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==To Do==
==To Do==
* Add Epimenides, [http://demonax.info/doku.php?id=text:epimenides_of_crete_fragments fr. 14]
⚫
Figure out Herse vs Ersa vs Erse
::14. (Endymion in heaven fell in love with Hera, and Zeus condemned him to eternal sleep).

⚫
*Figure out Herse vs Ersa vs Erse
:See [http://books.google.com/books?id=etINAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA50&dq=Ersa+Herse+Dew&hl=en&sa=X&ei=1JlbU_eMFYmvsASxooDgBQ&ved=0CDsQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Ersa%20Herse%20Dew&f=false ], [http://www.google.com/search?q=Ersa&btnG=Search+Books&tbm=bks&tbo=1#q=Herse+Selene&start=20&tbm=bks ] Gantz pp. 235–237
:See [http://books.google.com/books?id=etINAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA50&dq=Ersa+Herse+Dew&hl=en&sa=X&ei=1JlbU_eMFYmvsASxooDgBQ&ved=0CDsQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Ersa%20Herse%20Dew&f=false ], [http://www.google.com/search?q=Ersa&btnG=Search+Books&tbm=bks&tbo=1#q=Herse+Selene&start=20&tbm=bks ] Gantz pp. 235–237


Revision as of 13:06, 19 August 2015

Selene

To Do

14. (Endymion in heaven fell in love with Hera, and Zeus condemned him to eternal sleep).
  • Figure out Herse vs Ersa vs Erse
See [1], [2] Gantz pp. 235–237

Depictions

Also what to do about "In post Renaissance art ... " sentence?

Endymion

Add that he was known elsewhere as a King of Ellis? Add speculation that there were two different Endymions??

  • NEED: Page, Sappho and Alcaeus, Oxford, 1955, (pp. 273-274)
  • See also: Littleton, p. 1275
  • NEED Scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes (Coleridge, p.150–151 may reflect Scholiast? )
  • GET: Littleton, pp. 1275–1279

Old deleted text

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.[1]

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.


Her sister, Eos, is goddess of the dawn. Eos also carried off a human lover, Cephalus,[2] which mirrors a myth of Selene and Endymion.

Amber orb

Add reference to "amber orb" from Orphic Hymn to note on "golden"?

Depictions 2

"Endymion was frequently represented in art, most notably as the subject of a long poem by John Keats (1795–1821) titled Endymion. The myth of Endymion inspired many 19th century artists and is also a popular theme of modern painting and poetry.

Iconography

Sources for "post-Renaissance art"?

Add other Endymion sarcophagi Refs?

Other sources

Hard


New Text

Sources

Artemis and Hecate

"Selene was quite often equated with Artemis in post-classical times, just as Helios came to be equated with Apollo."
  • Hammond, "SELENE", pp. 970–971
"Selene was identified with Artemis, probably before the fifth century BC, perhaps because both had been identified with Hecate."
  • Morford, p. 64
"Although Apollo was, in all probability, not originally a sun-god, he came to be considered as such. ... Similarly Apollo's sister Artemis became associated with the moon, although originally she was probably not a moon-goddess. Thus Selene and Artemis merge in identity, just as Hyperian, Helius and Apollo; and Selene and Artemis are described by the adjective "bright" Phoebe (the feminine form of Phoebus).15 Therefore the lover of Endymion becomes Artemis (or Roman Diana)."
  • Morford, p. 219
"... Artemis became a goddess of the moon in classical times. As in the case of other goddesses worshipped by women (e.g., Hera), this link with the moon may be associated with the lunar cycle and women's menstrual period."
"ARTEMIS, SELENE, AND HECATE
"As a moon-goddess, Artemis is sometimes closely identified with Selene and Hecate."
  • Morford, p. 221
[Hecate] "developed a terrifying aspect; triple-faced statues depicted the three manifestations of her multiple character as a diety of the moon: Selene in heaven, Artemis on earth, and Hecate in the realm of Hades."
"In later times Selene was identified with Artemis, and the worship of the two became amalgamated (Callim. Hymn. in Dian. 114, 141 ; Soph. Oed. Tyr. 207 ; Plut. Sympos. l.c.; Catull. 34. 16; Serv. ad Aen. iv. 511, vi. 118). In works of art, however, the two divinities are usually distinguished; the face of Selene being more full and round, her figure less tall, and always clothed in a long robe; her veil forms an arch above her head, and above it there is the crescent."

