been driven away by thy crafty spells, in order that in the darkness of night thou mightest work thy sorcery at ease, even the deeds dear to thee. She drives her moon chariot across the heavens. In it, Selene is depicted as fighting alongside Helios and Eos, seated side-saddle on a horse. Virgil, Georgics 3.391ff; Servius on Virgils Georgics 3.391 (citing the second-century BCE poet Nicander as the original source). [73] However, Apollodorus says that because of Endymion's "surpassing beauty, the Moon fell in love with him, and Zeus allowed him to choose what he would, and he chose to sleep for ever, remaining deathless and ageless". Whenever the moon could not be seen in the night sky, it was because Selene had paused to take in Endymions beauty once again. Together, they fittingly created three sources of celestial illumination. [88], Ampelus was a very beautiful satyr youth, loved by the god Dionysus. Her brother Helios shone as the sun, while her sister Eos was the goddess of the dawn. Her Roman equivalent is Luna. . The goddess had one temple that was also an oracle near Thalamae in Laconia. Selene was one of the three children of Hyperionand Theia, two of the original twelve Titans. Kapach, Avi. From her immortal head a radiance is shown from heaven and embraces earth; and great is the beauty that ariseth from her shining light. [16][18], Although attempts have been made to connect Selene to Helene due to the similarity of their names, in two early dedications to Helen from Laconia her name is spelled with a digamma (Ancient Greek: , romanized:Welna), ruling out any possible connection between them. Selene is a Titan goddess. 260 M-W; Epimenides, FHG 4 frag. [134], Selene was sometimes associated with childbirth, for it was believed that during the full moon women had the easiest labours; this helped in her identification with the goddess Artemis,[138] as well as other goddesses connected to women's labours. [63][66], Selene is best known for her affair with the beautiful mortal Endymion. The altars to Selene were few and far between. Finally, although this account is more in doubt, some stories say that Selene and her brother Helios together birthed one of the generations of the Horae, the goddesses of the seasons. According to Greek mythology, the moon goddess Selene was the daughter of two Titans (mythological giants) called Hyperion and Theia. Her father was the Titan god of heavenly light, while her mother represented the blue color of the sky. [31] Mesomedes of Crete calls her (glauk, "silvery grey"). Helios, the son of Hyperion and Theia, was their second child. Only a handful of religious centers of Selene are known from the ancient world. Zeus slept with the human queen Alcmene, of which encounter Heracles was born. She is dressed in the finest silk robes and travels in her silver moon chariot drawn by luminous steeds across the heavens. [100], Diodorus Siculus recorded an unorthodox version of the myth, in which Basileia, who had succeeded her father Uranus to his royal throne, married her brother Hyperion, and had two children, a son Helios and a daughter Selene, "admired for both their beauty and their chastity". [104] Zeus agrees, urged by Selene's complaints and having long intended to deal with the philosophers himself. Well, go on, and steel thy heart, wise though thou be, to take up thy burden of pain, fraught with many sighs."[70]. Her request granted, Selene visited him regularly; some sources even reported that they had children together (see above).[27]. That was a basic unit of how the Greeks measured time in the old days. Selene was not the only goddess the Greeks associated with the moon. The poem describes the radiant light that shines from her head and calls her bright Selene. The moon goddess is described as white armed goddess and bright tressed queen and the poem celebrates her loveliness. These three lunar goddesses were all important to the Greeks in different ways but it was only Selene who was considered the moon incarnate herself. Selene, the goddess of the moon, has two siblings: Eos, the goddess of the dawn, and Helios, the sun god. Mene, a name that she was also commonly known by, meant the moon or the lunar month, from the root mens which meant month. This is an attribute that she shares with her Roman equivalent Luna, where the latin luna also means moon.. This irritated Endymion, and enraged Selene, who transforms the girl into a fly (Ancient Greek: , romanized:mua). [113] Selene and Helios also appear on the North Metopes of the Parthenon, with Selene this time entering the sea on horseback. [116] Pausanias also reports seeing stone images of Helios, and Selene, in the market-place at Elea, with rays projecting from the head of Helios, and horns from the head of Selene. [45] Selene and Zeus were also said to be the parents of Nemea, the eponymous nymph of Nemea, where Heracles slew the Nemean Lion, and where the Nemean Games were held. 116, no. 2022 Wasai LLC. 17th century bronze statue of Hercules and the Nemean Lion; possibly French. Although she counts as a goddess in her own right, Selene often gets associated with archer goddess, Artemis, who is also a moon goddess. When Selene spied him sleeping in a cave, she immediately fell in love and asked Zeus to extend his sleep for all eternity. The Greeks followed a lunar calendar, making