selene greek mythology
Surviving descriptions of Selene's physical appearance and character, apart from those which would apply to the moon itself, are scant. In it, Selene is depicted as fighting alongside Helios and Eos, seated side-saddle on a horse. The Greeks recognized several goddesses as having a connection to the moon, but none was as closely associated with it as Selene. Selene's Role She was the goddess of the moon, which she drove every night across the skies. [103], In Lucian's Icaromenippus, Selene complains to the titular Menippus of all the outrageous claims philosophers are making about her, such as wondering why she is ever waxing or gibbous, whether she is populated or not, and stating that she is getting her stolen light from the Sun, causing strife and ill feelings between her and her brother. "[2][150][151], The ancient Greeks called Monday "day of the Moon" ( ) after her. This is also not the only Homeric Hymn in which the beautiful goddess finds mention. [87], According to the late account of Nonnus, when the gigantic monster Typhon laid siege against the heavens, he attacked Selene as well by hurling bulls at her, though she managed to stay in her course, and rushed at her hissing like a viper. Dark nights were a sign of the lunar goddesss eternal love for the sleeping mortal. Interestingly, this version of the myth does not involve Selene. Her lunar sphere or crescent was either a crown set upon her head or the fold of a raised, shining cloak. Her brother, Helios, is the god of the sun, and her sister, Eos, is the goddess of the dawn. Knowing he would be there whenever she wanted to see him, the goddess no longer worried he would leave or die before she got to see him again. Hesiod, Catalogue of Women frag. But unlike other night goddesseslike Nyx, Hecate, and sometimes even ArtemisSelene represented the moon itself. 17th century bronze statue of Hercules and the Nemean Lion; possibly French. Many people believed that labor and childbirth was easiest during the full moon and prayed to Selene for aid. Her Roman equivalent is Luna. Selene was linked to Artemis as well as Hecate; all three were considered lunar goddesses. In some later accounts, she is known as the Horned Selene, perhaps due to the crescent moon upon the crown of her head. Selene is a Titan goddess. Selene was so enamored of the young man that she left the sky to see him more closely. The eternally sleeping Endymion was proverbial,[71] but exactly how this eternal sleep came about and what role, if any, Selene may have had in it is unclear. Selene had an altar at Pergamon, at the sanctuary of Demeter, the goddess of spring. [95], Anaxagoras also reports that the Nemean lion was said to have fallen from the moon. [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. However, in the science fiction book The First Men on the Moon by H.G. Most of the important Greek gods and goddesses had temple sites of their own. That leaves Artemis and Selene. Her fifty daughters with Endymion marked the fifty lunar months that passed between celebrations of the Olympiad. The fifty daughters of Selene and Endymion mark the fifty lunar months of the four year Olympiad Cycle. 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. Pandia Usually said to be the daughter of Selene and Zeus, Pandia was also sometimes given as another name for Selene herself. [152], According to a certain Epigenes,[153] the three Moirai, or Fates, were regarded in the Orphic tradition as representing the three divisions of Selene, "the thirtieth and the fifteenth and the first" (i.e. The name Selene is probably derived from the Greek selas, meaning "light".She was also called Mene, which means "month" referring to the lunar month which was calculated from the new moon to the dark moon and Phoebe, meaning "bright". Greek Mythology >> Galleries GALLERIES. Selene - Mythology. Selene was said to have several consorts but the man that the goddess of the moon was most linked with was the mortal Endymion. She is pale, beautiful and indefinably alluring. Accessed on 27 Feb. 2023. There are different versions of this story. 1392). As Luna, she had temples at Rome on the Aventine and Palatine hills. Selene, one of the younger generation of Titans, was also the Greek goddess of the moon. This story seems to have made its way into Roman mythology as well since many of the greatest Roman scholars, from Cicero to Seneca, have written about it. 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. 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. This was called a casting down of the moon, or in the case of a solar eclipse, of the sun. The Greeks followed a lunar calendar, making Selene one of the most important deities in the passage of time. However, hers might not be a name that is quite as well-known. In the Homeric Hymn to Selene, she bears the beautiful Pandeic to Zeus, while Alcman says they are the parents of Herse, the dew. [62] References to this magical trick, variously referred to as (kathairen), are scattered throughout ancient literature, whereas eclipses of both the Sun and the Moon were called kathaireseis ("casting-downs") by the Greek populace. [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. Though Selene had many consorts, the most famous of them was Endymion, a handsome young mortal. 