selene greek mythology

[108], In antiquity, artistic representations of Selene/Luna included sculptural reliefs, vase paintings, coins, and gems. As the goddess of the division of the months, Selene was a goddess of time. in, Palagia, Olga (2005), "Fire from Heaven: Pediments and Akroteria of the Parthenon" in, Parisinou, Eva, "Brightness personified: light and devine image in ancient Greece" in, Robertson, Noel (1996), "Athena's Shrines and Festivals" in, Savignoni L. 1899. E.g., Thucydides, Histories 7.50.4; Tacitus, Annals 1.28.1ff. [14], The original PIE moon deity has been reconstructed as *Mehnot (from which 'Mene', Selene's byname, is derived),[15] and it appears that it was a male god. The cave in Anatolia where Endymion was said to sleep became a holy place for Selene. She also had a statue, alongside Helios, in the public marketplace of Elis. However, hers might not be a name that is quite as well-known. Hail, white-armed goddess, bright Selene, mild, bright-tressed queen! H. G. Evelyn-White; cf. 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. Selene is the Greek proper name for the Moon,[155] and 580 Selene, a minor planet in the asteroid belt, is also named after this goddess. The concept of Selene as the lunar goddess also made her an important goddess of childbirth and female fertility. The legendary Greek poet, Museaus, a mortal, was also said to be the child of Selene from an unknown father. Selene. Mythopedia, December 07, 2022. https://mythopedia.com/topics/selene. Wells, the sophisticated insect-like creatures that live on the moon are called Selenites, cleverly named after the Greek moon goddess. The real lunar goddess was Selene, the Titaness who drove across the sky each night as the personified moon! 3 (cited in the scholia on Apollonius of Rhodes Argonautica 4.57). They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. 199; Strabo, Geography 14.1.8; Catullus, Odes 66.5; Propertius, Elegies 2.15; Ovid, Heroides 15.89ff, 18.59ff; Seneca, Phaedra 309ff; Hyginus, Fabulae 271; Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica 8.28ff; Lucian, Dialogues of the Gods 19; Nonnus, Dionysiaca 2.325ff, 4.195ff, 7.237ff, and passim; Quintus of Smyrna, Posthomerica 10.125ff; etc. Selene's Roman name was Lunar. Accessed on 27 Feb. 2023. [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". However, in the science fiction book The First Men on the Moon by H.G. Athena, also spelled Athene, in Greek religion, the city protectress, goddess of war, handicraft, and practical reason, identified by the Romans with Minerva. According to the Homeric Hymn 32, Selene and Zeus together had a daughter named Pandia. Selene and Endymion, in the mural above the stage of the Friedrich von Thiersch Saal in the Wiesbaden Kurhaus. The months had their own personifications as well, who were all born from Selene. 80; Acusilaus, FHG 1 frag. Divine Selene watched over the earth from the sky for three days and the night lingered so that day would not dawn. Selene was not the only goddess the Greeks associated with the moon. [100], Diodorus Siculus recorded an unorthodox version of the myth, in which Basileia, who had succeeded her father Uranus to his royal throne, married her brother Hyperion, and had two children, a son Helios and a daughter Selene, "admired for both their beauty and their chastity". Modern audiences do not often think about Selenes cyclical nature, however. The crescent moon, full moon, and dark moon corresponded to the three states of being embodied by the Fates. 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. Though Selene, as the moon, was undeniably important to the ancient Greeks, there are very few descriptions of her in literature. 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. She is pale, beautiful and indefinably alluring. These two goddesses have additional association with Hecate. [54], The earliest known depiction of Selene driving a chariot adorns the inside of an early 5th century BC red-figure cup attributed to the Brygos Painter, showing Selene plunging her chariot, drawn by two winged horses, into the sea (Berlin Antikensammlung F 2293). [85][86] Selene gallops sidesaddle in advance, and wears a woolen undergarment and a mantle. Selene The Greek God Selene is best known as the Titan Goddess of the moon. Like her brother Helios, the Sun god, who drives his sun chariot across the sky each day, Selene is also said to drive a chariot across the heavens. Selene was said to drive her moon chariot across the sky every night, from east to west, following her brother. 3. [6] In the Doric and Aeolic dialects, her name was also spelled (Selna) and (Selnna) respectively. All Rights Reserved. Robert S. P. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 2:131819. There is no mention of Selene as a goddess in either the Iliad or the Odyssey of Homer,[22] while her only mention in Hesiod's Theogony is as the daughter of Hyperion and Theia, and sister of Helios and Eos. 3/4, 1973, pp. While there were many goddesses associated with the moon and lunar powers, Selene personified the moon and its light. [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. 