13 In later times Selene was identified with Artemis, and the worship of the two became amalgamated. All Rights Reserved. [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. For the people of old, natural phenomena was an important part of their worship. Selene saw him as she passed overhead and fell deeply in love. Selene, (Greek: Moon) Latin Luna, in Greek and Roman religion, the personification of the moon as a goddess. If you thought Artemis was the Greek goddess of the moon, you are only partially right. Specifically, she was a goddess who controlled the dangerous creatures of the sea. These were Eiar, Theros, Cheimon, and Phthinoporon, Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. So she is a sure token and a sign to mortal men. [89] One day, in Nonnus' account, Ampelus rode on a bull, and proceeded to compare himself to Selene, saying that he was her equal, having horns and riding bulls just like her. In the most familiar account, Selene first saw the beautiful Endymion as he lay sleeping in a cave on Mount Latmus. Only a handful of religious centers of Selene are known from the ancient world. . 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. 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. Selene. The personification of the Sun, he was portrayed as driving a four-horse chariot across the sky on a daily basis. 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. Selenes Roman counterpart was called Luna (from the Latin word meaning moon). She is dressed in the finest silk robes and travels in her silver moon chariot drawn by luminous steeds across the heavens. [46], From Pausanias we hear that Selene was supposed to have had fifty daughters, by her lover Endymion, often assumed to represent the fifty lunar months of the Olympiad. Lilaeon. [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. [61], In antiquity, the lunar eclipse phenomena were thought to be caused by witches, particularly the ones from Thessaly, who brought the Moon/Selene down with spells and invocations of magic. Along with presiding over dangerous sea creatures, Ceto produced her own set of frightening . 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). These two goddesses have additional association with Hecate. Endymion was, depending on the source, a prince in exile or a simple shepherd. If youve ever wondered what role the moon played in ancient life, here is your chance to learn about how the Greeks viewed Selene, the personification of the moon. Mason-Dixon Line Selene was said to drive her moon chariot across the sky every night, from east to west, following her brother. [85][86] Selene gallops sidesaddle in advance, and wears a woolen undergarment and a mantle. [125] An oracular sanctuary existed near Thalamai in Laconia. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. 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. Although she counts as a goddess in her own right, Selene often gets associated with archer goddess, Artemis, who is also a moon goddess. [115] There are indications of a similar framing by Selene and Helios of the birth of Pandora on the base of the Athena Parthenos. Chiswick House, London, UK. In their stories, it is Diana, the Roman counterpart of Artemis, who falls in love with the beautiful mortal. Her sister Eos was the light of dawn and their brother Helios drew the chariot of the sun across the sky each day. Selene was the daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia. A variation of this symbol was the nimbus, which surrounded her head, depicting the celestial light she bestowed on the world. 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. They brought night and day, shed light on the earth, were responsible for the turning of the months, and facilitated agriculture. 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. In this case, the story of Selene embracing Endymion, or Moon embraces Diver, refers to the sun setting and the moon rising. Most of the important Greek gods and goddesses had temple sites of their own. 1392). She was descended . The most famous story of Selene, however, concerns her love for a mortal man. The fifty daughters of Selene and Endymion mark the fifty lunar months of the four year Olympiad Cycle. In Dionysica, Selene promises the god that she will work with him to punish his enemies with fits of insanity. 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. There were some witches who people thought could make the moon or the sun disappear from the sky at a specified time, although it is more likely that such people, if they did exist, simply had the ability to predict when an eclipse was going to happen. Selene detail from a sarcophagus, imperial period. Hill, D. E. "THE THESSALIAN TRICK." Selene, daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia, was the personification of the moon. Moon gods and goddesses have existed in all ancient pantheistic cultures for a very long 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. [3] Selene and Artemis were also associated with Hecate and all three were regarded as moon and lunar goddesses, but only Selene was regarded as the personification of the Moon itself. "[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. 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. Their daughter Eos was the first to appear each day. 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. [123], Moon figures are found on Cretan rings and gems (perhaps indicating a Minoan moon cult), but apart from the role played by the moon itself in magic, folklore, and poetry, and despite the later worship of the Phrygian moon-god Men, there was relatively little worship of Selene. Her list of powers are unmatched, as far as lunar goddesses go. Gaia, the primordial Titan goddess and grandmother to the Olympian gods and goddesses, was enraged when her children were defeated in the Titanomachy and imprisoned in Tartarus. Selene's Roman name was Lunar. After all, mythology is storytelling at its finest. The counterpart to her brother, she traveled by night. While Selene was known for pulling the moon across the sky in her silver . [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. 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. Lunacy takes its name from Selenes Roman counterpart, Luna. She was worshipped at the new and full moons. This she shared with her siblings and other goddesses like Nyx. [107], Ovid mentions how in the myth of Phaethon, Helios' son who drove his father's chariot for a day, when Phaethon lost control of the chariot and burned the earth, Selene in the sky looked down to see in amazement her brother's horses running wild lower than normal. Two winged steeds pulled her across the sky each night. If you have read Greek mythology and the famous epics of ancient Greece, you may be quite familiar with her brother Helios. During the night, Selene would drive her chariot with the moon across the sky. There are three different ways you can cite this article. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. She was depicted as a woman riding sidesaddle on a horse or driving a chariot drawn by a pair of winged steeds. [95], Anaxagoras also reports that the Nemean lion was said to have fallen from the moon. So she is a sure token and a sign to mortal men. Two of the original twelve Titans descended from Uranus and Gaia, Hyperion was the Titan god of heavenly light while Theia was the Titan goddess of vision and the aether. The Greek word for the moon was also the word used to delineate the months. Occasionally she asked her brother to take over her duties so she could spend more time on the ground with 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). Selene and Endymion, in the mural above the stage of the Friedrich von Thiersch Saal in the Wiesbaden Kurhaus. In Greek mythology, Selene was traditionally depicted as a beautiful young woman, with perhaps paler than usual skin. 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. Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 4.54ff; Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.1.4; Apollodorus, Library 1.7.5; cf. How Did Uranus get its Name as Per Greek Mythology? Hyperions role is not fully known today, but given that he was the god of heavenly light in all its forms, it may be assumed that his children, powerful as they were in their individual capacities, only held a fraction of the might of their Titan father. Accessed on 27 Feb. 2023. In Greek literature, Eos is presented as a daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia, the sister of the sun god Helios and the moon goddess Selene. Privacy Policy. So she is a sure token and a sign to mortal men. Selene and Endymion, fresco on ceiling by Giuseppe Antonio Orelli, circa 1730-1770, Palazzo Riva. Some even said that the Nemean Lion, as the offspring of Selene, had originally fallen from the moon.[30]. Selene, the goddess of the moon, has two siblings: Eos, the goddess of the dawn, and Helios, the sun god. Even though she, along with her siblings, was a Titan goddess because of her parentage, the three of them became quite central to the Greek pantheon and were accepted as Greek gods themselves after the fall of the great Titans. My work has also been published on Buzzfeed and most recently in Time magazine. [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. Sometimes this develops in later worship as they are identified with other deities or gods. 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"). For centuries, those affected by mental illness were referred to as lunatics.. 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