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. Like most of the Titans, Selene was rarely worshipped in the ancient world. [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. She drives her moon chariot across the heavens. Thus, both the sun and the moon were seen as gods embodied in those forms. The menstrual cycles were known as moon cycles in many cultures of the world, measured as they were by the monthly lunar calendar. Her brother Helios shone as the sun, while her sister Eos was the goddess of the dawn. [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". [29] Empedocles, Euripides and Nonnus all describe her as (glaukpis, "bright-eyed", a common epithet of the goddess Athena)[30] while in a fragment from a poem, possibly written by Pamprepius, she is called (kyanpis, "dark-eyed"). [8] The masculine form of mene (men) was also the name of the Phrygian moon-god Men. Seln) was also the ancient Greek word meaning moon. The etymology is uncertain, but it appears to be related to the Greek word (slas, light) and the Proto-Indo-European word *l(o)uksneh- (moon), from which we also derive the Latin word for moon, luna. 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. 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"). Deciphering the Role of Helios, the Sun God of Greek Mythology. Selene the moon goddess was a minor figure in ancient Greek mythology. Kapach, Avi. [113] Selene and Helios also appear on the North Metopes of the Parthenon, with Selene this time entering the sea on horseback. Her name was spelt differently in the different dialects of the Greeks but the meaning was the same. Selene was not the only goddess the Greeks associated with the moon. Selene fought back the giant, locking horns with Typhon; afterwards, she carried many scars on her orb, reminiscent of their battle. Her appearance matched the night sky she drove through. [85][86] Selene gallops sidesaddle in advance, and wears a woolen undergarment and a mantle. But while there, he committed some transgression (usually, he was said to have fallen in love with Zeus wife Hera). 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. Selene goddess of the moon, Athenian red-figure kylix C5th B.C., Antikensammlung Berlin. Her chariot was made of shining silver, bringing soft, clear light each night. 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"). 68 A75 D-K). Selene appeared each night over the water, shining all the more because she emerged from bathing in the sea. 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]. Greek mythology has beautiful explanations for many natural phenomena. In other words, Selene was the moon (similar to the Roman Luna or even the Norse Mni). Often when one god supplanted another in a particular domain, the stories that involved that god were changed to reflect this. The most important of Selenes symbols was her moon chariot. 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. At night he drove below the edge of the world in the west, circling below Gaia to reappear on the eastern horizon by morning. Hyginus, preface to Fabulae. 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.. Selene was more than just a lunar goddess, she was the embodiment of the moon and its light. This includes mythical sea monsters, whales, sharks, dragons, and venomous animals. The talkative Myia would sit with Endymion as he slept his eternal sleep, chattering endlesslyso much so that Endymion eventually woke up. Together, they fittingly created three sources of celestial illumination. 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. Also known as Mene, she is traditionally the daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia, and sister of the sun god Helios and the dawn goddess Eos. The myth of Selene claims that this goddess had several lovers, both divine and mortal. 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). https://mythopedia.com/topics/selene, Avi Kapach is a writer, scholar, and educator who received his PhD in Classics from Brown University. Many of Selenes epithetsincluding (agl, gleaming), (pasiph, all-shining), and (tanyspteros, long-winged)reflected her lunar qualities and other distinctive attributes. [2], Selene was also called Mene. Together, they fittingly created three sources of celestial illumination. While other goddesses were associated with the night in more general terms, Selene was believed to be the embodiment of the moon herself. The ancient Greeks believed that a lunar eclipse was the work of a witch, particularly the witches of Thessaly. [8], Selene began appearing in the visual arts around the early fifth century BCE. The masculine form, Phoebus, was used in reference to either Apollo or. 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 saw him as she passed overhead and fell deeply in love. There were still several goddesses who shared Selenes lunar domain, however. This article was most recently revised and updated by, From Athena to Zeus: Basics of Greek Mythology, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Selene-Greek-and-Roman-mythology, Ancient Origins - Celestial Goddess Selene: The Ancient Greek Goddess of the Moon. These were Eiar, Theros, Cheimon, and Phthinoporon, Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. [117] Selene also appears on horseback as part of the Gigantomachy frieze of the Pergamon Altar. Selene detail from a sarcophagus, imperial period. Monday, which the ancient Greeks named after the moon in honor of the moon goddess Selene, is still called that today, even though we might have forgotten the origins. Along with presiding over dangerous sea creatures, Ceto produced her own set of frightening . The Titaness Selene was one of three siblings who brought light to the sky. Their names differed from the other triads of Horae and they were considered to be the personifications of the four seasons itself. Selene and Endymion by Sebastiano Ricci (1713). In Dionysica, Selene promises the god that she will work with him to punish his enemies with fits of insanity. 