Two of these were Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, and Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft. Hurwit 2017, pp. The ancient Greeks believed that a lunar eclipse was the work of a witch, particularly the witches of Thessaly. Both Epimenides and the Greek philosopher Anaxagoras seem to use the exact words fell from the moon while speaking of the savage Lion of Nemea, Epimenides again using the words fair tressed Selene.. The goddess of the hunt became associated with the moon and lunar cycles. It was devoted to Selene, under the name Pasiphae, and to Helios. 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. Seneca, Madness of Hercules 83; Hyginus, Fabulae 30; Aelian, On Animals 12.7 (citing Epimenides); etc. Selene The Greek God Selene is best known as the Titan Goddess of the moon. [2] She was often associated with cycles of growth and agriculture, female menstruation, and mysterious diseases like epilepsy and demonic possession. Each day she drives her two-horse chariot, heralding the breaking of the new day and her brother's arrival. In later eras, she became associated with madness as well. To cite this article in an academic-style article or paper, use: Rittika Dhar, "Selene: The Titan and Greek Goddess of the Moon", History Cooperative, September 20, 2022, https://historycooperative.org/selene-greek-goddess-of-the-moon/. [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. There are different versions of this story. The talkative Myia would sit with Endymion as he slept his eternal sleep, chattering endlesslyso much so that Endymion eventually woke up. Hurwit, Jeffery M. (2017), "Helios Rising: The Sun, the Moon, and the Sea in the Sculptures of the Parthenon", Jones, Prudence H., "A Goddess Arrives: Nineteenth Century Sources of the New Age Triple Moon Goddess" in. The Theoi Project galleries contain more than 1,200 images of ancient Greek and Roman art. "On Representations of Helios and of Selene", The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Sorabella, Jean, "A Roman Sarcophagus and Its Patron. She was depicted as a woman riding sidesaddle on a horse or driving a chariot drawn by a pair of winged steeds. 1. On the other hand, her eyes and hair were believed to have been as dark as the night. Along with presiding over dangerous sea creatures, Ceto produced her own set of frightening . Corrections? While her brother was clad in shining gold, her light was softer and more clear. 500450 BCE. Secretive and shy, she enjoys flitting silently through the night with a pearl-white or silvery chariot. To link to this article in the text of an online publication, please use this URL: https://historycooperative.org/selene-greek-goddess-of-the-moon/. There were other goddesses worshiped by the Greeks who were widely associated with the moon themselves. According to the Catalogue of Women, Endymion was the son of Aethlius (a son of Zeus), and Zeus granted him the right to choose when he would die. She began to do this every night, leaving her chariot behind and making the sky dark with her absence. [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. [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. [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"). In Greek, the name Endymion means one who dives and Max Muller thought that the myth was a symbolic representation of how the sun set by diving into the sea and then the moon arose. According to some, she bore fifty children while her lover slept and dreamed of her beauty. [144] And, according to a scholium on Theocritus, Pindar wrote that lovesick women would pray to Selene for help, as Euripides apparently had Phaedra, Selene's great-niece, do in his lost play Hippolytus Veiled. Nyx is the goddess of the night and is thus associated with the new moon. Worshiped as one of the important celestial lights of the heavens, Selene was also reputedly revered as a deity of agriculture and fertility. These were the fifty daughters who were fathered by Endymion the fifty months represented the four-year cycle of the Olympiads. [125] An oracular sanctuary existed near Thalamai in Laconia. They brought night and day, shed light on the earth, were responsible for the turning of the months, and facilitated agriculture. Selenes Roman counterpart was called Luna (from the Latin word meaning moon). 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. Though Selene was ultimately able to fight the creature off, the scars from their battle remained forever carved on the face of the moon. Zeus had enough sympathy for Selene to not kill Endymion outright, but he put the human man in an enchanted sleep on Mount Latmus in the East so Selene would have no further reason to descend to earth each night. Selene, goddess of the moon, truly represented the moon itself to the Greeks. 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". 