selene greek mythology
[49] Quintus describes them as the four handmaidens of Hera, but in most other accounts their number is three; Eirene ("peace"), Eunomia ("order"), and Dike ("justice"), and their parents are Zeus and Themis instead. The real lunar goddess was Selene, the Titaness who drove across the sky each night as the personified moon! Her name is linked with those of various other goddesses, such as Artemis and Hecate, who are also associated with the moon. 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. She was essentially urban and civilized, the antithesis in many respects of Artemis, goddess of the outdoors. [64][65] Those who brought down the Moon were thought to bring ill fortune upon themselves, as evidenced by the proverb ("you are bringing down the Moon on yourself") said for those who caused self-inflicted evils; some witches supposedly avoided this fate by sacrificing their children or their eyeballs. Even if he were sleeping, he would not be parted from the goddess he loved by death. The History of Guns, Greek Mythology: Stories, Characters, Gods, and Culture, Aztec Mythology: Important Stories and Characters, Greek Gods and Goddesses: Family Tree and Fun Facts, Roman Gods and Goddesses: The Names and Stories of 29 Ancient Roman Gods, Descriptions of Selene, Goddess of the Moon, Greek Myths featuring the Moon Goddess Selene, iPhone History: A Timeline of Every Model in Order, US History Timeline: The Dates of Americas Journey, Ancient Civilizations Timeline: 16 Oldest Known Cultures From Around The World, Why Are Hot Dogs Called Hot Dogs? The tale of Endymion and Selene is one that has resonated with people for millennia. [97] Hyginus says that Selene had "nourished" the lion in a "two-mouthed cave". Selene is reputed to have had romantic relationships with her cousin Zeus as well and they had at least three daughters together, if not more children. Selene is often eclipsed by the popularity of Artemis as a lunar goddess, but as the personification of the moon itself she had a significant impact on the lives and views of the Greek people. Selene is a Titan goddess. (2022, December 7). While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. But on nights the moon could not be seen, there was a very good reason for her absence. [112], Selene was often paired with her brother Helios. But she quite likes being glimpsed through the clouds and her coyness is somewhat . Lilaeon. What Were the Hamadryads in Greek Mythology? But the Greek cult of Selene grew more and more prevalent towards the end of the Hellenistic period (32331 BCE). [108], In antiquity, artistic representations of Selene/Luna included sculptural reliefs, vase paintings, coins, and gems. And along with Selene, the moon moved as well. For the people of old, natural phenomena was an important part of their worship. [122] As frequently depicted on Roman sarcophagi, Selene, holding a billowing veil forming a crescent over her head, descends from her chariot to join her lover, who slumbers at her feet. Nyx is the goddess of the night and is thus associated with the new moon. Many of these old communities followed the lunar calendar and that made the moon a center of their faith and worship in many ways. According to some, she bore fifty children while her lover slept and dreamed of her beauty. Greek mythology has beautiful explanations for many natural phenomena. Selene fought back the giant, locking horns with Typhon; afterwards, she carried many scars on her orb, reminiscent of their battle. If you thought Artemis was the Greek goddess of the moon, you are only partially right. She was the personification of the moon, but was also associated with lunar elements such as tides, months, and even lunacy. H. G. Evelyn-White. Other tales said that the sleep put on Endymion was more of a punishment than a gift. 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). "[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. She is the daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia, and sister of the sun-god Helios, and Eos, goddess of the dawn. [106], According to pseudo-Plutarch, Lilaeus was an Indian shepherd who only worshipped Selene among the gods and performed her rituals and mysteries at night. Lastly, Selene was said to be the mother of the legendary Greek poet Musaeus,[50] with, according to Philochorus, the father being the legendary seer Eumolpus.