"Cynthia"

  • Pannen, p. 96:
"119 Cynthis, better known as Artemis, Diana or Selene is the goddess of the moon. See A. Maxwell-Hysop/ Pierre Grimal/ Stephen Kershaw: The Penguin Dictionary of Classical Mythology (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2005). Fernand Comte: The Wordsworth Dictionary of Mythology (Ware: Wordsworth Reference, 1995), p. 52–53."

Endymion

Primary sources

"Then] the mighty strength of the god-like [Aethlius made [fair-formed vigorous Calyce] his wife; and [she bore Endymion,] dear to the blessed gods: him Zeus honored,] and he gave him exceptional gifts: he was his own dispenser of death and old age."
"how sweet love with stealth detaining Trivia beneath the Latmian crags draws her away from her airy circuit"
"And the Titanian goddess, the moon, rising from a far land, beheld her [Medea] as she fled distraught, and fiercely exulted over her, and thus spake to her own heart:
"'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. 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. Well, go on, and steel thy heart, wise though thou be, to take up thy burden of pain, fraught with many sighs.'
"Thus spake the goddess;
  • Scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes, 4.57 (Sappho, Fragment 199, Campbell, p. 197)
"The story goes that Selene comes down to this cave1 to meet Endymion. Sappho and Nicander in Europia Book 2 tell the story of the love of Selene (the Moon).
1 The cave on Mt. Latmos in Caria.
(See also: Weigal, Arthur, Sappho of Lesbos: Her Life and Times, p. 281)
"In the Great Ehoiai it is said that Endymion was carried up by Zeus to heaven, but that he was seized by desire for Hera and was deceived by the phantom of a cloud, and that because of this desire he was thrown out and went down to Hades."
"YOUTHS WHO WERE MOST HANDSOME: ... Endymion, son of Aetolus, whom Luna loved."
"near Latmus, there is to be seen the sepulchre of Endymion, in a cave."
"and naked Endymion allured the sister of Phoebus
(it is said) and lay with the naked goddess in love."
"See how the moon does her Endymion keep
In night conceal'd, and drown'd in dewy sleep."
"[Sappho to Phaon] If Cynthia, [epithet of Artemis, identified with Selene] whose eye extends over all, should chance to fix it upon you, Phaon [like Endymion] would be commanded to prolong his sleep."
  • Commentary on the Heroides of Ovid 15
"[90] Jussus erit somnos continuare Sappho refers to the story of Endymion, a beautiful shepherd. The poets feign that Cynthia loved him, and cast him into a sound sleep, that she might kiss him without restraint. What is thought to have given rise to this story was, his being the first who discovered the course of the moon."
"The Moon, like a faithful attendant to direct my way, furnished a trembling light as I traversed the flood. Regarding her with a wishful look, "Bright Goddess," I said, "favor my design, and call to mind the happy Latmian cliffs. Endymion cannot allow that you should be of an unrelenting mind; favor therefore with a friendly look these my stolen delights. You, though a Goddess, left heaven in quest of a mortal: ..."
"Calyce and Aethlius had a son Endymion who led Aeolians from Thessaly and founded Elis. But some say that he was a son of Zeus. As he was of 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.
"The radiant goddess17 of the darksome sky burned with love and, forsaking the night, gave her gleaming chariot to her brother to guide in fashion other than his own. He learned to drive the team of night and to wheel in narrower circuit, while the axle groaned beneath the car’s heavier weight; nor did the nights keep their accustomed length, and with belated dawning came the day."
"may no shepherd22 make boast o’er thee."
"Or else, looking down on thee from the starry heavens, the orb35 that was born after the old Arcadians36 will lose control of her white-shining car. And lately she blushed fiery red, though no staining cloud obscured her bright face; but we, anxious for our troubled goddess, thinking her harried by Thessalian charms, made loud jingling sounds: yet ‘twas thou37 hadst been her trouble, thou the cause of her delaying; while gazing on thee the goddess of the night checked her swift course."
