In some cases, it is debated whether she indeed was the mother. Cf. [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 counterpart to her brother, she traveled by night. At night he drove below the edge of the world in the west, circling below Gaia to reappear on the eastern horizon by morning. 3 (cited in the scholia on Apollonius of Rhodes Argonautica 4.57). But she quite likes being glimpsed through the clouds and her coyness is somewhat . Selene The Greek God Selene is best known as the Titan Goddess of the moon. This irritated Endymion, and enraged Selene, who transforms the girl into a fly (Ancient Greek: , romanized:mua). While we often think little of the moon today, in the ancient Greek world the moons cyclical movement through the sky played a central role in their concept of time. As the moon, Selene occupied an important place in popular religion. They brought night and day, shed light on the earth, were responsible for the turning of the months, and facilitated agriculture. Her name is linked with those of various other goddesses, such as Artemis and Hecate, who are also associated with the moon. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Gods of Death 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. The Moirai In some traditions the Fates were seen as three aspects of the lunar goddess. 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. When Selene spied him sleeping in a cave, she immediately fell in love and asked Zeus to extend his sleep for all eternity. Some even said that the Nemean Lion, as the offspring of Selene, had originally fallen from the moon.[30]. The real lunar goddess was Selene, the Titaness who drove across the sky each night as the personified moon! On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. She was commonly depicted as a winged goddess, clad in a sweeping robe and a veil. [113] Selene and Helios also appear on the North Metopes of the Parthenon, with Selene this time entering the sea on horseback. [142] In Theocritus' second Idyll, a young girl invokes Selene in a love-spell. The moon was also believed to bring the night dew that nourished the plants and to bring sleep and rest to humankind. 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. The concept of Selene as the lunar goddess also made her an important goddess of childbirth and female fertility. Kapach, A. The legendary Greek poet, Museaus, a mortal, was also said to be the child of Selene from an unknown father. Grapevines then rose from Ampelus corpse, from which the heartbroken Dionysus made wine for the first time. 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. In the Homeric Hymn to Selene, she bears the beautiful Pandeic to Zeus, while Alcman says they are the parents of Herse, the dew. It was devoted to Selene, under the name Pasiphae, and to Helios. She announced the coming of her younger brother. Selene and Endymion relief, Alessandro and Lancellotto Pusterla's gravestone, 16th century. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. The myth of Selene claims that this goddess had several lovers, both divine and mortal. 7 (all cited in the scholia on Apollonius of Rhodes Argonautica 4.57); Sappho, frag. Mitchell, Lucy M., "Sculptures of the Great Pergamon Altar" in The Century Magazine, 1883. 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. Selene does not appear in modern adaptations of Greek myths, since she is not exactly one of the major Greek gods like Zeus or Aphrodite. A third version of the story had Endymion himself choose an ageless sleep as opposed to living a mortal life. [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. The myth of Selene, the moon goddess, is no exception. [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. Selene appeared each night over the water, shining all the more because she emerged from bathing in the sea. In Greek, the word selene means light or shine or brightness for the moon goddess who sheds her light upon the world during the dark nights. Selene was a beautiful goddess with long, flowing . Although in most myths, the Horae appear to be triads born of Zeus and Themis, in this particular incarnation they were the daughters of Selene and Helios. According to Lucian, Selene had a rival for Endymions love named Myia. 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. Endymion was, depending on the source, a prince in exile or a simple shepherd. 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 put Hyperion to the sword, and drowned Helios in the river Eridanus. Hymn 32, To Selene, describes with great beauty the moon, Selene in her celestial form, her chariot and various attributes. According to Hesiod's 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). [104] Zeus agrees, urged by Selene's complaints and having long intended to deal with the philosophers himself. However, hers might not be a name that is quite as well-known. After all, mythology is storytelling at its finest. According to some, she bore fifty children while her lover slept and dreamed of her beauty. She began to do this every night, leaving her chariot behind and making the sky dark with her absence. After all, mythology is storytelling at its finest. Rheinisches Museum Fr Philologie, vol. Perhaps the most colorful ancient description of Selene comes from Homeric Hymn 32 (the Homeric Hymn to Selene). The moon goddess was said to have had several lovers, including Zeus and the wild god Pan. These were Eiar, Theros, Cheimon, and Phthinoporon, Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. 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. [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. [127] Selene (along with Helios, Nyx and others) received an altar at the sanctuary of Demeter at Pergamon, possibly in connection with the Orphic mysteries. In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Selene (/slini/; Greek: pronounced[seln], meaning "Moon"[2]) is the personification of the Moon. However, Selene was not one of them. "[2][150][151], The ancient Greeks called Monday "day of the Moon" ( ) after her. 