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 was the ancient Greek Titan goddess of the moon. She was the personification of the moon, but was also associated with lunar elements such as tides, months, and even lunacy. Helios was married to Perse, but he had quite a few extramarital affairs, and a number of children . In Greek mythology, Hyperion (/ h a p r i n /; Greek: , 'he who goes before') was one of the twelve Titan children of Gaia (the Earth) and Uranus (the Sky). The History of Guns, Greek Mythology: Stories, Characters, Gods, and Culture, Aztec Mythology: Important Stories and Characters, Greek Gods and Goddesses: Family Tree and Fun Facts, Roman Gods and Goddesses: The Names and Stories of 29 Ancient Roman Gods, Descriptions of Selene, Goddess of the Moon, Greek Myths featuring the Moon Goddess Selene, iPhone History: A Timeline of Every Model in Order, US History Timeline: The Dates of Americas Journey, Ancient Civilizations Timeline: 16 Oldest Known Cultures From Around The World, Why Are Hot Dogs Called Hot Dogs? The later development of Selene as a goddess of insanity had a lasting impact on the medical beliefs of the pre-modern world. It did not take long for Zeus to notice something was amiss. Does the sculpted girl speak to women too?" Mason-Dixon Line Hymn 31, To Helios, also speaks of the two sisters of Helios where the rich-tressed Selene is once again alluded to. After all, mythology is storytelling at its finest. Selene was, while not worshiped openly, apparently the object of many spells and invocations addressed to her by young women. Myth Early History Selene was the daughter of the titans, Hyperion and Theia, sister to Helios (the sun) and Eos (dawn). 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. 2022 Wasai LLC. . Many people believed that labor and childbirth was easiest during the full moon and prayed to Selene for aid. Kapach, A. Selene fought back the giant, locking horns with Typhon; afterwards, she carried many scars on her orb, reminiscent of their battle. [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. Selene had a relationship with the god Pan, according to Virgil. The concept of Selene as the lunar goddess also made her an important goddess of childbirth and female fertility. 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. 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. In many cases it rested on her brow or jutted out on either side of her head like a crown or horns. For the people of old, natural phenomena was an important part of their worship. The name Selene is probably derived from the Greek selas, meaning "light".She was also called Mene, which means "month" referring to the lunar month which was calculated from the new moon to the dark moon and Phoebe, meaning "bright". Her request granted, Selene visited him regularly; some sources even reported that they had children together (see above).[27]. [34] She also had a sacred statue (which stood alongside one of her brother Helios) in the public market of Elis.[35]. While Selenes best known consort may have been Endymion and the mythic romance between the moon goddess and the mortal has been documented in many places, he was not the only person that she was involved with. Zeus could not do that, so he sent Endymion into an eternal slumber so he would never age or die. In memory of the beautiful Endymion, the fly still grudges all sleepers their rest and annoys them. Attributes to the Byrgos Painter, ca. [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. The menstrual cycles were known as moon cycles in many cultures of the world, measured as they were by the monthly lunar calendar. [40][41] Furthermore, in Virgil's Aeneid, when Nisus calls upon Selene/the Moon, he addresses her as "daughter of Latona. 3/4, 1973, pp. Whatever his profession, the handsome young man frequently slept beneath the open sky. Along with presiding over dangerous sea creatures, Ceto produced her own set of frightening . Her appearance matched the night sky she drove through. The goddess Selene was the daughter of Titius Hyperion and Theia. Selene was a beautiful goddess with long, flowing . 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]. Even if he were sleeping, he would not be parted from the goddess he loved by death. [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 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. It seems that Selene was not uninvolved in the twelve tasks of Heracles either. Selene was said to drive her moon chariot across the sky every night, from east to west, following her brother. That leaves Artemis and Selene. 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. It was devoted to Selene, under the name Pasiphae, and to Helios. Whether by request or as punishment, Zeus put Endymion into an ageless sleep so he would remain eternally youthful beneath the night sky. Selene was never completely forgotten by the Greeks, but many of her duties and attributes were taken over by Artemisover time. 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. 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. [108], In antiquity, artistic representations of Selene/Luna included sculptural reliefs, vase paintings, coins, and gems. Virgil, Georgics 3.391ff; Servius on Virgils Georgics 3.391 (citing the second-century BCE poet Nicander as the original source). 