On the other hand, her eyes and hair were believed to have been as dark as the night. In it, Selene is depicted as fighting alongside Helios and Eos, seated side-saddle on a horse. 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. [59] Though the moon chariot is often described as being silver,[60] for Pindar it was golden. This was known as the Gigantomachy. Finally, although this account is more in doubt, some stories say that Selene and her brother Helios together birthed one of the generations of the Horae, the goddesses of the seasons. Hesiod, Catalogue of Women frag. fr. She was commonly depicted as a winged goddess, clad in a sweeping robe and a veil. The real lunar goddess was Selene, the Titaness who drove across the sky each night as the personified moon! Other tales said that the sleep put on Endymion was more of a punishment than a gift. How Did Uranus get its Name as Per Greek Mythology? [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. With his sister, the Titaness Theia, Hyperion fathered Helios (the Sun), Selene (the Moon) and Eos (the Dawn).. Hyperion was, along with his son Helios, a personification of the sun, with the two sometimes . All Rights Reserved. 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). Updates? Secretive and shy, she enjoys flitting silently through the night with a pearl-white or silvery chariot. "[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. But she quite likes being glimpsed through the clouds and her coyness is somewhat . 7 (all cited in the scholia on Apollonius of Rhodes Argonautica 4.57); Sappho, frag. [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. As the goddess of the division of the months, Selene was a goddess of time. 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). In her Full Moon state, she is Panselene or . In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Selene ( / slini /; Greek: pronounced [seln], meaning "Moon" [2]) is the personification of the Moon. Selene, the moon goddess, was reputed to have had many children by various fathers. Her Roman equivalent is Luna. Zeus slept with the human queen Alcmene, of which encounter Heracles was born. My name is Mike and for as long as I can remember (too long!) [116] Pausanias also reports seeing stone images of Helios, and Selene, in the market-place at Elea, with rays projecting from the head of Helios, and horns from the head of Selene. If you have read Greek mythology and the famous epics of ancient Greece, you may be quite familiar with her brother Helios. Different sources vary as to whether the chariot was golden or silver, but a silver chariot would seem to fit better with the goddess of the moon. In this case, the story of Selene embracing Endymion, or Moon embraces Diver, refers to the sun setting and the moon rising. Selene. In later eras, she became associated with madness as well. The Story of Selene. Upon the head of Selene was normally found a crown that was representative of the spherical moon. 260 M-W; Epimenides, FHG 4 frag. 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. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Seneca, Madness of Hercules 83; Hyginus, Fabulae 30; Aelian, On Animals 12.7 (citing Epimenides); etc. Moon gods and goddesses have existed in all ancient pantheistic cultures for a very long time. Mythopedia. 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. A third version of the story had Endymion himself choose an ageless sleep as opposed to living a mortal life. The first mention of the moon goddess in Greek mythology was probably in the Homeric Hymns. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Homeric Hymns 32.14ff, trans. Although she counts as a goddess in her own right, Selene often gets associated with archer goddess, Artemis, who is also a moon goddess. [58] In some later accounts the chariot was drawn by oxen or bulls. Accessed March 1, 2023. Her list of powers are unmatched, as far as lunar goddesses go. Even now, this moon goddess of the ancient world has not quite gone out of our lives and her presence can be felt in small but subtle reminders. Hymn 31, To Helios, also speaks of the two sisters of Helios where the rich-tressed Selene is once again alluded to. He was the god of the sun, who drove across the sky each day in a golden chariot drawn by a team of golden horses. . They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. [8], Selene began appearing in the visual arts around the early fifth century BCE. This claim has been takenby Plutarch at first, and subsequently by modern astronomersto mean that she could predict the time and general area where an eclipse of the Moon would occur. [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". [40][41] Furthermore, in Virgil's Aeneid, when Nisus calls upon Selene/the Moon, he addresses her as "daughter of Latona. In the most familiar account, Selene first saw the beautiful Endymion as he lay sleeping in a cave on Mount Latmus. [44] The 7th century BC Greek poet Alcman makes Ersa ("Dew") the daughter of Selene and Zeus. Every evening, Selene ushered in nightfall and then drove her chariot through the night before giving way to dawn. They were even called by their names, Phoebe and Phoebus respectively, in some sources. The goddess took offense, and sent a gadfly to sting Ampelus' bull. In antiquity, Selene would also often be depicted either riding upon a bull, or upon a silvery chariot drawn by two winged horses. Many of Selenes epithetsincluding (agl, gleaming), (pasiph, all-shining), and (tanyspteros, long-winged)reflected her lunar qualities and other distinctive attributes. Their daughter Eos was the first to appear each day. Selene and Endymion, in the mural above the stage of the Friedrich von Thiersch Saal in the Wiesbaden Kurhaus. The first depictions of Selenes moon chariot goes back to the early 5th century BCE. 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. During the night, Selene would drive her chariot with the moon across the sky. 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. Greek mythology has beautiful explanations for many natural phenomena. The scientist Jons Jacob Berzelius named it such since the element was very similar in nature to tellurium, which was named after the Earth, whose Greek name is Tellus. Selene was not the only goddess the Greeks associated with the moon. Diodorus of Sicily, Library of History 3.57. Lunacy takes its name from Selenes Roman counterpart, Luna. 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. [110] In later art, like other celestial divinities such as Helios, Eos, and Nyx (Night), Selene rides across the heavens. [17] It seems however that unlike the Dawn (Eos) and the Sun (Helios), the Moon had very little importance in PIE mythology. [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. Robert S. P. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 2:131819. She was worshipped at the new and full moons. Grapevines then rose from Ampelus corpse, from which the heartbroken Dionysus made wine for the first time. Dark nights were a sign of the lunar goddesss eternal love for the sleeping mortal. 1999, Mark P. O. Morford, Robert J. Lenardon, Classical Mythology, page 43, Balancing Arria is the union of Selene and Endymion. In Greek mythology, Selene was the Titan goddess of the moon. Because the Greek endyein meant "to dive," the name Endymion ("Diver") at first simply described the process of the setting sun "diving" into the sea. Selene. Mythopedia, December 07, 2022. https://mythopedia.com/topics/selene. Her brother Helios shone as the sun, while her sister Eos was the goddess of the dawn. One of the names given for Selene, and occasionally for an independent personification, was Mene. Both Theocritus in his second Idyll and Pindar write about how young women would pray to or invoke spells in the name of the moon goddess for help with their love lives. [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. Selene goddess of the moon, Athenian red-figure kylix C5th B.C., Antikensammlung Berlin. In her later identification with Artemis, Selene came to be called Phoebe or Cynthia. Most famous classical poets describe her beauty as so intriguing that gods and mortals alike could not resist her godly charms. [104] Zeus agrees, urged by Selene's complaints and having long intended to deal with the philosophers himself. Pan, the god of the wild, supposedly seduced Selene while dressed in a sheepskin. While the Maenids of Dionysus were driven mad by the frenzy of their worship, however, the madness brought about by Selene could be used as a targeted punishment. [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. If your web page requires an HTML link, please insert this code: . According to Nonnus, Typhoeus battled Selene by chucking bulls at her, then violently rushing her. [12] Also from Artemis, Selene was sometimes called "Cynthia", meaning "she of Mount Cynthus" (the birthplace of Artemis). The myth of Selene, the moon goddess, is no exception. [125] An oracular sanctuary existed near Thalamai in Laconia. 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