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. 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). Epimenides, in the theogony that was ascribed to him, also calls her lovely haired, perhaps due to the Homeric Hymns themselves. Kapach, Avi. [32], The usual account of Selene's origin is given by Hesiod in his Theogony, where the sun-god Hyperion espoused his sister Theia, who gave birth to "great Helios and clear Selene and Eos who shines upon all that are on earth and upon the deathless Gods who live in the wide heaven". But on nights the moon could not be seen, there was a very good reason for her absence. [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. [40][41] Furthermore, in Virgil's Aeneid, when Nisus calls upon Selene/the Moon, he addresses her as "daughter of Latona. Selene, the goddess of the moon, was the youngest of the three siblings. 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. She also had a statue, alongside Helios, in the public marketplace of Elis. She began to do this every night, leaving her chariot behind and making the sky dark with her absence. [2] She was often associated with cycles of growth and agriculture, female menstruation, and mysterious diseases like epilepsy and demonic possession. [33] The Homeric Hymn to Helios follows this tradition: "Hyperion wedded glorious Euryphassa, his own sister, who bare him lovely children, rosy-armed Eos and rich-tressed Selene and tireless Helios",[34] with Euryphassa ("widely shining") probably being an epithet of Theia. Same thing happened with Helius and Apollo. [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. Oil lamp fragment with the head of Selene, early classical period, Muse de Die. Some even said that the Nemean Lion, as the offspring of Selene, had originally fallen from the moon.[30]. Selene was said to drive her moon chariot across the sky every night, from east to west, following her brother. This irritated Endymion, and enraged Selene, who transforms the girl into a fly (Ancient Greek: , romanized:mua). See esp. [118], Selene is commonly depicted with a crescent moon, often accompanied by stars; sometimes, instead of a crescent, a lunar disc is used. The tale of Endymion and Selene is one that has resonated with people for millennia. [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. Hail, white-armed goddess, bright Selene, mild, bright-tressed queen! She announced the coming of her younger brother. The Greeks (like many other ancient peoples) were notoriously terrified of eclipses, viewing them as signs of the gods displeasure.[3]. Without Selene giving way to Eos, Helios could not bring the sun back to the world. 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. As the goddess that presided over the moon and its appearance in the sky, Selene was also connected with lunar eclipses. Selene was the daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia. Selene was the Greek goddess of the moon. Selene, (Greek: "Moon") Latin Luna, in Greek and Roman religion, the personification of the moon as a goddess. The lunar goddess was also important for her influence over female fertility cycles and childbirth. Selene herself most often wore a crown of gleaming silver, which matched her silver chariot. [78] In his dialogue between Aphrodite and Eros, Lucian also has Aphrodite admonish her son Eros for bringing Selene "down from the sky". She was the personification of the moon, but was also associated with lunar elements such as tides, months, and even lunacy. It was only later, when Selene began to be conflated with other lunar goddesses, that she was openly worshiped. This is at times accompanied by stars to depict the night sky, but the crescent moon was perhaps the most recognizable of Selenes symbols. The crescent moon, full moon, and dark moon corresponded to the three states of being embodied by the Fates. 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 were even called by their names, Phoebe and Phoebus respectively, in some sources. They brought night and day, shed light on the earth, were responsible for the turning of the months, and facilitated agriculture. Though Selene had many consorts, the most famous of them was Endymion, a handsome young mortal. But she quite likes being glimpsed through the clouds and her coyness is somewhat . In memory of the beautiful Endymion, the fly still grudges all sleepers their rest and annoys them. 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. [102], Plutarch recorded a fable-like story in which Selene asked her mother to weave her a garment to fit her measure, and her mother replied that she was unable to do so, as she kept changing shape and size, sometimes full, then crescent-shaped and others yet half her size. [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. 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