"Even as the Latmian hunter, while his comrades are yet scattered in troops about the glens, rests in the summer shade, fit lover for a goddess, and soon the Moon comes with veiled horns"
"The Moon, they say, fell in love with this Endymion and bore him fifty daughters. Others with greater probability say that Endymion took a wife Asterodia—others say she was Cromia, the daughter of Itonus, the son of Amphictyon; others again, Hyperippe, the daughter of Arcas—but all agree that Endymion begat Paeon, Epeius, Aetolus, and also a daughter Eurycyda. Endymion set his sons to run a race at Olympia for the throne; Epeius won, and obtained the kingdom, and his subjects were then named Epeans for the first time."
APHRODITE
What is this I hear about you, Selene? When your car is over Caria, you stop it to gaze at Endymion sleeping hunter-fashion in the open; sometimes, they tell me, you actually get out and go down to him.
SELENE
Ah, Aphrodite, ask that son of yours; it is he must answer for it all.
APHRODITE
Well now, what a naughty boy! he gets his own mother into all sorts of scrapes;... But tell me, is Endymion handsome? That is always a comfort in our humiliation.
SELENE
Most handsome, I think, my dear; you should see him when he has spread out his cloak on the rock and is asleep; his javelins in his left hand, just slipping from his grasp, the right arm bent upwards, making a bright frame to the face, and he breathing softly in helpless slumber. Then I come noiselessly down, treading on tiptoe not to wake and startle him—but there, you know all about it; why tell you the rest? I am dying of love, that is all.
"Teucer slew Zechis, Medon's war-famed son, who dwelt in Phrygia, land of myriad flocks, below that haunted cave of fair-haired Nymphs where, as Endymion slept beside his kine, divine Selene watched him from on high, and slid from heaven to earth; for passionate love drew down the immortal stainless Queen of Night. And a memorial of her couch abides still 'neath the oaks; for mid the copses round was poured out milk of kine; and still do men marvelling behold its whiteness. 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."
"Selene, Endymion’s bed-fellow."
"... my comfort is Selene herself who felt the same for Endymion upon Latmos."
"When the Moon saw the girl following a stranger along the shore above the sea, and boiling under fiery constraint, she reproached Cypris in mocking words : `So you make war even upon your children, Cypris! Not even the fruit of your womb is spared by the goad of love! Don’t you pity the girl you bore, hardheart? What other girl can you pity then, when you drag your own child into passion?--Then you must go wandering too, my darling. Say to your mother, Paphian’s child, `Phaethon mocks you, and Selene puts me to shame.’ Harmonia, love-tormented exile, leave to Mene her bridegroom Endymion, and care for your vagrant Cadmos. Be ready to endure as much trouble as I have, and when you are weary with lovebegetting anxiety, remember lovewounded Selene.'"
"Shining Dawn carried off Orion for a bridegroom, and Selene Endymion,"
"I believe Selene bathes in the Aonian [Theban] waves on her way to Endymion’s bed on Latmos, the bed of a sleepless shepherd; but if she has prinked herself out for her sweet shepherd, what’s the use of Asopos after the Ocean stream? And if she has a body white as the snows of heaven, what mark of the Moon has she? A team of mules unbridled and a mule-cart with silver wheels are there on the beach, but Selene knows not how to put mules to her yokestrap--she drives a team of bulls!"
"... the song about the Latmian cowshed of the neversleeping herdsman, while he praised Endymion, the bride-groom of love-smitten Selene, as happy in love’s care on a neighbouring rock."
"Wise Endymion with changing bends of his fingers will calculate the three varying phases of Selene."
"Sing Selene madly in love with Endymion."
"There were the clustering blooms which have the name Narcissos the fair youth, whom horned Selene’s bridegroom Endymion begat on leafy Latmos,"
"... Selene also the driver of bulls had her Latmian Endymion who was busy about the herds of cattle;"