[51]. Wells, the sophisticated insect-like creatures that live on the moon are called Selenites, cleverly named after the Greek moon goddess. [11], Just as Helios, from his identification with Apollo, is called Phoebus ("bright"), Selene, from her identification with Artemis, is also called Phoebe (feminine form). The other gods, angered, sent him two lions to tear him apart. [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". Goddess Selene is often portrayed in art and in myths generally, riding a chariot across the sky. Deciphering the Role of Helios, the Sun God of Greek Mythology. After all, mythology is storytelling at its finest. In some cases, it is debated whether she indeed was the mother. According to Hesiod's 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). Though Selene, as the moon, was undeniably important to the ancient Greeks, there are very few descriptions of her in literature. Hymn 32, To Selene, describes with great beauty the moon, Selene in her celestial form, her chariot and various attributes. The chemical element Selenium was named after Selene by Jns Jacob Berzelius, because of the element's similarity to the element tellurium, named for the Earth (Tellus).[156][157]. Omissions? Most of the important Greek gods and goddesses had temple sites of their own. From her immortal head a radiance is shown from heaven and embraces earth; and great is the beauty that ariseth from her shining light. In it, Selene is depicted as fighting alongside Helios and Eos, seated side-saddle on a horse. Selenes siblings and Selene herself carried on their fathers legacy by shining light from the heavens upon the earth. Quintus of Smyrna, Posthomerica 10.336ff; cf. How old is the United States of America? Selene was, while not worshiped openly, apparently the object of many spells and invocations addressed to her by young women. Kapach, Avi. [37] Other accounts give still other parents for Selene: Euripides has Selene as the daughter of Helios (rather than sister),[38] while an Aeschylus fragment possibly has Selene as the daughter of Leto,[39] as does a scholium on Euripides's play The Phoenician Women which adds Zeus as the father. Without Selene giving way to Eos, Helios could not bring the sun back to the world. Mason-Dixon Line [29], Selene played a role in some versions of the myth of the Nemean Lion, a ferocious and invulnerable beast slain by Heracles as the first of his Twelve Labors. Kapach, A. The Origin of Hotdogs, The History of Boracay Island in The Philippines. A third version of the story had Endymion himself choose an ageless sleep as opposed to living a mortal life. [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). The Homeric Hymn to Helios uses the same epithet ("bright-tressed"), used in the above Hymn to Selene (elsewhere translated as "rich-", "lovely-", or "well-tressed"),[26] while Epimenides uses the epithet ("lovely-haired"). "[139] Roman philosopher Cicero connected Selene's Roman counterpart Luna's name to childbirth goddess Lucina's, both deriving from "light" (thus bringing the unborn child into the light). That the myths contained a considerable element of fiction was recognized by the more critical Greeks, such as the philosopher Plato in the 5th-4th century bce. Her chariot was made of shining silver, bringing soft, clear light each night. [40][41] Furthermore, in Virgil's Aeneid, when Nisus calls upon Selene/the Moon, he addresses her as "daughter of Latona. [27], In late accounts, Selene (like the moon itself) is often described as having horns. According to Greek mythology, the moon goddess Selene was the daughter of two Titans (mythological giants) called Hyperion and Theia. Indeed, it reflects the fascinating way the Greeks observed the . 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. The first mention of the moon goddess in Greek mythology was probably in the Homeric Hymns. Accessed on 27 Feb. 2023. ), The name Selene (Greek , translit. Selene also has a chemical element named after her, Selenium. Because Basileia's other brothers envied these offspring, and feared that Hyperion would try to seize power for himself, they conspired against him. [142] In Theocritus' second Idyll, a young girl invokes Selene in a love-spell. In some versions of the story, the goddess abandoned her duty and left the night sky so she could be with the man she loved. Watched over by nymphs and visited often by the goddess, it was marked by glowing moonstones and pure white rock. Her brother Helios shone as the sun, while her sister Eos was the goddess of the dawn. She was said to represent the full moon. Often when one god supplanted another in a particular domain, the stories that involved that god were changed to reflect this. Another myth describes how Selene held her own against the monster Typhoeus when he attacked the gods. Endymion Endymion was, depending on the source, a prince in exile or a simple shepherd. Greek months began with the first new moon and were