Often when one god supplanted another in a particular domain, the stories that involved that god were changed to reflect this. [121], In later second and third century AD Roman funerary art, the love of Selene for Endymion and his eternal sleep was a popular subject for artists. In rarer traditions, she is the daughter of the Titan Pallas. Selene was represented on the pedestal of the throne of Zeus at Olympia, riding on a horse or a mule; 12 and at Elis there was a statue of her with two horns. Her chariot was made of shining silver, bringing soft, clear light each night. Ceto - Goddess of the Water. Her lunar sphere or crescent was either a crown set upon her head or the fold of a raised, shining cloak. She was worshipped at the new and full moons. She was often said to be the mother of the Horai, the personifications of the division of time and the seasons. She had two siblings, Helios and Eos. Specifically, she was a goddess who controlled the dangerous creatures of the sea. [63][66], Selene is best known for her affair with the beautiful mortal Endymion. Selene is a Goddess in herself, but she is often associated with Artemis, the archer Goddess. What are Hades Powers that are Really Scary? These two goddesses have additional association with Hecate. She was the Greek goddess of the Moon and her sisters were the Eos and Helios. Endymion Selene was never completely forgotten by the Greeks, but many of her duties and attributes were taken over by Artemisover time. The three children have become much more well-known in general Greek literature than their parents, especially after the fall from grace of Hyperion, who stood by his brother Cronus in the latters war against Zeus and was banished to Tartarus for it. In the most familiar account, Selene first saw the beautiful Endymion as he lay sleeping in a cave on Mount Latmus. 116, no. Selene is a Titan goddess. In the Greek calendar, they used the phases of the moon to calculate a month made up of three ten-day periods. There are different versions of this story. Hesiod, Theogony 371ff; Apollodorus, Library 1.2.2; etc. The Greek word Phoebe means bright and the word Cynthia means from Mount Cynthus which was said to be the birthplace of Artemis. Although Endymion slept for eternity, many sources said Selene continued to see him. Though Hesiod made the Nemean Lion the child of Echidna, other authors wrote that Selene gave birth to it or brought it up at Heras request. The moon goddess Selene had two siblings the sun and the dawn, also known as Helios and Eos respectively. When Gaia heard of a prophecy that a mortal would help the gods to defeat the giants, she sought to find a herb that would make them undefeatable. While we often think little of the moon today, in the ancient Greek world the moons cyclical movement through the sky played a central role in their concept of time. The goddess Selene was the daughter of Titius Hyperion and Theia. There were other goddesses worshiped by the Greeks who were widely associated with the moon themselves. In ancient Greek mythology, Selene, is the Titan goddess of the moon and is said to drive her glowing chariot powered by beautiful white horses across the sky each night. Same thing happened with Helius and Apollo. -Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 10. We knew of her that she was a goddess of the moon, but so was Artemis (Greek mythology) . Selene, daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia, was the personification of the moon. [93] Aelian states: "They say that the Lion of Nemea fell from the moon", and quotes Epimenides as saying:[94], For I am sprung from fair-tressed Selene the Moon, who in a fearful shudder shook off the savage lion in Nemea, and brought him forth at the bidding of Queen Hera. Selene had an altar at Pergamon, at the sanctuary of Demeter, the goddess of spring. 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.. Were building the worlds most authoritative, online mythology resource, with engaging, accessible content that is both educational and compelling to read. 80; Acusilaus, FHG 1 frag. With Zeus she is the mother of Pandeia goddess of dew. Worshiped as one of the important celestial lights of the heavens, Selene was also reputedly revered as a deity of agriculture and fertility. It is of course a tale that began in Ancient Greece, but the story of Endymion is one taken up with vigour by Renaissance artists and the imagery of the Moon goddesses visiting the eternal sleeping mortal was often repeated. [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. We learn of Selenes family, her parents and siblings and the children that she went on to have, from various different sources and Greek myths. Helios was one of the Titans, son of Hyperion and Theia and brother of Eos (the Dawn) and Selene (the Moon ). [76] The Roman playwright Seneca, has Selene abandoned the night sky for Endymion's sake having entrusted her "shining" moon chariot to her brother Helios to drive. Greek Mythology >> Galleries GALLERIES. She is pale, beautiful and indefinably alluring. [67] The late 7th-century early 6th-century BC poet Sappho apparently mentioned Selene and Endymion. [32], Selene was rarely worshipped, at least in earlier periods of ancient Greek history. Selene. 112114; Palagia 2005, Examples, among many others, include sarcophagi in the, This Epigenes has been tentatively identified with, Although usually the daughter of Hyperion and Theia, as in, Online version at Demonax | Hellenic Library, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, "Kaguya Another Chapter for the Lunar Saga", Online version at Harvard University Press, Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, Online version at the Perseus Digital Library, Online version at the Perseus Digital Library (Latin), Classical mythology in western art and literature, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Selene&oldid=1142206020, Articles containing Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text, Articles having different image on Wikidata and Wikipedia, Pages using sidebar with the child parameter, Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Cohen, Beth, "Outline as a Special Technique in Black- and Red-figure Vase-painting", in. [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. And along with Selene, the moon moved as well. The light that humans saw from earth emanate from them, a legacy of their lustrous father. Though Selene had many consorts, the most famous of them was Endymion, a handsome young mortal. She was the personification of the moon, but was also associated with lunar elements such as tides, months, and even lunacy. The Origin of Hotdogs, The History of Boracay Island in The Philippines. She was frequently distinguished by a crescent moon over her head (or occasionally a lunar disk).