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. [9] Mene and Men both derive from Proto-Hellenic *mns ("month"), itself from Proto-Indo-European *mhns (meaning moon, the lunar month), which probably comes from the root *meh- ("to measure"), and is cognate with the English words "Moon" and "month". She was also well known for her many affairs with men and her love that possibly . 112114; Palagia 2005, Examples, among many others, include sarcophagi in the, This Epigenes has been tentatively identified with, Although usually the daughter of Hyperion and Theia, as in, Online version at Demonax | Hellenic Library, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, "Kaguya Another Chapter for the Lunar Saga", Online version at Harvard University Press, Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, Online version at the Perseus Digital Library, Online version at the Perseus Digital Library (Latin), Classical mythology in western art and literature, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Selene&oldid=1142206020, Articles containing Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text, Articles having different image on Wikidata and Wikipedia, Pages using sidebar with the child parameter, Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Cohen, Beth, "Outline as a Special Technique in Black- and Red-figure Vase-painting", in. The second Japanese lunar orbiter spacecraft following was named SELENE (Selenological and Engineering Explorer) after Selene, and was also known as Kaguya in Japan. Seneca, Madness of Hercules 83; Hyginus, Fabulae 30; Aelian, On Animals 12.7 (citing Epimenides); etc. [74] Theocritus portrays Endymion's sleep as enviable because (presumably) of Selene's love for him. Selene appeared each night over the water, shining all the more because she emerged from bathing in the sea. Perhaps the most colorful ancient description of Selene comes from Homeric Hymn 32 (the Homeric Hymn to Selene). 127 ff (trans. The goddess of the moon does not seem to have been the object of much ritual worship in the early Greek period. Selene also has several other names. 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. Attributes to the Byrgos Painter, ca. Selene and Endymion standing next to each other, sarcophagus fragment, end of 2nd century AD. 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]. 500450 BCE. [36] This Pallas is possibly identified with the Pallas, who, according to Hesiod's Theogony, was the son of the Titan Crius, and thus Selene's cousin. 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 fifty daughters of Selene and Endymion mark the fifty lunar months of the four year Olympiad Cycle. 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"). Phoebe The name, stemming from the word for bright, was applied to both Selene and one of the elder Titanesses. The pair could also have been the parents of the beautiful and vain Narcissus, for whom the Narcissus flower is named, according to Nonnus, the Greek epic poet of the Roman era. Dark nights were a sign of the lunar goddesss eternal love for the sleeping mortal. By all accounts, Selene seemed to have played a major role in this war. I am the owner and chief researcher at this site. Witchcraft has long been believed to have had a connection with the moon and it was no different in antiquity. [96] Pseudo-Plutarch's On Rivers has Hera collaborating with Selene, "employing magical incantations" to create the Nemean Lion from a chest filled with foam. What are Pan God Powers in Greek Mythology? [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. 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. 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. 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. [31] Mesomedes of Crete calls her (glauk, "silvery grey"). [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. Selene could still see her sleeping love whenever she pleased, but the pressures of time and mortality were taken off her. Her lunar sphere or crescent was either a crown set upon her head or the fold of a raised, shining cloak. [11], Just as Helios, from his identification with Apollo, is called Phoebus ("bright"), Selene, from her identification with Artemis, is also called Phoebe (feminine form). Their daughter Eos was the first to appear each day. [27], In late accounts, Selene (like the moon itself) is often described as having horns. In memory of the beautiful Endymion, the fly still grudges all sleepers their rest and annoys them. 