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. 10; Pisander, Fragmente der griechischen Historiker (FGrH) 16 frag. Goddess Selene is often portrayed in art and in myths generally, riding a chariot across the sky. Those that do exist are somewhat generic (like the previously mentioned epithets). The sky was dark at night and the sun more lethargic than usual. The personification of the Sun, he was portrayed as driving a four-horse chariot across the sky on a daily basis. fr. In memory of the beautiful Endymion, the fly still grudges all sleepers their rest and annoys them. Please like and share this article if you found it useful. the crescent moon, full moon, and dark moon, as delinted by the divisions of the calendar month).[154]. [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). 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). Helios was married to Perse, but he had quite a few extramarital affairs, and a number of children . The other gods, angered, sent him two lions to tear him apart. Occasionally she asked her brother to take over her duties so she could spend more time on the ground with Endymion. Interestingly, this version of the myth does not involve Selene. Her Roman equivalent is Luna. Many of these old communities followed the lunar calendar and that made the moon a center of their faith and worship in many ways. Without Selene giving way to Eos, Helios could not bring the sun back to the world. The masculine form, Phoebus, was used in reference to either Apollo or. 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"). 3/4, 1973, pp. "On Representations of Helios and of Selene", The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Sorabella, Jean, "A Roman Sarcophagus and Its Patron. Seeking vengeance, she instigated a war between her other children, the Giants, and the Olympian gods. [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. While other goddesses were associated with the night in more general terms, Selene was believed to be the embodiment of the moon herself. 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. (Similarly, Selenes brother Helios came to be identified with Artemis brother Apollo. That leaves Artemis and Selene. Watched over by nymphs and visited often by the goddess, it was marked by glowing moonstones and pure white rock. Omissions? She was worshipped at the new and full moons. Mythopedia. Selene personified the moon and was one of the Greek goddesses of the night. Museum of Classical Archaeology Databases. In rarer traditions, she is the daughter of the Titan Pallas. Thou wouldst say far off that this was milk indeed, which is a well-spring of white water: if thou draw a little nigher, lo, the stream is fringed as though with ice, for white stone rims it round. The brother and sister married each other and had three children: Eos (the goddess of the dawn), Helios (the sun god), and Selene (the moon goddess). 127 ff (trans. 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. The most enduring story of Selene concerns the love she felt for an ordinary human man. iPhone History: A Timeline of Every Model in Order [32], Selene was rarely worshipped, at least in earlier periods of ancient Greek history. There existed an oracular sanctuary for her in Laconia, near Thalamai. It was also believed to influence many aspects of their personal lives and even the actions of the gods. Chiswick House, London, UK. The goddess of the moon does not seem to have been the object of much ritual worship in the early Greek period. "[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). Her list of powers are unmatched, as far as lunar goddesses go. The most important of Selenes symbols was her moon chariot. 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. "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. [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 could still see her sleeping love whenever she pleased, but the pressures of time and mortality were taken off her. The phases of the moonespecially the new moon and the full moonplayed a central role in the ancient Greeks understanding of time and agriculture. Selene, one of the younger generation of Titans, was also the Greek goddess of the moon. Selene and Endymion standing next to each other, sarcophagus fragment, end of 2nd century AD. Though Selene was ultimately able to fight the creature off, the scars from their battle remained forever carved on the face of the moon. 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. 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. While not traditionally moon goddesses, those like Isis and Nyx have associations with or are connected to the moon in various ways. The tale of Endymion and Selene is one that has resonated with people for millennia. This is at times accompanied by stars to depict the night sky, but the crescent moon was perhaps the most recognizable of Selenes symbols. Her brother Helios shone as the sun, while her sister Eos was the goddess of the dawn. Greek mythology has beautiful explanations for many natural phenomena. 2022 Wasai LLC. [8], Selene began appearing in the visual arts around the early fifth century BCE. Does the sculpted girl speak to women too?" [112], Selene was often paired with her brother Helios. [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. Updates? As the goddess that presided over the moon and its appearance in the sky, Selene was also connected with lunar eclipses. [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. Hesiod, Catalogue of Women frag. Let's take a closer look at her story. The Theoi Project galleries contain more than 1,200 images of ancient Greek and Roman art. Sometimes these were winged horses, although some later accounts had the chariot drawn by bulls. Quintus of Smyrna, Posthomerica 10.336ff; cf. 