organized into three ten-day weeks that roughly followed the progression of the lunar cycle. In later times, Selene was often associated with Artemis in the same way that her brother Helios was associated with Artemis brother Apollo. But Selene was also called by many generic epithets that were used for other goddesses as well, including (euplokmos, she of the beautiful hair), (leuklnos, white-armed), (glaukpis, gray-eyed, bright-eyed, an epithet most commonly associated with Athena), and (kyanpis, dark-eyed, essentially the opposite of glaukpis). Her sister Eos was the light of dawn and their brother Helios drew the chariot of the sun across the sky each day. Selene is the daughter of Titans Hyperion and Theia. Selene visited the sleeping Endymion where he lay alone in a cave everyday and had fifty daughters with him, the Menai, the personification of the Greek lunar months. [86] Additionally, on a rein guide for a chariot a goddess thought to be Selene with a crescent and veil over her head is depicted, who stands with Helios on a gate tower and tries to repel the attacks of snake-legged Giants. For centuries, those affected by mental illness were referred to as lunatics.. Moon gods and goddesses have existed in all ancient pantheistic cultures for a very long time. Zeus heard of that, and ordered Selene as well as her siblings Helios (Sun) and Eos (Dawn) not to shine, and harvested all of that plant for himself. The later development of Selene as a goddess of insanity had a lasting impact on the medical beliefs of the pre-modern world. [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. Whenever the moon could not be seen in the night sky, it was because Selene had paused to take in Endymions beauty once again. Selene's Role She was the goddess of the moon, which she drove every night across the skies. Selene was the Greek goddess of the moon. [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. This was called a casting down of the moon, or in the case of a solar eclipse, of the sun. Not only was she the goddess of the moon, but she was considered a personification of the moon itself and that was how she was portrayed by many of the old poets and writers. Let's take a closer look at her story. 1. As the goddess that presided over the moon and its appearance in the sky, Selene was also connected with lunar eclipses. Selene does not appear in modern adaptations of Greek myths, since she is not exactly one of the major Greek gods like Zeus or Aphrodite. Her fifty daughters with Endymion marked the fifty lunar months that passed between celebrations of the Olympiad. Rheinisches Museum Fr Philologie, vol. [25], Two other sources also mention her hair. Her grandparents are Gaia, (Mother Earth) and Uranus (Father Sky). [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. 68 A75 D-K). And unlike Hera or Aphrodite or Artemis, Selene is still quite a common first name in the English-speaking world, which is perhaps the moon goddesss own form of sweet justice over a civilization where she was only worshiped in secret by young women and expectant mothers for fear of being considered barbarians.. The Greek word Phoebe means bright and the word Cynthia means from Mount Cynthus which was said to be the birthplace of Artemis. 200 (cited in the scholia on Aristophanes Frogs 1033); Orphica frag. -Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 10. In some versions, Zeus cursed Endymion because he fell in love with Queen Hera, wife of Zeus. 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. 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. [148] Records show that a type of cake called (bos, "ox") decorated with horns to represent the full moon or an ox was offered to her and other divinities like Hecate, Artemis and Apollo. Selene featured in few myths, with the most famous ones being the tales that tell of her lovers: Zeus, Pan and the mortal Endymion. The moon goddess was said to have had several lovers, including Zeus and the wild god Pan. Helios, the son of Hyperion and Theia, was their second child. There are three different ways you can cite this article. Her lunar sphere or crescent was either a crown set upon her head or the fold of a raised, shining cloak. Hesiod, Catalogue of Women frag. On the other hand, her eyes and hair were believed to have been as dark as the night. The crescent moon, full moon, and dark moon corresponded to the three states of being embodied by the Fates. [91], Selene also played a small role in the first of Heracles' twelve labours; whereas for Hesiod, the Nemean Lion was born to Orthrus and the Chimera (or perhaps Echidna) and raised by Hera,[92] other accounts have Selene involved in some