[9]. Whenever the moon could not be seen in the night sky, it was because Selene had paused to take in Endymions beauty once again. [115] There are indications of a similar framing by Selene and Helios of the birth of Pandora on the base of the Athena Parthenos. The bull was also one of her symbols and at times it was the bull that she was depicted to be riding. 10; Pisander, Fragmente der griechischen Historiker (FGrH) 16 frag. fr. Selene has a minor planet named after her, called 580 Selene. Selene is probably most famous for her love of Endymion, a handsome young man from Asia Minor (though some said that he was from Elis). Were building the worlds most authoritative, online mythology resource, with engaging, accessible content that is both educational and compelling to read. It did not take long for Zeus to notice something was amiss. 1999, Mark P. O. Morford, Robert J. Lenardon, Classical Mythology, page 43, Balancing Arria is the union of Selene and Endymion. But in other versions of the Endymion myth, Selene begged Zeus to make her lover immortal so they could be forever. [75] Cicero seems to make Selene responsible for Endymion's sleep, so that "she might kiss him while sleeping". For the people of old, natural phenomena was an important part of their worship. [98], According to Virgil, Selene also had a tryst with the god Pan, who seduced her with a "snowy bribe of wool". [142] In Theocritus' second Idyll, a young girl invokes Selene in a love-spell. Selene detail from a sarcophagus, imperial period. Surviving descriptions of Selene's physical appearance and character, apart from those which would apply to the moon itself, are scant. [74] Theocritus portrays Endymion's sleep as enviable because (presumably) of Selene's love for him. The Homeric Hymn 31 sings praises to all the children of Hyperion, referring to Eos as rosy armed Eos and to Helios as tireless Helios.. Does the sculpted girl speak to women too?" 245 M-W; Pherecydes, FHG 1 frag. Other examples of lunar goddesses and gods are Selenes Roman equivalent Luna, the Mesopotamian Sin, the Egyptian god Khonsu, the Germanic Mani, the Japanese Shinto god Tsukuyomi, the Chinese Change, and the Hindu god Chandra. Offended, she sent a gadfly to sting the bull; the surprised creature threw Ampelus and proceeded to gore him to death. But the Greek cult of Selene grew more and more prevalent towards the end of the Hellenistic period (32331 BCE). [52] There are no mentions of Selene's chariot in either Homer or Hesiod,[53] but the Homeric Hymn to Selene, gives the following description: The air, unlit before, glows with the light of her golden crown, and her rays beam clear, whensoever bright Selene having bathed her lovely body in the waters of Ocean, and donned her far-gleaming raiment, and yoked her strong-necked, shining team, drives on her long-maned horses at full speed, at eventime in the mid-month: then her great orbit is full and then her beams shine brightest as she increases. [146], Her and her brother's worship is also attested in Gytheum, a town in Laconia near Sparta, via an inscription (C.I.G. Was the Griffin a Bird from Greek Mythology? 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]. Although in most myths, the Horae appear to be triads born of Zeus and Themis, in this particular incarnation they were the daughters of Selene and Helios. In some later accounts, she is known as the Horned Selene, perhaps due to the crescent moon upon the crown of her head. 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. 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). Without Selene giving way to Eos, Helios could not bring the sun back to the world. Hurwit 2017, pp. [78] In his dialogue between Aphrodite and Eros, Lucian also has Aphrodite admonish her son Eros for bringing Selene "down from the sky". Selene was so enamored of the young man that she left the sky to see him more closely. [8], Selene began appearing in the visual arts around the early fifth century BCE. [31], Ampelus was a handsome young male satyr and the first love of the god Dionysus. She is the daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia, and sister of the sun-god Helios, and Eos, goddess of the dawn. Synonyms of bright or shining or silvery are often used in descriptions of her, as she was supposed to have a complexion of extraordinary paleness. [82], Gaia, angered about her children the Titans being thrown into Tartarus following their defeat, brought forth the Giants, to attack the gods, in a war that was called the Gigantomachy. At night he drove below the edge of the world in the west, circling below Gaia to reappear on the eastern horizon by morning. [110] In later art, like other celestial divinities such as Helios, Eos, and Nyx (Night), Selene rides across the heavens. There are a number of stories about the moon goddess Selene in Greek mythology, in association with the other Greek gods, especially Zeus. She announced the coming of her younger brother. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). That leaves Artemis and Selene. In Greek mythology, Selene was traditionally depicted as a beautiful young woman, with perhaps paler than usual skin. As the daughter of the Titan god of heavenly light, it is an apt name. [7] The Greek word mene, meant the moon, and the lunar month. It is unclear how much of a choice Endymion himself may have had in the matter, although there are versions of the myth which say that Endymion had fallen in love with the beautiful moon goddess as well and asked Zeus to keep him in a state of eternal sleep so that he could be with her forever. 'S physical appearance and character, apart from those which would apply to the moon, the! 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