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. These two goddesses have additional association with Hecate. Lilaeon. Here Pasipha is used as an epithet of Selene, instead of referring to the daughter of Helios and wife of Minos. [31] Mesomedes of Crete calls her (glauk, "silvery grey"). [72] A scholiast on Apollonius says that, according to Epimenides, Endymion fell in love with Hera, and Zeus punished him with eternal sleep. Selene also has a chemical element named after her, Selenium. [97] Hyginus says that Selene had "nourished" the lion in a "two-mouthed cave". The most important of Selenes symbols was her moon chariot. The great English Romantic poet John Keats wrote a poem about the mortal, entitled Endymion, with some of the most famous opening lines in the English language. In rarer traditions, she is the daughter of the Titan Pallas. Updates? 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. In this case, the story of Selene embracing Endymion, or Moon embraces Diver, refers to the sun setting and the moon rising. And along with Selene, the moon moved as well. Festivals and feasts were determined by the lunar calendar, giving Selene as Mene an important role in the worship of all the gods and goddesses. 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. How Did Uranus get its Name as Per Greek Mythology? 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]. Well, go on, and steel thy heart, wise though thou be, to take up thy burden of pain, fraught with many sighs."[70]. So she is a sure token and a sign to mortal men. 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. [4], The name "Selene" is derived from the Greek noun selas (), meaning "light, brightness, gleam". 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. Her brother Helios shone as the sun, while her sister Eos was the goddess of the dawn. Everything We Know About the Greek Goddess of Agriculture, Aphrodite Facts: Awesome Facts about the Goddess of, Interesting Facts about Athena: Greek Goddess of Knowledge. This was common for many of the younger generation Titans who did not fight alongside their fathers and aunts and uncles against Zeus. The Origin of Hotdogs, The History of Boracay Island in The Philippines. Pan, the god of the wild, supposedly seduced Selene while dressed in a sheepskin. In Greek mythology, Ceto was a goddess of the water. This was the mythological explanation for the movement of the moon across the sky. [25], Two other sources also mention her hair. [52] There are no mentions of Selene's chariot in either Homer or Hesiod,[53] but the Homeric Hymn to Selene, gives the following description: 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. 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). There are a few different versions of the myth. My work has also been published on Buzzfeed and most recently in Time magazine. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. [113] Selene and Helios also appear on the North Metopes of the Parthenon, with Selene this time entering the sea on horseback. Accessed March 1, 2023. 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. Attic red-figure kylix showing Selene riding the chariot of the moon, drawn by two winged horses. Several lovers are attributed to her in various myths, including Zeus, Pan, and the mortal Endymion. 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. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Kapach, Avi. Athena, also spelled Athene, in Greek religion, the city protectress, goddess of war, handicraft, and practical reason, identified by the Romans with Minerva. Many people believed that labor and childbirth was easiest during the full moon and prayed to Selene for aid. 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. She was unique, however, in her relationship with the orb itself. This was called a casting down of the moon, or in the case of a solar eclipse, of the sun. Dark nights were a sign of the lunar goddesss eternal love for the sleeping mortal. Selene was said to have several consorts but the man that the goddess of the moon was most linked with was the mortal Endymion. 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. 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. [27], In late accounts, Selene (like the moon itself) is often described as having horns. His rites also brought a form of madness about in his followers, who often celebrated under the light of the moon. Interestingly, this version of the myth does not involve Selene. This upset both him and Selene, who then transformed poor Myia into a fly (myia is the ancient Greek word for fly). In the more familiar tradition, however, the Horae were the daughters of Zeus and Themis, and there were only three of them (even their names are completely different: Eirene, Eunomia, and Dike). However, hers might not be a name that is quite as well-known. H. G. Evelyn-White. Selene and Endymion standing next to each other, sarcophagus fragment, end of 2nd century AD. Helios, the son of Hyperion and Theia, was their second child. [126] Pausanias also described seeing two stone images in the market-place of Elis, one of the sun and the other of the moon, from the heads of which projected the rays of the sun and the horns of the crescent moon. [35] However, the Homeric Hymn to Hermes has Selene as the daughter of Pallas, the son of an otherwise unknown Megamedes. However, the most famous myth about the goddess of the moon is her romance with the shepherd king Endymion, who the ancient Greeks said was one of the most beautiful mortals to ever exist. This is at times accompanied by stars to depict the night sky, but the crescent moon was perhaps the most recognizable of Selenes symbols. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. GREEK VASE PAINTINGS GALLERY 1 (86 IMAGES) . 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. Some nymphs in Greek mythology were famous, but others were only known in a certain time Apollo: The God of Music, Poetry, and Light, Hecate Greek Goddess of Witchcraft : The Complete Guide. A womans fertility was said to be influenced by the cycles of the moon, a belief that gave English the word menses, and under Selenes influence women were said to have an easier time in childbirth than they did during the day. Their daughter Eos was the first to appear each day. 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. As the moon, Selene occupied an important place in popular religion. Selene the moon goddess was a minor figure in ancient Greek mythology. Those that do exist are somewhat generic (like the previously mentioned epithets). Learn more about our mission. [95], Anaxagoras also reports that the Nemean lion was said to have fallen from 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. 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. Grapevines then rose from Ampelus corpse, from which the heartbroken Dionysus made wine for the first time. However, Selene was not one of them. Selene was a Titan goddess in Greek mythology, daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia. Selene was a beautiful goddess with long, flowing . In this aspect she was closely associated with Dionysus. 260 M-W; Epimenides, FHG 4 frag. Kapach, A. In other words, Selene was the moon (similar to the Roman Luna or even the Norse Mni). Certain types of insanity were said to be brought on by the moons influence, and it was believed that Selene had the power to create lunacy with purpose. The name of the moon goddess is surrounded by accounts of the consorts she had and their children. In other versions, Endymion was actually taken to Mount Olympus. [1], Selene was often identified with other goddesses, including Men (also spelled Mene), the divine personification of the lunar month; Bendis, a goddess of Thracian origin; Hecate, a goddess of witchcraft; and (especially in later antiquity) Artemis, the goddess of hunting and wild things. Rheinisches Museum Fr Philologie, vol. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. [23] She was, however, the subject of one of the thirty-three Homeric Hymns, which gives the following description: And next, sweet voiced Muses, daughters of Zeus, well-skilled in song, tell of the long-winged[24] Moon. Selene (Greek mythology) The goddess of the Moon. [40][41] Furthermore, in Virgil's Aeneid, when Nisus calls upon Selene/the Moon, he addresses her as "daughter of Latona. Selene's Role She was the goddess of the moon, which she drove every night across the skies. [84] Selene's participation in the battle is evidenced by her inclusion in the Gigantomachy frieze of the Pergamon Altar, fighting against Giants next to her siblings Helios and Eos and her mother Theia in the southern frieze. Mene The personification of the months was sometimes an aspect of Selene and sometimes a separate goddess. Selene was one of the twelve Olympian gods and goddesses, and her story is one of the most captivating in Greek mythology. She was the personification of the moon, but was also associated with lunar elements such as tides, months, and even lunacy. Most famous classical poets describe her beauty as so intriguing that gods and mortals alike could not resist her godly charms. He soon discovered the source of Selenes distraction. [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. A variation of this symbol was the nimbus, which surrounded her head, depicting the celestial light she bestowed on the world. She had two siblings, Helios and Eos. 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. The goddess Selene was the daughter of Titius Hyperion and Theia. The altars to Selene were few and far between. The goddess of the moon does not seem to have been the object of much ritual worship in the early Greek period. She was worshipped at the new and full moons. The personification of the Sun, he was portrayed as driving a four-horse chariot across the sky on a daily basis. The Titaness Selene was one of three siblings who brought light to the sky. Selene, the goddess of the moon, has two siblings: Eos, the goddess of the dawn, and Helios, the sun god. According to Hesiods Theogony, Selene was born of Hyperion and Theia. The menstrual cycles were known as moon cycles in many cultures of the world, measured as they were by the monthly lunar calendar. The months had their own personifications as well, who were all born from Selene. Hymn 31, To Helios, also speaks of the two sisters of Helios where the rich-tressed Selene is once again alluded to. 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