way in its birth or rearing. Names of the Goddess. Kapach, Avi. The altars to Selene were few and far between. Multiple sources say that she had a hand in the creation of the Nemean Lion, whether that was only Selene working on her own or in conjunction with Hera. The Moirai In some traditions the Fates were seen as three aspects of the lunar goddess. [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". Privacy. [118], Selene is commonly depicted with a crescent moon, often accompanied by stars; sometimes, instead of a crescent, a lunar disc is used. The two other daughters that Selene and Zeus had together was Nemea, the nymph of the town that the Nemean Lion was from, and Ersa, the personified version of dew. Secretive and shy, she enjoys flitting silently through the night with a pearl-white or silvery chariot. Selene was not the only lunar goddess of the Greeks. [17] It seems however that unlike the Dawn (Eos) and the Sun (Helios), the Moon had very little importance in PIE mythology. Selene and Endymion, in the mural above the stage of the Friedrich von Thiersch Saal in the Wiesbaden Kurhaus. However, her greatest love was a lowly mortal named Endymion. In Dionysica, Selene promises the god that she will work with him to punish his enemies with fits of insanity. 1999, Mark P. O. Morford, Robert J. Lenardon, Classical Mythology, page 43, Balancing Arria is the union of Selene and Endymion. [55] The geographer Pausanias, reports seeing a relief of Selene driving a single horse, as it seemed to him, or as some said, a mule, on the pedestal of the Statue of Zeus at Olympia (c. 435 BC). fr. Quintus Smyrnaeus makes Selene, by her brother Helios, the mother of the Horae, goddesses and personifications of the four seasons; Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn. Although Zeus had taken many mortal lovers, the goddess of the moon had been abandoning her duties and could cause chaos if she continued. They included: The lunar goddesses sometimes worked together. In Greek mythology, Selene was the Titan goddess of the moon. [78] In his dialogue between Aphrodite and Eros, Lucian also has Aphrodite admonish her son Eros for bringing Selene "down from the sky". Selene and Endymion relief, Alessandro and Lancellotto Pusterla's gravestone, 16th century. The goddess of the hunt became associated with the moon and lunar cycles. "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. Instead, Zeus collected all the herbs for himself. Having risen to power in the generation of Zeus, they were universally revered and worshiped. Some even said that the Nemean Lion, as the offspring of Selene, had originally fallen from the moon.[30]. Selene and Endymion by Sebastiano Ricci (1713). In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Selene ( / slini /; Greek: pronounced [seln], meaning "Moon" [2]) is the personification of the Moon. In her later identification with Artemis, Selene came to be called Phoebe or Cynthia. [59] Though the moon chariot is often described as being silver,[60] for Pindar it was golden. Only a handful of religious centers of Selene are known from the ancient world. Described by Pausanias, it contained statues of Pasipha and Helios. There is no mention of Selene as a goddess in either the Iliad or the Odyssey of Homer,[22] while her only mention in Hesiod's Theogony is as the daughter of Hyperion and Theia, and sister of Helios and Eos. [4] Here she is represented as a radiant goddess, wearing a crown and beautiful robes and riding a horse-drawn chariot across the night sky: From her immortal head a radiance is shown from heaven and embraces earth; and great is the beauty that ariseth from her shining light. Way). She drives her moon chariot across the heavens. Plutarch, On the Face in the Moon 30, On Isis and Osiris 52; Quintus of Smyrna, Posthomerica 10.337; Nonnus, Dionysiaca 10.214, 44.70. Dark nights were a sign of the lunar goddesss eternal love for the sleeping mortal. She had two siblings, Helios and Eos. 3/4, 1973, pp. 7 (all cited in the scholia on Apollonius of Rhodes Argonautica 4.57); Sappho, frag. And now thou thyself too hast part in a like mad passion; and some god of affliction has given thee Jason to be thy grievous woe. So she is a sure token and a sign to mortal men. Selene was said to have several consorts but the man that the goddess of the moon was most linked with was the mortal Endymion. [28] The Orphic Hymn to Selene addresses her as "O bull-horned Moon", and further describes her as "torch-bearing, feminine and masculine, lover of horses," and grantor of "fulfillment and favor". Their daughter Eos was the first to appear each day. 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