Selene one of the most important deities in the passage of time. There is a magnificent frieze in the Pergamon Altar, now kept at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, which depicts this battle between the Giants and the Olympians. Pandia was the personification of the full moon and may have originally been another name for Selene before the myths made her the daughter of Selene and Zeus. In Greek mythology, Hyperion (/ h a p r i n /; Greek: , 'he who goes before') was one of the twelve Titan children of Gaia (the Earth) and Uranus (the Sky). Those that do exist are somewhat generic (like the previously mentioned epithets). This claim has been takenby Plutarch at first, and subsequently by modern astronomersto mean that she could predict the time and general area where an eclipse of the Moon would occur. For this the Greek gods were to be worshiped. [90], When Zeus desired to sleep with the mortal queen Alcmene and sire Heracles, he made the night last three days, and ordered Selene via Hermes to dawdle in the sky during that time. [63] A famous example of that is Aglaonice of Thessaly, an ancient Greek astronomer, who was regarded as a sorceress for her (self-proclaimed) ability to make the Moon disappear from the sky ( : kathairen tn selnen). [125] An oracular sanctuary existed near Thalamai in Laconia. The Greeks recognized several goddesses as having a connection to the moon, but none was as closely associated with it as Selene. What are Hades Powers that are Really Scary? Her lunar sphere or crescent was either a crown set upon her head or the fold of a raised, shining cloak. Because Basileia's other brothers envied these offspring, and feared that Hyperion would try to seize power for himself, they conspired against him. [25], Two other sources also mention her hair. Some even said that the Nemean Lion, as the offspring of Selene, had originally fallen from the moon.[30]. In Greek mythology, Selene was traditionally depicted as a beautiful young woman, with perhaps paler than usual skin. Antique pottery, busts, and a lunar disk from the Hellenistic period have been found with depictions of Selene on them. Depending on the author, the chariot was either silver,[6] snow white,[7] or gold. The Moirai In some traditions the Fates were seen as three aspects of the lunar goddess. The crescent moon, full moon, and dark moon corresponded to the three states of being embodied by the Fates. https://mythopedia.com/topics/selene, Avi Kapach is a writer, scholar, and educator who received his PhD in Classics from Brown University. In the center of the main panel Selene descends from her chariot, whose horses are held by a nymph, to join Endymion, who lies to the right. Selene is the daughter of Titans Hyperion and Theia. Moon gods and goddesses have existed in all ancient pantheistic cultures for a very long time. [72] A scholiast on Apollonius says that, according to Epimenides, Endymion fell in love with Hera, and Zeus punished him with eternal sleep. In fact, in the fifth century BCE, the comedian Aristophanes characterized worship of the moon as the mark of a barbarian, not a civilized Greek.[33]. Accessed March 1, 2023. [31], Ampelus was a handsome young male satyr and the first love of the god Dionysus. [114] From Pausanias, we learn that Selene and Helios also framed the birth of Aphrodite on the base of the Statue of Zeus at Olympia. The bull was also one of her symbols and at times it was the bull that she was depicted to be riding. She drives her moon chariot across the heavens. [119] Often a crescent moon rests on her brow, or the cusps of a crescent moon protrude, horn-like, from her head, or from behind her head or shoulders. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. [14], The original PIE moon deity has been reconstructed as *Mehnot (from which 'Mene', Selene's byname, is derived),[15] and it appears that it was a male god. [127] Selene (along with Helios, Nyx and others) received an altar at the sanctuary of Demeter at Pergamon, possibly in connection with the Orphic mysteries. Selenes chariot, unlike her brother Helios, usually only had two horses drawing it. Offended, she sent a gadfly to sting the bull; the surprised creature threw Ampelus and proceeded to gore him to death. Selene leaving her chariot, Roman mosaic, Andalusia. Several lovers are attributed to her in various myths, including Zeus, Pan, and the mortal Endymion. According to early Greek myths, Selene used to be a Titan goddess of the moon and Artemis used to be a goddess of hunting and animals. [108], In antiquity, artistic representations of Selene/Luna included sculptural reliefs, vase paintings, coins, and gems. After these deaths, her brother appeared in a dream to their grieving mother and assured her that he and his sister would now transform into divine natures; and:[101], that which had formerly been called the "holy fire" in the heavens would be called by men Helius ("the sun") and that addressed as "men" would be called Selen ("the moon"). [81], Philologist Max Mller's interpretation of solar mythology as it related to Selene and Endymion concluded that the myth was a narrativized version of linguistic terminology. Two of these were Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, and Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft. Along with presiding