Secondary sources

Endymion "had incurred the anger of Zeus by becomming enamored of Hera, wherefore he was condemned to sleep forver; and the moon saw him asleep and was struck by his beauty, so that she came often to the cavern on Latmos."
"1 As to Endymion and the Moon, see Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.57ff., with the Scholiast; Paus. 5.1.4; Mythographi Graeci, ed Westermann, pp. 319ff., 324; Hyginus, Fab. 271. The present passage of Apollodorus is quoted almost verbally by Zenobius, Cent. iii.76, but as usual without mention of his authority. The eternal sleep of Endymion was proverbial. See Plat. Phaedo 72c; Macarius, Cent. iii.89; Diogenianus, Cent. iv.40; Cicero, De finibus v.20.55; compare Cicero, Tusc. Disp. i.38.92."
  • Grimal, "Selene", p. 415
"She was usually described as the lover of Endymion, the handsome shepherd by whom she supposedly had 50 daughters."
  • Grimal, "Endymion", pp. 145–146
"When Selene saw Endymion, depicted in the legend as a young shepherd of great beauty, she fell violently in love with him and seduced him. At Selene's request Zeus promised to grant Endymion one wish; he chose the gift of eternal sleep, remaining young forever. Some versions claim that it was during this sleep that Selene saw him and fell in love with him. Sometimes the Peloponnese is the location of the legend, and sometimes Caria, not far from Miletus ... Endymion is said to have given his lover fifty daughters."
  • Hammond, "SELENE", pp. 970–971
"Selene has few myths. Best known is the story of her love for Endymion which caused Zeus to cast him into an eternal sleep in a cave on Mount Latmus, where Selene visits him"
"The most famous of Selene's lovers, however was Endymion. In one version of the myth he is said to have been herding cattle when Selene took him for her lover. Most versions agree that he was in an eternal sleep inside a cave, however. In some versions the youth pursued the goddess Hera, and his eternal sleep was a punishement from Zeus, who was Hera's brother and Husband; in another version Zeus offered him the privilege of choosing how he was to die, and he selected eternal sleep; in another account Selene fell in love with Endymion and asked Zeus to give him immortality and eternal yout, so Zeus put him into an eternal sleep. Once Endymion was asleep, Selene occasionalyy visited the cave and roused him to make love. Ancient Greeks believed that when the moon was elcipsed, Selene was in the cave with Endymion."
  • Morford, p.64
"Only one famous myth is linked with Selene and that concerns her love for the handsome youth Endymion, who is usually depicted as a shepherd. On a still night, she lay down beside him in a cave on Mt. Latmus (in Caria). Night after night, she lay down beside him as he slept. There are many variants to this story, but in all the outcome is that Zeus granted Endymion perpetual sleep with perpetual youth. This may be represented as a punishment (although sometimes Endymion is given some choice) because of Selene's continual absence from her duties in the heavens, or it may be the fulfillment of Selene's own wishes for her beloved.""
"Somewhere about 200 B.C., Apollonius of Rhodes wrote a poem, called Argonautica, in which occurred the line: "So then, I am not the only woman to go off in quest of the Latmian cave," the cave, that is to say, in which the legendary Endymion slept; and against this line an ancient scholiast, or marginal commentator, has written: "The love-story of Selene (the Moon) is told by Sappho ... and there it is said that Selene comes down to Endymion in his cave."1 The famous legend is thus to be traced back to Sappho, who probably gave form to some vague folk-tale current in the Ionian lands around Mount Latmos in Asia Minor, that is to say behind the city of Miletus ..."

The sleep of Endymion

"Yet nevertheless they have always been conceived as, at all events, living, and therefore living actively, for we cannot suppose they are always asleep like Endymion.
"Endymion, indeed, if you listen to fables, slept once on a time on Latmus, a mountain of Caria, and for such a length of time that I imagine he is not as yet awake. Do you think that he is concerned at the Moon's being in difficulties, though it was by her that he was thrown into that sleep, in order that she might kiss him while sleeping."*
"in the end, you know, that would make the sleeping Endymion mere nonsense;"
"O would I were Endymion that sleeps the unchanging slumber on,"
  • Cholmeley (Commentary on Theocritus) 3.49
"ἄτροπον dist. xxiv. 7 εὕδετ᾽ ἐμὰ βρέφεα γλυκερὸν καὶ ἐγέρσιμον ὕπνον: Mosch. Epit. Bion. 117 (of sleep of death) εὕδομες εὖ μάλα μακρὸν ἀτέρμονα νήγρετον ὕπνον. Endymion loved by Selènê was thrown by her into an endless sleep that she might ever look on him and kiss him sleeping; cf. A. Pal. v. 164 (Meleager): “ ὁ δ᾽ ἐν κόλποισιν ::ἐκείνης
ῥιπτασθεὶς κείσθω δεύτερος ᾿Ενδυμίων.