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. 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. Selene saw him as she passed overhead and fell deeply in love. 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. 116, no. Chiswick House, London, UK. With his sister, the Titaness Theia, Hyperion fathered Helios (the Sun), Selene (the Moon) and Eos (the Dawn).. Hyperion was, along with his son Helios, a personification of the sun, with the two sometimes . [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. [85][86] Selene gallops sidesaddle in advance, and wears a woolen undergarment and a mantle. [49] Quintus describes them as the four handmaidens of Hera, but in most other accounts their number is three; Eirene ("peace"), Eunomia ("order"), and Dike ("justice"), and their parents are Zeus and Themis instead. [91], Selene also played a small role in the first of Heracles' twelve labours; whereas for Hesiod, the Nemean Lion was born to Orthrus and the Chimera (or perhaps Echidna) and raised by Hera,[92] other accounts have Selene involved in some way in its birth or rearing. There are a few different versions of the myth. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Gods of Death The Greeks recognized several goddesses as having a connection to the moon, but none was as closely associated with it as Selene. This was the mythological explanation for the movement of the moon across the sky. [97] Hyginus says that Selene had "nourished" the lion in a "two-mouthed cave". They were even called by their names, Phoebe and Phoebus respectively, in some sources. Selene, daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia, was the personification of the moon. [116] Pausanias also reports seeing stone images of Helios, and Selene, in the market-place at Elea, with rays projecting from the head of Helios, and horns from the head of Selene. [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". According to early Greek myths, Selene used to be a Titan goddess of the moon and Artemis used to be a goddess of hunting and animals. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. [35] However, the Homeric Hymn to Hermes has Selene as the daughter of Pallas, the son of an otherwise unknown Megamedes. 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. Although she counts as a goddess in her own right, Selene often gets associated with archer goddess, Artemis, who is also a moon goddess. 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. Often when one god supplanted another in a particular domain, the stories that involved that god were changed to reflect this. [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. 3 (cited in the scholia on Apollonius of Rhodes Argonautica 4.57). 1999, Mark P. O. Morford, Robert J. Lenardon, Classical Mythology, page 43, Balancing Arria is the union of Selene and Endymion. This was common for many of the younger generation Titans who did not fight alongside their fathers and aunts and uncles against Zeus. This is also not the only Homeric Hymn in which the beautiful goddess finds mention. Whether this Pallas (called the son of Megamedes) is the same as the Titan Pallas or a different individual entirely is unclear. The myth of Selene, the moon goddess, is no exception. [90], When Zeus desired to sleep with the mortal queen Alcmene and sire Heracles, he made the night last three days, and ordered Selene via Hermes to dawdle in the sky during that time. Diodorus of Sicily, Library of History 3.57. Selene was the daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia. 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. [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. In many paintings and sculptures, Selene is traditionally depicted with the crescent moon in her vicinity. -Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 10. As the goddess that presided over the moon and its appearance in the sky, Selene was also connected with lunar eclipses. [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. Selene, goddess of the moon, truly represented the moon itself to the Greeks. 260 M-W; Epimenides, FHG 4 frag. Robert S. P. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 2:131819. 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 eventually led to the identification of Selene with Artemis, also associated with fertility and the moon in various ways. Selene, (Greek: "Moon") Latin Luna, in Greek and Roman religion, the personification of the moon as a goddess. [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"). Whether this Pallas ( called the son of Megamedes ) is the same as the Titan or... Not the only Homeric Hymn in which the beautiful goddess with long, flowing of children Phoebus respectively in... Eternally youthful beneath the night sky she drove through, mythology is storytelling at its.! Name Pasiphae, and a mantle over dangerous sea creatures, Ceto her. World, measured as they were even called by their names, Phoebe and Phoebus respectively, in antiquity artistic... 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