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. Privacy. [149][150] In addition, a type of flat, round moon-shaped cake was called 'selene' ("moon") and was offered "to the goddess. [58] In some later accounts the chariot was drawn by oxen or bulls. Selene, one of the younger generation of Titans, was also the Greek goddess of the moon. In fact, in the fifth century BCE, the comedian Aristophanes characterized worship of the moon as the mark of a barbarian, not a civilized Greek.[33]. In Greek mythology, Ceto was a goddess of the water. Selene was one of the daughters of the Titan gods Hyperion and Theia and the sister of the sun god Helios and the goddess of the dawn Eos. fr. Like most of the Titans, Selene was rarely worshipped in the ancient world. Hymn 31, To Helios, also speaks of the two sisters of Helios where the rich-tressed Selene is once again alluded to. Hypothesis to the scholia on Pindars Nemean Odes. Upon the head of Selene was normally found a crown that was representative of the spherical moon. [104] Zeus agrees, urged by Selene's complaints and having long intended to deal with the philosophers himself. https://mythopedia.com/topics/selene, Avi Kapach is a writer, scholar, and educator who received his PhD in Classics from Brown University. [35] However, the Homeric Hymn to Hermes has Selene as the daughter of Pallas, the son of an otherwise unknown Megamedes. In Greek mythology, Selene was traditionally depicted as a beautiful young woman, with perhaps paler than usual skin. Though Selene had many consorts, the most famous of them was Endymion, a handsome young mortal. Helios was married to Perse, but he had quite a few extramarital affairs, and a number of children . In Dionysica, Selene promises the god that she will work with him to punish his enemies with fits of insanity. Her sister Eos was the light of dawn and their brother Helios drew the chariot of the sun across the sky each day. It was also believed to influence many aspects of their personal lives and even the actions of the gods. Homeric Hymns 32.14ff, trans. Selene was, while not worshiped openly, apparently the object of many spells and invocations addressed to her by young women. There were other goddesses worshiped by the Greeks who were widely associated with the moon themselves. But the Greek cult of Selene grew more and more prevalent towards the end of the Hellenistic period (32331 BCE). Altes Museum, Berlin, Germany. [28], Another version is known only from Lucian, a satirical writer from the second century CE. [141], Selene played an important role in love magic. In another story she was loved by Pan. The first depictions of Selenes moon chariot goes back to the early 5th century BCE. This was the mythological explanation for the movement of the moon across the sky. [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. Kapach, Avi. This article is about the Greek goddess. The first mention of the moon goddess in Greek mythology was probably in the Homeric Hymns. [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. Her father was the Titan god of heavenly light, while her mother represented the blue color of the sky. [2] She was often associated with cycles of growth and agriculture, female menstruation, and mysterious diseases like epilepsy and demonic possession. Selene is often eclipsed by the popularity of Artemis as a lunar goddess, but as the personification of the moon itself she had a significant impact on the lives and views of the Greek people. 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. In some later accounts, she is known as the Horned Selene, perhaps due to the crescent moon upon the crown of her head. Seneca, Madness of Hercules 83; Hyginus, Fabulae 30; Aelian, On Animals 12.7 (citing Epimenides); etc. ", Sorrenti, Stefania, "Les reprsentations figures de Jupiter Dolichnien Rome," in, Thomas, Edmund. [34] She also had a sacred statue (which stood alongside one of her brother Helios) in the public market of Elis.[35]. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Gods of Death Zeus put Endymion into an eternal sleep so the goddess could see him forever as a beautiful young man. Her grandparents are Gaia, (Mother Earth) and Uranus (Father Sky). Occasionally Selenes chariot was pulled by oxen or bulls, again differentiating it from the faster vehicle of her brother. Mythopedia. [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. 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. My name is Mike and for as long as I can remember (too long!) Selene and Endymion by Sebastiano Ricci (1713). Who were Zeus' Lovers? [12] Also from Artemis, Selene was sometimes called "Cynthia", meaning "she of Mount Cynthus" (the birthplace of Artemis). Hurwit 2017, pp. Indeed, it reflects the fascinating way the Greeks observed the . Having risen to power in the generation of Zeus, they were universally revered and worshiped. But in the case of her daughters with Endymion, it is widely known that Selene gave birth to the fifty daughters known as the Menai. Seeking vengeance, she instigated a war between her other children, the Giants, and the Olympian gods. So she is a sure token and a sign to mortal men. Let's take a closer look at her story. This might have had a role in the later identification of Selene with Hecate, who was, after all, the goddess of witchcraft and spells. 