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And a memorial of her couch abides still neath the oaks; for mid the copses round was poured out milk of kine; and still do men marvelling behold its whiteness. Thou wouldst say far off that this was milk indeed, which is a well-spring of white water: if thou draw a little nigher, lo, the stream is fringed as though with ice, for white stone rims it round. Lunacy takes its name from Selenes Roman counterpart, Luna. Selene was said to drive her moon chariot across the sky every night, from east to west, following her brother. Around this time, Selene came to be identified with more important goddesses such as Artemis and Hecateidentifications that expanded her role in Greek religion. Names of the Goddess. All of these qualities bound Selene to the natural phenomena of time and seasons and the rejuvenation of nature as well, even apart from her ability to shed light. 2. 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. 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. Several lovers are attributed to her in various myths, including Zeus, Pan, and the mortal Endymion. Without Selene giving way to Eos, Helios could not bring the sun back to the world. Here Pasipha is used as an epithet of Selene, instead of referring to the daughter of Helios and wife of Minos. https://mythopedia.com/topics/selene, Avi Kapach is a writer, scholar, and educator who received his PhD in Classics from Brown University. [158] HMS Selene (P254), a 1944 British submarine and Ghia Selene, a concept car from the Ghia design studio from 1959, also bore her name. By all accounts, Selene seemed to have played a major role in this war. One of the most important sources of this myth is in the Greek satirist Lucian of Samosatas Dialogues of the Gods, where Aphrodite and Selene talk about the latters love for Endymion. The legendary Greek poet, Museaus, a mortal, was also said to be the child of Selene from an unknown father. Though Selene had many consorts, the most famous of them was Endymion, a handsome young mortal. Whatever his profession, the handsome young man frequently slept beneath the open sky. 17th century bronze statue of Hercules and the Nemean Lion; possibly French. At that time, he did not wish for the sun to rise for three days and sent instructions to Selene via Hermes so it should be so. We knew of her that she was a goddess of the moon, but so was Artemis (Greek mythology) . She drives her moon chariot across the heavens. [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. [145] Plutarch wrote that Selene was called upon in love affairs because she, the Moon, constantly yearns for the Sun, and compared her in that regard to Isis. Selene was never completely forgotten by the Greeks, but many of her duties and attributes were taken over by Artemisover time. [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. He may have been a pioneer in the field of astronomy and some sources even claimed he was a mortal son of Zeus. Hymn 32, To Selene, describes with great beauty the moon, Selene in her celestial form, her chariot and various attributes. Two winged steeds pulled her across the sky each night. For this the Greek gods were to be worshiped. The Moirai In some traditions the Fates were seen as three aspects of the lunar goddess. -Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 10. While not traditionally moon goddesses, those like Isis and Nyx have associations with or are connected to the moon in various ways. [98], According to Virgil, Selene also had a tryst with the god Pan, who seduced her with a "snowy bribe of wool". The altars to Selene were few and far between. "[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). Selene, one of the younger generation of Titans, was also the Greek goddess of the moon. All Rights Reserved. [16] In PIE mythology, the Moon, which is a male figure, was seen as forming a pairusually wedlockwith the Sun, which is a female figure, and which in Greek mythology is recognized in the male deity and Selene's brother Helios. Zeus slept with the human queen Alcmene, of which encounter Heracles was born. 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. The goddess had pale skin that seemed to shine with its own inner light and long black hair that matched the dark sky around her. Museum of Classical Archaeology Databases. While Selene was known for pulling the moon across the sky in her silver . 