50 daughters

"These 50 children are the number of lunar months between the Olympic Games, which were held every four years (as they still are today). More exactly, the interval between the Olympic Games was alternatively 49 and 50 months, showing that the festival cycle was a period of eight years divided into two halves — the precise period which reconciles the Hellenic Moon year of 354 days with the solar year of 365 1/4 days.105 ..."
"The exorbitant figure [the fifty daughters of Danaos], very popular in Greek myths, has its explanation: it is the number of seven-day weeks in one lunar year (50 x 7 = 350, the rounded number of days of a lunar year instead of the more exact 354). The proof of this is supplied by Odyss. XII: 129-130, where Helios is said to possess 7 herds of 50 cows each and 7 herds of 50 sheep each, a transparent allegory of the days and nights of the year. Selene, the Moon, also had from Endymion 50 daughters—it is the same motif. Further ..."
"They had 50 daughters who were often interpreted as the 50 lunar months of the four-year cycle that governed many of the great festivals—for example, the Olympic Games."
  • Beale, Greek Athletics and the Olympics p. 41
Note to Pausanias 6.20.9: "Endymion ... he was loved by Selene (the moon goddess), and they had 50 daughters according to Pausanias. Zeus allowed him to sleep forever while retaining his youth" (No mention of connection between the 50 daughters and the Olympics).
  • Westmorland, Ancient Greek Beliefs p. 104'
" Examples: 1. Danus, ... 2. Hecuba, ... 3. Nereus and Doris, ... 4. Selene, ... 5. Thespius, ..."
  • Heinrich Wilhelm Stoll, Handbook of the religion and mythology of the Greeks, tr. by R.B. Paul, and ed. by T.K. Arnold 1852. Francis John Rivington. p. 61
"These fifty daughters represent the fifty months which compose an Olympiad."
  • Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland, Volume 21 1889 p. 550
Other 50 daughters/ gods related to lunar years
  • Tonsing, A Celtic Invocation: Cétnad nAíse PDF pp. 5–6
"... fifty daughters are produced (possibly the number of months between the Olympic games).
"Some scholars see in these fifty daughters the fifty lunar months that composed the four-year period of an Olympiad."
  • Jebb, The Poems and Fragments p. 297
"In an old legend of Elis, the 50 lunar months of this cycle appear as fifty daughters born by Selene to Endymion"
  • Seffert, A Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, Mythology, Religion, Literature and Art, from the German of Dr. Oskar Seyffert, p. 213
""They were supposed to symbolize the fifty lunar months which intervened between Olympic games."

Pandia

"Once the Son of Cronos was joined with her in love; and she conceived and bare a daughter Pandia, exceeding lovely amongst the deathless gods."
"From Jove and Luna, Pandia."
  • West (2003), p. 19
"for this obscure figure [Pandia] featured in an Attic genealogy: she was the wife of Antiochos, the eponymous hero of the Antiochid phylē.20"
  • Kerenyi, p. 197.
... [by Zeus] a 'daughter named Pandia, "the entirely shining" or the "entirely bright"— doubtless the brightness of nights of full moon.'
"by Zeus she became the mother of Pandeia, Ersa, and Nemea (Hom. Hymn. 32. 14 ; Plut. Sympos. iii. in fin.; Schol. ad Pind. Nem. Hypoth. p. 425, ed. Böckh)"
  • Grimal, "Selene", p. 415
"She had a daughter Pandia, by Zeus, ..."
"A traditional myth in Athens recounted that Selene had a child by Zeus named Pandia. According to the genealogy of Athens, Pandia was the wife of Antiochus, a local hero who gave his name to one of the 10 Athenian tribes. Pandia was also the name of an Athenian festival held in honor of Pandia and her father Zeus.
"As for Muaeus, Orpheus says that he was her (Selene's) son, but Musaeus says of himself that he was the son of Pandia, daughter of Zeus and Selene, and 'Antiophemos'. Ion says he was "fallen from the moon".

