Upon the head of Selene was normally found a crown that was representative of the spherical moon. She was said to represent the full moon. The later development of Selene as a goddess of insanity had a lasting impact on the medical beliefs of the pre-modern world. [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. 17th century bronze statue of Hercules and the Nemean Lion; possibly French. H. G. Evelyn-White. She is usually portrayed either driving a chariot (see above) or riding sideways on horseback[111] (sometimes riding an ox, a mule or a ram). 573 Bernab. Depending on the author, the chariot was either silver,[6] snow white,[7] or gold. Helius, Selene, Eos, Atlas, Prometheus, Pandora, Nike, Boreas, Zephyrus, Astra) GREEK VASE PAINTINGS GALLERY 8 (83 IMAGES) 10; Pisander, Fragmente der griechischen Historiker (FGrH) 16 frag. 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/. Witchcraft has long been believed to have had a connection with the moon and it was no different in antiquity. Updates? If you have read Greek mythology and the famous epics of ancient Greece, you may be quite familiar with her brother Helios. [4] Here she is represented as a radiant goddess, wearing a crown and beautiful robes and riding a horse-drawn chariot across the night sky: From her immortal head a radiance is shown from heaven and embraces earth; and great is the beauty that ariseth from her shining light. By the 5th century bc Selene was sometimes identified with Artemis, or Phoebe, the bright one. She was usually represented as a woman with the moon (often in crescent form) on her head and driving a two-horse chariot. 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. The three children have become much more well-known in general Greek literature than their parents, especially after the fall from grace of Hyperion, who stood by his brother Cronus in the latters war against Zeus and was banished to Tartarus for it. Her brother is Helios, the Sun and her sister is Eos, the Dawn. Attributes to the Byrgos Painter, ca. Selene goddess of the moon, Athenian red-figure kylix C5th B.C., Antikensammlung Berlin. Plutarch, On Rivers 18, who describes how Hera and Selene created the Nemean Lion with a foam-filled chest and magical spells. Endymion was, depending on the source, a prince in exile or a simple shepherd. See esp. And now thou thyself too hast part in a like mad passion; and some god of affliction has given thee Jason to be thy grievous woe. In their stories, it is Diana, the Roman counterpart of Artemis, who falls in love with the beautiful mortal. Virgil, Georgics 3.391ff; Servius on Virgils Georgics 3.391 (citing the second-century BCE poet Nicander as the original source). 14 In works of art, however, the two divinities are usually distinguished; the face of The altars to Selene were few and far between. [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). [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. 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]. [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). Diodorus of Sicily, Library of History 3.57. iPhone History: A Timeline of Every Model in Order 80; Acusilaus, FHG 1 frag. Selene, the goddess of the moon, was the youngest of the three siblings. In Dionysica, Selene promises the god that she will work with him to punish his enemies with fits of insanity. 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. Because Basileia's other brothers envied these offspring, and feared that Hyperion would try to seize power for himself, they conspired against him. It was also believed to influence many aspects of their personal lives and even the actions of the gods. The phases of the moonespecially the new moon and the full moonplayed a central role in the ancient Greeks understanding of time and agriculture. She announced the coming of her younger brother. Kapach, Avi. 13 In later times Selene was identified with Artemis, and the worship of the two became amalgamated. Modern audiences do not often think about Selenes cyclical nature, however. [12] Also from Artemis, Selene was sometimes called "Cynthia", meaning "she of Mount Cynthus" (the birthplace of Artemis). Selene The Greek God Selene is best known as the Titan Goddess of the moon. Selene the moon goddess was a minor figure in ancient Greek mythology. [8], Selene began appearing in the visual arts around the early fifth century BCE. Attic red-figure kylix showing Selene riding the chariot of the moon, drawn by two winged horses. Plato, Republic 2.364e; Philochorus, Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum (FHG) 1 frag. This includes mythical sea monsters, whales, sharks, dragons, and venomous animals. [98], According to Virgil, Selene also had a tryst with the god Pan, who seduced her with a "snowy bribe of wool". The bull panicked, threw Ampelus and gored him to death. 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. In later times, Selene was often associated with Artemis in the same way that her brother Helios was associated with Artemis brother Apollo. There are three different ways you can cite this article. If your web page requires an HTML link, please insert this code: . We knew of her that she was a goddess of the moon, but so was Artemis (Greek mythology) . "From the panteon of the gods to the Pantheon of Rome" in, This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 02:32. Lilaeon. 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. [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". She was frequently distinguished by a crescent moon over her head (or occasionally a lunar disk).