[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. The light that humans saw from earth emanate from them, a legacy of their lustrous father. 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. She announced the coming of her younger brother. [16][18], Although attempts have been made to connect Selene to Helene due to the similarity of their names, in two early dedications to Helen from Laconia her name is spelled with a digamma (Ancient Greek: , romanized:Welna), ruling out any possible connection between them. Her grandparents are Gaia, (Mother Earth) and Uranus (Father Sky). [32], Selene was rarely worshipped, at least in earlier periods of ancient Greek history. Euripides, Phoenician Women 17576; Nonnus, Dionysiaca 44.191. [47] Nonnus has Selene and Endymion as the parents of the beautiful Narcissus, although in other accounts, including Ovid's Metamorphoses, Narcissus was the son of Cephissus and Liriope.[48]. Selene personified the moon and was one of the Greek goddesses of the night. [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. [58] In some later accounts the chariot was drawn by oxen or bulls. Her list of powers are unmatched, as far as lunar goddesses go. Her brother, Helios, is the god of the sun, and her sister, Eos, is the goddess of the dawn. 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. Indeed, it reflects the fascinating way the Greeks observed the . [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. [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. [113] Selene and Helios also appear on the North Metopes of the Parthenon, with Selene this time entering the sea on horseback. [143] The idyll opens with the girl ordering her maid to bring potions and magical utensils, followed by an invocation to Selene and Hecate, and finally the rather lengthy spell itself; once she finishes her spell, the girl recounts to Selene of how she met and was betrayed by her lover, and calls upon the goddess to witness and help her, hence the love tail is woven into the love spell. [55] The geographer Pausanias, reports seeing a relief of Selene driving a single horse, as it seemed to him, or as some said, a mule, on the pedestal of the Statue of Zeus at Olympia (c. 435 BC). The Theoi Project galleries contain more than 1,200 images of ancient Greek and Roman art. H. G. Evelyn-White. In rarer traditions, she is the daughter of the Titan Pallas. Her father was the Titan god of heavenly light, while her mother represented the blue color of the sky. Hail, white-armed goddess, bright Selene, mild, bright-tressed queen! Although she counts as a goddess in her own right, Selene often gets associated with archer goddess, Artemis, who is also a moon goddess. "[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). 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. [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. 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. 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. These two goddesses have additional association with Hecate. Selenes role in this war was not only to fight against the giants. [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. Other tales said that the sleep put on Endymion was more of a punishment than a gift. Selene also has a chemical element named after her, Selenium. 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. (2022, December 7). While there were many goddesses associated with the moon and lunar powers, Selene personified the moon and its light. [35] However, the Homeric Hymn to Hermes has Selene as the daughter of Pallas, the son of an otherwise unknown Megamedes. Although Endymion slept for eternity, many sources said Selene continued to see him. Selene, the moon goddess, was reputed to have had many children by various fathers. The counterpart to her brother, she traveled by night. [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. Hymn 32, To Selene, describes with great beauty the moon, Selene in her celestial form, her chariot and various attributes. Many of these old communities followed the lunar calendar and that made the moon a center of their faith and worship in many ways. He may have been a pioneer in the field of astronomy and some sources even claimed he was a mortal son of Zeus. She walked as quietly as possible to avoid frightening Endymion as he slept. Myth Early History Selene was the daughter of the titans, Hyperion and Theia, sister to Helios (the sun) and Eos (dawn). Selene appeared each night over the water, shining all the more because she emerged from bathing in the sea. Obbink, Dirk (2002), "'All Gods are True' in Epicurus" in, Obbink, Dirk (2011) "56. Interestingly, this version of the myth does not involve Selene. Her brother Helios shone as the sun, while her sister Eos was the goddess of the dawn. Selene leaving her chariot, Roman mosaic, Andalusia. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Her sister Eos was the light of dawn and their brother Helios drew the chariot of the sun across the sky each day. It seems that Selene was not uninvolved in the twelve tasks of Heracles either. Selene and Endymion, fresco on ceiling by Giuseppe Antonio Orelli, circa 1730-1770, Palazzo Riva. [104] Zeus agrees, urged by Selene's complaints and having long intended to deal with the philosophers himself. SELENE was the Titan goddess of the moon. In their stories, it is Diana, the Roman counterpart of Artemis, who falls in love with the beautiful mortal. Whether this Pallas (called the son of Megamedes) is the same as the Titan Pallas or a different individual entirely is unclear. Accessed March 1, 2023. 13 In later times Selene was identified with Artemis, and the worship of the two became amalgamated. [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). Surviving descriptions of Selene's physical appearance and character, apart from those which would apply to the moon itself, are scant. Epimenides, in the theogony that was ascribed to him, also calls her lovely haired, perhaps due to the Homeric Hymns themselves. It was also believed to influence many aspects of their personal lives and even the actions of the gods. [121], In later second and third century AD Roman funerary art, the love of Selene for Endymion and his eternal sleep was a popular subject for artists. What Were the Hamadryads in Greek Mythology? But on nights the moon could not be seen, there was a very good reason for her absence. She was depicted as a woman riding sidesaddle on a horse or driving a chariot drawn by a pair of winged steeds. While most of the Homeric Hymns were written in the seventh or sixth century BCE, the Homeric Hymn to Selene was probably composed no earlier than the fourth century BCE. Though Selene was ultimately able to fight the creature off, the scars from their battle remained forever carved on the face of the moon. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. 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. Selene was written off and Artemis became the goddess of the moon, hunting, and animals. Zeus slept with the human queen Alcmene, of which encounter Heracles was born. The first mention of the moon goddess in Greek mythology was probably in the Homeric Hymns. Mitchell, Lucy M., "Sculptures of the Great Pergamon Altar" in The Century Magazine, 1883. She was descended . They put Hyperion to the sword, and drowned Helios in the river Eridanus. [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. 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]. Most of the important Greek gods and goddesses had temple sites of their own. In this aspect she was closely associated with Dionysus. 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. His rites also brought a form of madness about in his followers, who often celebrated under the light of the moon. [10] The Greek Stoic philosopher Chrysippus interpreted Selene and Men as, respectively, the female and male aspects of the same god. Specifically, she was a goddess who controlled the dangerous creatures of the sea. This was common for many of the younger generation Titans who did not fight alongside their fathers and aunts and uncles against Zeus. Whenever the moon could not be seen in the night sky, it was because Selene had paused to take in Endymions beauty once again. Her appearance matched the night sky she drove through. Zeus put Endymion into an eternal sleep so the goddess could see him forever as a beautiful young man. Whatever his profession, the handsome young man frequently slept beneath the open sky. [134], Selene was sometimes associated with childbirth, for it was believed that during the full moon women had the easiest labours; this helped in her identification with the goddess Artemis,[138] as well as other goddesses connected to women's labours. Ceto - Goddess of the Water. [64][65] Those who brought down the Moon were thought to bring ill fortune upon themselves, as evidenced by the proverb ("you are bringing down the Moon on yourself") said for those who caused self-inflicted evils; some witches supposedly avoided this fate by sacrificing their children or their eyeballs. Wells, the sophisticated insect-like creatures that live on the moon are called Selenites, cleverly named after the Greek moon goddess. In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Selene (/slini/; Greek: pronounced[seln], meaning "Moon"[2]) is the personification of the Moon. As the daughter of the Titan god of heavenly light, it is an apt name. 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