Herse

"such as are nursed by the dew that is the daughter of Zeus and the divine Moon"
"Herse (Dew), the goddess or personification of the dew, is described as a daughter of Zeus and Selene in a lyric fragment from Alcman,145 but this is really no more than an allegorical fancy referring to the heavy dew-fall associated with clear moonlit nights".
  • Hammond, "SELENE", pp. 970–971
" ... Zeus and Selene were parents of Herse, the dew (Alcman, fr. 39 Bergk),
Alcman, Fragment 57? See Ersa.
  • Smith
"by Zeus she became the mother of Pandeia, Ersa, and Nemea (Hom. Hymn. 32. 14 ; Plut. Sympos. iii. in fin.; Schol. ad Pind. Nem. Hypoth. p. 425, ed. Böckh)"

Nemea

"Nemea, however, was not, as we should have expected, the daughter of Zeus and Hera, but the daughter of Selene and Zeus3.
"3Schol. Pind. Nem. p. 425 Boeekh. Zeus and Nemea appear together 0n the Archemoros-vase (Inghirami Vas. fitt. pl. 371). See further Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 115f."
"Nemea female/landmark god/valley 1.) the sister of Pandia, and the daughter of Selene and Zeus. 2.) A valley in Argolis, where Heracles defeated the Nemean Lion. It is also the location of the Nemean Games (held every two years in honor of Zeus).
  • Smith
"by Zeus she became the mother of Pandeia, Ersa, and Nemea (Hom. Hymn. 32. 14 ; Plut. Sympos. iii. in fin.; Schol. ad Pind. Nem. Hypoth. p. 425, ed. Böckh)"
  • Syllecta Classica - Volume 19 p. 83
"Already in the early epinician poems the nymph Nemea is invoked as the eponymous figure for the site of Nemea, although she is also identified as the daughter of Zeus and Selene, ..."
  • Graves,123c pp. 104–105
"Still others say at Hera's desire Selene created the lion from sea foam enclosed in a large ark; and that Iris, binding it with her girdle, carried it to the Nemean mountains. These were named after a daughter of Asopus, or of Zeus and Selene; and the lion's cave is still shown about two miles from the city of Nemea.3
"3. Demodocus: History of Heracles i, quoted by Plutarch: On Rivers 18; Pausanias: ii. 15. 2-3; Scholiast on the Hypothothesis of Pindar's Nemean Odes."