[9]. [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 goddess had one temple that was also an oracle near Thalamae in Laconia. 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. My name is Mike and for as long as I can remember (too long!) She is dressed in the finest silk robes and travels in her silver moon chariot drawn by luminous steeds across the heavens. She fell madly in love with him and asked Zeus to let him stay asleep forever, remaining eternally young and beautiful (in some traditions, it was Endymion himself who requested this unending sleep). According to the Homeric Hymn 32, Selene and Zeus together had a daughter named Pandia. Every evening, Selene ushered in nightfall and then drove her chariot through the night before giving way to dawn. Secretive and shy, she enjoys flitting silently through the night with a pearl-white or silvery chariot. The second Japanese lunar orbiter spacecraft following was named SELENE (Selenological and Engineering Explorer) after Selene, and was also known as Kaguya in Japan. While Selene was known for pulling the moon across the sky in her silver . Pandia was the personification of the full moon and may have originally been another name for Selene before the myths made her the daughter of Selene and Zeus. Athena, also spelled Athene, in Greek religion, the city protectress, goddess of war, handicraft, and practical reason, identified by the Romans with Minerva. [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. Many of Selenes epithetsincluding (agl, gleaming), (pasiph, all-shining), and (tanyspteros, long-winged)reflected her lunar qualities and other distinctive attributes. She also had a statue, alongside Helios, in the public marketplace of Elis. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). [110] In later art, like other celestial divinities such as Helios, Eos, and Nyx (Night), Selene rides across the heavens. The Greeks recognized several goddesses as having a connection to the moon, but none was as closely associated with it as Selene. 127 ff (trans. I have been in love with all things related to Mythology. As time progressed, they merged into one identity. Names of the Goddess. Cf. 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. How old is the United States of America? [37] Other accounts give still other parents for Selene: Euripides has Selene as the daughter of Helios (rather than sister),[38] while an Aeschylus fragment possibly has Selene as the daughter of Leto,[39] as does a scholium on Euripides's play The Phoenician Women which adds Zeus as the father. Nonnus describes how, as Ampelus was riding a bull, he made the mistake of comparing himself to Selene. Sometimes this develops in later worship as they are identified with other deities or gods. My work has also been published on Buzzfeed and most recently in Time magazine. Thus, Selene falling for Endymion was supposed to represent moonrise every night. She was unique, however, in her relationship with the orb itself. The people of Sparta claimed that Ares had been nursed by a nymph called Thero. Though Selene almost never appears in modern adaptations of Greek mythology, she is nonetheless present in pop culture as the personification of the moon. 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. Helios was married to Perse, but he had quite a few extramarital affairs, and a number of children . [142] In Theocritus' second Idyll, a young girl invokes Selene in a love-spell. Helios was one of the Titans, son of Hyperion and Theia and brother of Eos (the Dawn) and Selene (the Moon ). This was known as the Gigantomachy. Though Selene had many consorts, the most famous of them was Endymion, a handsome young mortal. 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. [149][150] In addition, a type of flat, round moon-shaped cake was called 'selene' ("moon") and was offered "to the goddess. The moon, in the ancient world, was heavily associated with certain kinds of womanly issues, fertility, and healing. Many people believed that labor and childbirth was easiest during the full moon and prayed to Selene for aid. What are Hades Powers that are Really Scary? Who were Zeus' Lovers? 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). 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. Other examples of lunar goddesses and gods are Selenes Roman equivalent Luna, the Mesopotamian Sin, the Egyptian god Khonsu, the Germanic Mani, the Japanese Shinto god Tsukuyomi, the Chinese Change, and the Hindu god Chandra. Her father was the Titan god of heavenly light, while her mother represented the blue color of 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. This she shared with her siblings and other goddesses like Nyx. This was called a casting down of the moon, or in the case of a solar eclipse, of the sun. 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. Selene's Role She was the goddess of the moon, which she drove every night across the skies. Her name is linked with those of various other goddesses, such as Artemis and Hecate, who are also associated with the moon. According to Hesiods Theogony, Selene was born of Hyperion and Theia. [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. [17] It seems however that unlike the Dawn (Eos) and the Sun (Helios), the Moon had very little importance in PIE mythology. 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. Deciphering the Role of Helios, the Sun God of Greek Mythology. Selene, the moon goddess, was reputed to have had many children by various fathers. Selene also has a chemical element named after her, Selenium. Do not often think about Selenes cyclical nature, however, in the same that! 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