7 (all cited in the scholia on Apollonius of Rhodes Argonautica 4.57); Sappho, frag. In other words, Selene was the moon (similar to the Roman Luna or even the Norse Mni). She was usually shown driving a chariot or riding sidesaddle on a horse, often with her brother beside her. Selene appeared each night over the water, shining all the more because she emerged from bathing in the sea. Selene was said to have several consorts but the man that the goddess of the moon was most linked with was the mortal Endymion. [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 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]. Hecate and her followers, for example, asked Selene for her cooperation in their magic. Selene was one of the three children of Hyperion and Theia, two of the original twelve Titans. The second Japanese lunar orbiter spacecraft following was named SELENE (Selenological and Engineering Explorer) after Selene, and was also known as Kaguya in Japan. Their daughter Eos was the first to appear each day. Pandia (or Pandia Selene) may have personified the full moon,[130] and an Athenian festival, called the Pandia, usually considered to be a festival for Zeus,[131] was perhaps celebrated on the full moon and may have been associated with Selene. Indeed, the Greek comic playwright Aristophanes said in the 5th century BCE that the worship of the moon was a sign of barbarian communities and not to be emulated by the Greeks. ), The name Selene (Greek , translit. Having risen to power in the generation of Zeus, they were universally revered and worshiped. In antiquity, Selene would also often be depicted either riding upon a bull, or upon a silvery chariot drawn by two winged horses. [8], Selene began appearing in the visual arts around the early fifth century BCE. But unlike other night goddesseslike Nyx, Hecate, and sometimes even ArtemisSelene represented the moon itself. [115] There are indications of a similar framing by Selene and Helios of the birth of Pandora on the base of the Athena Parthenos. There are a number of stories about the moon goddess Selene in Greek mythology, in association with the other Greek gods, especially Zeus. Hypothesis to the scholia on Pindars Nemean Odes. The animals, however, were almost always shown as pure white regardless of their type. She had two siblings, Helios and Eos. H. G. Evelyn-White; cf. [25], Two other sources also mention her hair. She was the goddess of the dawn and brought new light to the world every morning. Selene was the goddess of the moon. Selene was a Titan goddess in Greek mythology, daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia. This includes mythical sea monsters, whales, sharks, dragons, and venomous animals. In the Greek calendar, they used the phases of the moon to calculate a month made up of three ten-day periods. [59] Though the moon chariot is often described as being silver,[60] for Pindar it was golden. The people of Sparta claimed that Ares had been nursed by a nymph called Thero. Perhaps the most colorful ancient description of Selene comes from Homeric Hymn 32 (the Homeric Hymn to Selene). In their stories, it is Diana, the Roman counterpart of Artemis, who falls in love with the beautiful mortal. There are a few different versions of the myth. In it, Selene is depicted as fighting alongside Helios and Eos, seated side-saddle on a horse. Selene, the goddess of the moon, was the youngest of the three siblings. Selenes chariot, unlike her brother Helios, usually only had two horses drawing it. She was worshipped at the new and full moons. [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. The bull was also one of her symbols and at times it was the bull that she was depicted to be riding. There were still several goddesses who shared Selenes lunar domain, however. Her brother, Helios, is the god of the sun, and her sister, Eos, is the goddess of the dawn. In fact, there were several female deities who shared this domain. "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. Her brother is Helios, the Sun and her sister is Eos, the Dawn. Cf. 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. Antique pottery, busts, and a lunar disk from the Hellenistic period have been found with depictions of Selene on them. 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. Let's take a closer look at her story. As the embodiment of the moon, Selene and the movement of her chariot across the night sky was important for the Greeks to measure time. His rites also brought a form of madness about in his followers, who often celebrated under the light of the moon. [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. 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). They brought night and day, shed light on the earth, were responsible for the turning of the months, and facilitated agriculture. The sky was dark at night and the sun more lethargic than usual. I am the owner and chief researcher at this site. 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. [40][41] Furthermore, in Virgil's Aeneid, when Nisus calls upon Selene/the Moon, he addresses her as "daughter of Latona. Indeed, it reflects the fascinating way the Greeks observed the . Though Selene almost never appears in modern adaptations of Greek mythology, she is nonetheless present in pop culture as the personification of the moon. It seems that Selene was not uninvolved in the twelve tasks of Heracles either. 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