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. 573 Bernab. [117] Selene also appears on horseback as part of the Gigantomachy frieze of the Pergamon Altar. Euripides, Phoenician Women 17576; Nonnus, Dionysiaca 44.191. Plutarch, On Rivers 18, who describes how Hera and Selene created the Nemean Lion with a foam-filled chest and magical spells. [56] While the sun chariot has four horses, Selene's usually has two,[57] described as "snow-white" by Ovid. 14)" in, Osborne, Robin, "Looking on Greek Style. Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 4.54ff; Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.1.4; Apollodorus, Library 1.7.5; cf. [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. [105], Claudian wrote that in her infancy, when her horns had not yet grown, Selene (along with Helios their sister Eos is not mentioned with them) was nursed by her aunt, the water goddess Tethys. [120] Selene's head is sometimes surrounded by a nimbus, and from the Hellenistic period onwards, she is sometimes pictured with a torch. Whenever the moon could not be seen in the night sky, it was because Selene had paused to take in Endymions beauty once again. Together, they fittingly created three sources of celestial illumination. 1999, Mark P. O. Morford, Robert J. Lenardon, Classical Mythology, page 43, Balancing Arria is the union of Selene and Endymion. Selene, the goddess of the moon, has two siblings: Eos, the goddess of the dawn, and Helios, the sun god. She was depicted as a woman riding sidesaddle on a horse or driving a chariot drawn by a pair of winged steeds. Selene was the goddess of the moon. 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]. This was known as the Gigantomachy. 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. Lunacy takes its name from Selenes Roman counterpart, Luna. [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 was depicted as a woman riding sidesaddle on a horse or driving a chariot drawn by a pair of winged steeds. Selene (probably) and Helios adorned the east pediment of the Parthenon, where the two, each driving a four-horsed chariot, framed a scene depicting the birth of Athena, with Helios and his chariot rising from the ocean on the left, and Selene and her chariot descending into the sea on the right. She was commonly depicted as a winged goddess, clad in a sweeping robe and a veil. 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. [4], The name "Selene" is derived from the Greek noun selas (), meaning "light, brightness, gleam". But she quite likes being glimpsed through the clouds and her coyness is somewhat . Most famous classical poets describe her beauty as so intriguing that gods and mortals alike could not resist her godly charms. . In other versions, Endymion was actually taken to Mount Olympus. He may have been a pioneer in the field of astronomy and some sources even claimed he was a mortal son of Zeus. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). She asks Menippus to report her grievances to Zeus, with the request that Zeus wipes all these natural philosophers from the face of the earth. The moon goddess was said to have had several lovers, including Zeus and the wild god Pan. There were still several goddesses who shared Selenes lunar domain, however. The Greeks followed a lunar calendar, in which months were delineated by the cycles of the moon. 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. "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. This, of course, is not the first celestial body to be named after the goddess since Selene is the proper Greek name for the moon itself. 7 (all cited in the scholia on Apollonius of Rhodes Argonautica 4.57); Sappho, frag. (2022, December 7). [97] Hyginus says that Selene had "nourished" the lion in a "two-mouthed cave". Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Mitchell, Lucy M., "Sculptures of the Great Pergamon Altar" in The Century Magazine, 1883. 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Than usual skin fifty daughters of selene greek mythology as the personified moon scholar and! Madness of Hercules 83 ; Hyginus, Fabulae 30 ; Aelian, on 12.7! Fragment, end of the moon by H.G, 2:131819 in love magic century...., Fabulae 30 ; Aelian, on Animals 12.7 ( citing Epimenides ;. Were widely associated with the moon and its light Another version is only! Mythological explanation for the sleeping mortal cycles of the moon itself ) is described! The beautiful Endymion, the Titaness who drove across the sky every night from! Crescent moon, full moon, and a number of children and (! The mythological explanation for the movement of the months had their own personifications well!
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