Nemean Lion

  • Aelian, On Animals 12. 7 (trans. Scholfield) (Greek natural history C2nd A.D.):
"They say that the Lion of Nemea fell from the moon (selene). At any rate Epimenides [C6th B.C. poet] also has these words : `For I am sprung from fair-tressed Selene the Moon, who in a fearful shudder shook off the savage lion in Nemea, and brought him forth at the bidding of Queen Hera.'"
"Scholium on Apollonius of Rhodes 1.498: This same Anaxagoras declares that the moon is a flat broad place, from which, it is supposed, the Nemean lion had fallen."
"Achilles Introduction to Aratus's Phenomena 21 p. 49–4 M: Others say that the moon is a solid flaming earth that contains fire. There are other habitations there, and there are rivers, and as many things as are on the earth. Legend says that the Nemean Lion fell from there."
"Situated nearby are the mountains Mycenae, Apesantus, Coccygium, and Athenaeum, having received their names for a reason of this sort. Formerly Apesantus was called Selenaeus. For Hera, wishing to get justice from Hercules, took Selene as a collaborator. Employing magical incantations, she filled a chest with foam, an immense lion having come to be from which, Iris, when she had bound it with her own girdle, bore down to Mount Opheltius. After it had attacked a shepherd of the regions, Apesantus, it killed him. And, according to the providence of the gods, the spot was renamed Apesantus from him, as Demodocus records in Heracleia I."
"The Nemean Lion, an invulnerable monster, which Luna [Selene] had nourished in a two-mouthed cave, he [Herakles] slew and took the pelt for defensive covering."
"Let Luna [Selene the moon] in the sky produce still other monstrous creatures. But he [Herakles] has conquered such as these [i.e. the Nemeian lion, born of the moon]."
"Again whereas Hesiod spoke of the famous Nemean lion—
Whom Hera reared, the noble wife of Zeus,
And placed on Nemea's knees, a bane to men6,—
Hyginus says 'the Nemean lion, whom the Moon had reared7.' Epimenides, in a passage quoted by Aelian, wrote:
For I too am a child of the fair-tressed Moon,
Who with dread shudder cast the monstrous lion
At Nemea, bearing him for lady Hera8.
6 Hes. theog. 328 f. ... The line was perhaps applied to Alkibiades, whom Aristophanes (ran 1431 ff.) calls a lion, after his Nemean victory (Paus. I. 22. 6f.); ...
7 Hyg. fab. 30 ...
8 Epimen. frag. 5 Kern ap. Ail. de nat. an. 12. 7.
Anaxagoras told the same tale1, and others followed suit2, so that the lion came to be called the offspring of the Moon3. These references certainly lead us to suppose that from the time of Epimenides, that is to say from about 625 B.C.4, the Argive Hera was closely connected, if not identified, with the moon. More than that it would be unsalf to maintain."
1 Anaxag. ap. schol. Ap. Rhod. I 498.
2 Herodor. frag. 9 (Frag. hist. Gr. ii. 30 Müller) ap. Tatian. ap. Iust. Mart. p. 267, Plout. de facie in orbe lunae 24, Steph. Byz. s.v. Ἀπέσς, Nigidius ap. schol. Caes. Germ. Aratea p. 393, 20 ff. Eyssenhardt.
3 ...
"Herodorus presupposes the story that Helen, who was born from an egg, had fallen from the moon;46 a similar story was told of the Nemean Lion.47 As support for his theory that the moon was an inhabited "earth," Anaxagoras cited not only the observation of a fallen meteorite, but the story of the Nemean Lion.48 The Pythagorean acusma that the sun and moon are the "Isles of the Blest" belongs in this context.49
47 Herodorus FGrHist 31F4 = Tatian 27; Epimenides DK 3B2.
48 A77. ..."
  • Gantz, p. 25
"One final reference of an odd sort comes from Epimenides Theogony, where the Lion (like Epimenides himself) is said to be sprung from (or shaken off by) Selene, probably in her role as the moon rather than the goddess."
"Or in another tradition, it was a child of the moon-goddess Selene (or at least born on the moon), and lived on the moon until Selene cast it down to the earth with a fearsome shudder at the request of Hera.46"
  • Graves,123c pp. 104–105
"Still others say at Hera's desire Selene created the lion from sea foam enclosed in a large ark; and that Iris, binding it with her girdle, carried it to the Nemean mountains. These were named after a daughter of Asopus, or of Zeus and Selene; and the lion's cave is still shown about two miles from the city of Nemea.3
"3. Demodocus: History of Heracles i, quoted by Plutarch: On Rivers 18; Pausanias: ii. 15. 2-3; Scholiast on the Hypothothesis of Pindar's Nemean Odes."
"The lion born by Selene the moon goddesss, was dropped to earth on Mount Tretus, near Nemea, by Selene, as a punishment for an unfullfilled sacrifice. Selene set the lion to prey upon her own people."
  • West (1983), pp. 47–48
"

Horae

"And seated at her [Hera's] side were handmaids four Whom radiant-faced Selene bare to the Sun To be unwearying ministers in heaven, In form and office diverse each from each; For of these Seasons one was summer's quees, And one of winter and his stromy star, Of the spring the third, of autumn-tide the fourth. So in four portions parted is man's year Ruled by these Queens in turn—but of all this Be Zeus himself overseer in heaven."
  • Hammond, "SELENE", pp. 970–971
"... and that Helius and Selene were parents of the Hours (Quint. Smyrn. 10. 337)."