over dangerous sea creatures, Ceto produced her own set of frightening . In other versions, Endymion was actually taken to Mount Olympus. [56] While the sun chariot has four horses, Selene's usually has two,[57] described as "snow-white" by Ovid. [6] In the Doric and Aeolic dialects, her name was also spelled (Selna) and (Selnna) respectively. This was known as the Gigantomachy. Selene, like her siblings, was a Titan goddess because of her birth but they were no less important to the Greeks. [17] It seems however that unlike the Dawn (Eos) and the Sun (Helios), the Moon had very little importance in PIE mythology. -Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 10. [75] Cicero seems to make Selene responsible for Endymion's sleep, so that "she might kiss him while sleeping". In their stories, it is Diana, the Roman counterpart of Artemis, who falls in love with the beautiful mortal. Selene was the Greek goddess of the moon. This might have had a role in the later identification of Selene with Hecate, who was, after all, the goddess of witchcraft and spells. The Greeks (like many other ancient peoples) were notoriously terrified of eclipses, viewing them as signs of the gods displeasure.[3]. As the moon, Selene occupied an important place in popular religion. At night he drove below the edge of the world in the west, circling below Gaia to reappear on the eastern horizon by morning. Chiswick House, London, UK. The light that humans saw from earth emanate from them, a legacy of their lustrous father. Upon the head of Selene was normally found a crown that was representative of the spherical moon. Selene's Role She was the goddess of the moon, which she drove every night across the skies. These were the fifty daughters who were fathered by Endymion the fifty months represented the four-year cycle of the Olympiads. To cite this article in an academic-style article or paper, use: Rittika Dhar, "Selene: The Titan and Greek Goddess of the Moon", History Cooperative, September 20, 2022, https://historycooperative.org/selene-greek-goddess-of-the-moon/. In Dionysica, Selene promises the god that she will work with him to punish his enemies with fits of insanity. Though Selene almost never appears in modern adaptations of Greek mythology, she is nonetheless present in pop culture as the personification of the moon. [140] Nonnus also identified Selene with Eileithyia. I am the owner and chief researcher at this site. As the daughter of the Titan god of heavenly light, it is an apt name. While Selenes best known consort may have been Endymion and the mythic romance between the moon goddess and the mortal has been documented in many places, he was not the only person that she was involved with. In this case, the story of Selene embracing Endymion, or Moon embraces Diver, refers to the sun setting and the moon rising. Selene's Roman name was Lunar. One of the names given for Selene, and occasionally for an independent personification, was Mene. Like most of the Titans, Selene was rarely worshipped in the ancient world. [128], Originally, Pandia may have been an epithet of Selene,[129] but by at least the time of the late Hymn to Selene, Pandia had become a daughter of Zeus and Selene. Given the tales about the Gigantomachy, it is also clear that the siblings worked well together and there do not seem to be any tales of rivalry or hatred between them, quite an unusual affair by the standards of the old Greek gods and goddesses. Greek mythology, body of stories concerning the gods, heroes, and rituals of the ancient Greeks. According to Hesiods Theogony, her parents were the Titans Hyperion and Theia; her brother was Helios, the sun god (sometimes called her father); her sister was Eos (Dawn). He may have been a pioneer in the field of astronomy and some sources even claimed he was a mortal son of Zeus. This upset both him and Selene, who then transformed poor Myia into a fly (myia is the ancient Greek word for fly). [5], Selenes moon chariotsimilar to the sun chariot of her brother Helios and the dawn chariot of her sister Eoswas probably her most distinctive and consistent attribute. Occasionally she asked her brother to take over her duties so she could spend more time on the ground with Endymion. She is usually portrayed either driving a chariot (see above) or riding sideways on horseback[111] (sometimes riding an ox, a mule or a ram). And if Selene and Helios did not work together, as the personifications of the moon and the sun, there would be absolute chaos in the world. Selene and Endymion relief, Alessandro and Lancellotto Pusterla's gravestone, 16th century. Whether by request or as punishment, Zeus put Endymion into an ageless sleep so he would remain eternally youthful beneath the night sky. In many paintings and sculptures, Selene is traditionally depicted with the crescent moon in her vicinity. "[80], Lucian also records an otherwise unattested myth where a pretty young girl called Muia becomes Selene's rival for Endymion's affections; the chatty maiden would endlessly talk to him while he slept, causing him to wake up. States of being embodied by the Fates god Dionysus the latin Luna also means moon at this.. Horses drawing it researcher at this site may have been a pioneer in the scholia on Apollonius of Argonautica... 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