Selene
| Selene | |
|---|---|
 The statue of Selene |
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| The goddess of the Moon | |
| Abode | Moon |
| Consort | Endymion |
| Parents | Hyperion and Theia |
| Siblings | Helios and Eos |
| Children | Pandia |
| Roman equivalent | Luna |
In Greek mythology, Selene (Greek Σελήνη [selɛ̌ːnɛː] 'moon'; Doric Σελάνα; Aeolic Σελάννα) was an archaic lunar deity and the daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia.[1] In Roman mythology, the moon goddess is called Luna, Latin for "moon".
The etymology of Selene is uncertain, but if the word is of Greek origin, it is likely connected to the word selas (σέλας), meaning "brightness".[2]
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[edit] Depictions
In post-Renaissance art, Selene is generally depicted as a beautiful woman with a pale face and long, lustrous, black hair; riding a silver chariot pulled by either a yoke of oxen, a pair of horses, or a pair of serpentine dragons. Often, she has been shown riding a horse or a bull, wearing robes with a moon on her head and carrying a torch.
[edit] Myths
] and Selene, shown with her characteristic attributes of lunate crown and velificatio[3][edit] Genealogy
In the traditional pre-Olympian divine genealogy, Helios, the sun, is Selene's brother: after Helios finishes his journey across the sky, Selene, freshly washed in the waters of Earth-circling Oceanus,[4] begins her own journey as night falls upon the earth, which becomes lit from the radiance of her immortal head and golden crown.[4] When she is increasing after mid-month, it is a "sure token and a sign to mortal men." Her sister, Eos, is goddess of the dawn. Eos also carried off a human lover, Cephalus,[5] which mirrors a myth of Selene and Endymion.
As a result of Selene being conflated with Artemis, later writers sometimes referred to Selene as a daughter of Zeus, like Artemis, or of Pallas the Titan. In the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, with its characteristically insistent patrilineality, she is "bright Selene, daughter of the lord Pallas, Megamedes' son."
[edit] Lovers
| Greek deities series |
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| Titans |
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The Twelve Titans: |
Apollonius of Rhodes (4.57ff) refers to Selene, "daughter of Titan", who "madly" loved a mortal, the handsome hunter or shepherd—or, in the version Pausanias knew, a king— of Elis, named Endymion, from Asia Minor. In other Greek references to the myth, he was so handsome that Selene asked Zeus to grant him eternal sleep so that he would stay forever young and thus would never leave her: her asking permission of Zeus reveals itself as an Olympian transformation of an older myth: Cicero (Tusculanae Disputationes) recognized that the moon goddess had acted autonomously. Alternatively, Endymion made the decision to live forever in sleep. Every night, Selene slipped down behind Mount Latmus near Miletus to visit him.[6]
Selene had fifty daughters, the Menae, by Endymion, including Naxos, the nymph of Naxos Island. The sanctuary of Endymion at Heracleia under Latmus on the southern slope of Latmus still exists as a horseshoe-shaped chamber with an entrance hall and pillared forecourt.
Though the story of Endymion is the best-known one today, the Homeric hymn to Selene (xxxii) tells that Selene also bore to Zeus a daughter, Pandia ("all bright"), goddess of the full moon. According to some sources, the Nemean Lion was her offspring as well. According to Virgil[7] she also had a brief tryst with Pan, who seduced her by wrapping himself in a sheepskin[2] and gave her the yoke of white oxen that drew the chariot in which she is represented in sculptured reliefs, with her windblown veil above her head like the arching canopy of sky. In the Homeric hymn, her chariot is drawn by long-maned horses.
[edit] Symbols
Selene's main symbol was the crescent. Animals that were associated with her were the Greek kyon (κύων, dog in Ancient Greek), the bull (& the cow), as well as the cock. These animals were Selene's followers during the night and the morning twilights.
[edit] Luna
The Roman moon goddess, Luna, had a temple on the Aventine Hill. It was built in the sixth century BC, but was destroyed in the Great Fire of Rome during Nero's reign. There was also a temple dedicated to Luna Noctiluca ("Luna that shines by night") on the Palatine Hill. There were festivals in honor of Luna on March 31, August 24 and August 29.[8][9]
[edit] In popular culture
- In such works of fiction as The First Men in the Moon (1901), A Trip to the Moon (1902), and The Secret of the Selenites (1984), a "selenite" is a native resident of the moon.
- Adam Selene is a name assumed by a sentient computer in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
- Selene, a female vampire, is the main protagonist in the motion picture series "Underworld".
- In the anime series, Sailor Moon, the moon goddess's story is used as a theme and basis of the storyline.
- Selene is an alias for one of the antagonists, Lanfear, in Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time
- In "Dungeons and Dragons, the Forgotten Realms" the campaign setting of Toril has a goddess of the moon named Selune, and a moon named after her.
- In the band Garbage's official music video for their hit song "You Look So Fine," the myth of Selene and Endymion is the main theme of the video. Shirley Manson plays the part of the moon goddess.
- The story of Selene is very similar to the Japanese myth of Kaguya-Hime, The Bamboo Princess.
- In Isaac Asimov's novel The Gods Themselves, Selene Lindstrom, is a major character of the third part, which occurs on the Moon. According to her, the name is very popular there.
- In Ben Bova's series of novels, Grand_Tour_(novel_series), Selene is the independent Luna nation that rules the moon at one stage.
- Finnish power metal band Sonata Arctica's album Reckoning Night contains a song entitled "My Selene" that is based on the myth of Selene and Endymion.
- The album Pan: An Urban Pastoral by American progressive rock band Persephone's Dream contains songs entitled "Selene Rising" and "The Tears Of Selene."
[edit] Notes
- ^ Bibliotheke of Pseudo-Apollodorus, 1.2.2; Hesiod gives a list of the offspring of Hyperion and Theia in Theogony, lines 371ff. In the Homeric Hymn to Helios, Theia is given the name Euryphaessa, the "far-shining" one, an epithet that would apply to Selene herself.
- ^ a b Kerenyi, Karl (1951) The Gods of the Greeks (pp. 19, 197). 1951.
- ^ Stefania Sorrenti, "Les représentations figurées de Jupiter Dolichénien à Rome," in La terra sigillata tardo-italica decorata del Museo nazionale romano, «L'Erma» di Bretschneider, 1999), p. 370.
- ^ a b Homeric Hymn.
- ^ Burkert, Walter (1985). Greek Religion (p. 176).
- ^ Apollonius, loc. cit.; Pausanias v.1.5.
- ^ Virgil, Georgics, iii.391.
- ^ Grimal, Pierre (1986). The Dictionary of Classical Mythology (p. 262). Oxford: Basil Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-20102-5.
- ^ Hammond, N.G.L. & Scullard, H.H. (Eds.) (1970). The Oxford Classical Dictionary (p. 625). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-869117-3.
[edit] External links
- Theoi.com: Selene Passages from Greek texts, in translation
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