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). 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]. Pan, the god of the wild, supposedly seduced Selene while dressed in a sheepskin. [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. 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. During the night, Selene would drive her chariot with the moon across the sky. [46], From Pausanias we hear that Selene was supposed to have had fifty daughters, by her lover Endymion, often assumed to represent the fifty lunar months of the Olympiad. 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. When Gaia heard of a prophecy that a mortal would help the gods to defeat the giants, she sought to find a herb that would make them undefeatable. Their daughter Eos was the first to appear each day. [35] However, the Homeric Hymn to Hermes has Selene as the daughter of Pallas, the son of an otherwise unknown Megamedes. How old is the United States of America? Nyx is the goddess of the night and is thus associated with the new moon. [108], In antiquity, artistic representations of Selene/Luna included sculptural reliefs, vase paintings, coins, and gems. Altes Museum, Berlin, Germany. Her father was the Titan god of heavenly light, while her mother represented the blue color of the sky. The poem describes the radiant light that shines from her head and calls her bright Selene. The moon goddess is described as white armed goddess and bright tressed queen and the poem celebrates her loveliness. Helius, Selene, Eos, Atlas, Prometheus, Pandora, Nike, Boreas, Zephyrus, Astra) GREEK VASE PAINTINGS GALLERY 8 (83 IMAGES) 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]. For other uses, see, Detail of Selene from a Roman sarcophagus, A winged Selene seems to be unique to this. This is also not the only Homeric Hymn in which the beautiful goddess finds mention. [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. [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. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. 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. Corrections? [10] The Greek Stoic philosopher Chrysippus interpreted Selene and Men as, respectively, the female and male aspects of the same god. H. G. Evelyn-White. Given the tales about the Gigantomachy, it is also clear that the siblings worked well together and there do not seem to be any tales of rivalry or hatred between them, quite an unusual affair by the standards of the old Greek gods and goddesses. As the embodiment of the moon, Selene and the movement of her chariot across the night sky was important for the Greeks to measure time. Selene was said to drive her moon chariot across the sky every night, from east to west, following her brother. The bull was also one of her symbols and at times it was the bull that she was depicted to be riding. Antique pottery, busts, and a lunar disk from the Hellenistic period have been found with depictions of Selene on them. It was only later, when Selene began to be conflated with other lunar goddesses, that she was openly worshiped. She was unique, however, in her relationship with the orb itself. 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 Homeric Hymn 31 sings praises to all the children of Hyperion, referring to Eos as rosy armed Eos and to Helios as tireless Helios.. [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. Selene is a Titan goddess. Indeed, it reflects the fascinating way the Greeks observed the . Her brother is Helios, the Sun and her sister is Eos, the Dawn. She was depicted as a woman riding sidesaddle on a horse or driving a chariot drawn by a pair of winged steeds. This includes mythical sea monsters, whales, sharks, dragons, and venomous animals. Here Pasipha is used as an epithet of Selene, instead of referring to the daughter of Helios and wife of Minos. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. All of these qualities bound Selene to the natural phenomena of time and seasons and the rejuvenation of nature as well, even apart from her ability to shed light. Selene and Endymion, in the mural above the stage of the Friedrich von Thiersch Saal in the Wiesbaden Kurhaus. [25], Two other sources also mention her hair. Magical Goddess of the Silvery Moon. [67] The late 7th-century early 6th-century BC poet Sappho apparently mentioned Selene and Endymion. From her immortal head a radiance is shown from heaven and embraces earth; and great is the beauty that ariseth from her shining light. 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. 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. There were still several goddesses who shared Selenes lunar domain, however. But while there, he committed some transgression (usually, he was said to have fallen in love with Zeus wife Hera). 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. And if Selene and Helios did not work together, as the personifications of the moon and the sun, there would be absolute chaos in the world. ), The name Selene (Greek , translit. 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. 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. Selene is a Titan goddess in Greek mythology. 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. 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. [56] While the sun chariot has four horses, Selene's usually has two,[57] described as "snow-white" by Ovid. [89] One day, in Nonnus' account, Ampelus rode on a bull, and proceeded to compare himself to Selene, saying that he was her equal, having horns and riding bulls just like her. Helios, the son of Hyperion and Theia, was their second child. [ 67 ] the late 7th-century early 6th-century BC poet selene greek mythology apparently mentioned and! See, Detail of Selene claims that this goddess had several lovers, including Zeus and the full moonplayed central! Concerns the love she felt for an ordinary human man some, bore. 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