Pan

"Even with such snowy bribe of wool, if ear / May trust the tale, Pan, God of Arcady, / Snared and beguiled thee, Luna, calling thee / To the deep woods; nor thou didst spurn his call."
  • Gantz, p. 36
"The other tale of Selene involves an affair with Pan. Vergil says that Pan won her favors with the gift of a sheep (G 3.391–93), but the scholia thereto make the god cover himself with a sheepskin (i.e., turn into a sheep?) and ascribe the story to Nikandros."
  • Grimal, "Selene", p. 415
"... and in Arcadia her lover was the god Pan who had given her as a present a herd of white oxen."
  • Kerenyi, p. 175
    "But Pan's greatest passion was for Selene. Of this affair it was told542 that the moon/goddess refused to company with the dark god. Whereupon Pan, to please her dressed himself in white sheep/skins, and thus seduced Selene. He even carried her on his back. It is uncertain whether even in the earliest time it was necessary for him to change his shape in order to play the role of successful lover with a goddess who repeatedly lets herself be embraced by darkness."

Musaeus

"And they produce a bushel of books of Musaeus and Orpheus, the offspring of the Moon and of the Muses, as they affirm, and these books they use in their ritual, and make not only ordinary men but states believe that there really are remissions of sins and purifications for deeds of injustice, by means of sacrifice and pleasant sport2 for the living,"
"As for Muaeus, Orpheus says that he was her (Selene's) son, but Musaeus says of himself that he was the son of Pandia, daughter of Zeus and Selene, and 'Antiophemos'. Ion says he was "fallen from the moon".
"48... Musaeus was a son of Selene (PL. Rep. 364e, Hermesianax 2.15 Diehl, etc.), ..."
"In another myth Selene was the mother of Musaeus, a legendary Greek bard. One of two legendary seers was thought to be the father, either Eumolpus or Antiphemus."

Moon chariot literary sources

"and in mid-month the full evening's eye shone brightly, the Moon on her golden chariot".
"Over what blaze, what gleam did sun and moon / Drive their chariots through the air
"So fare thee well, great Lady; to Ocean with thy team. And I, I will bear my love as best I may. Farewell sweet Lady o’ the Shining Face, and all ye starry followers in the train of drowsy Night, farewell, farewell."
"When Pallantis [Eos the Dawn] next gleams in heaven and stars flee and Luna’s [Selene the Moon’s] snow-white horses are unhitched."
"and that the signs which the brother travels through in a long year the horses of the sister traverse in a single month".
""Phoebe is wondering that her brother's steeds run lower than her own [as Phaethon attempting to drive the chariot of the sun looses control of the horses]"
"[Depicted on the doors of the palace of King Aeetes :] There iron Atlas stands in Oceanus, the wave swelling and breaking on his knees; but the god himself [Helios the Sun] on high hurries his shining steeds . . . behind with smaller wheel follows his sister [Selene the Moon] and the crowded Pleiades and the fires whose tresses are wet with dripping rain [the Hyades]."
"But now through the wide domains which Phoebus [Helios the sun], his day’s work ended, had left bare, rose the Titanian queen [Selene the moon], borne upward through a silent world, and with her dewy chariot cooled and rarefied the air; now birds and beasts are hushed, and Somnus [Hypnos, sleep] steals o’er the greedy cares of men, and stoops and beckons from the sky, shrouding a toilsome life once more in sweet oblivion."
"[The monster Typhoeus laid siege to heaven, challenging the rule of Zeus :] Many a time he [Typhoeus] took a bull at rest from his rustic plowtree and shook him with a threatening hand, bellow as he would, then shot him against Selene the Moon like another moon, and stayed her course, then rushed hissing against the goddess, checking with the bridle her bulls’ white yoke-straps, while he poured out the mortal whistle of a poison-spitting viper. But Titanis Mene [Selene] would not yield to the attack. Battling against the Gigante’s heads, like horned to hers [Selene was pictured with horns and a disc between them which formed the circle of the moon, with these she locked horns with one of Typhoeus’ bull heads], she carved many a scar on the shining orb of her bull’s horn [i.e the smooth white surface of the moon was scarred by this battle]; and Selene’s radiant cattle bellowed amazed at the gaping chasm of Typhaon’s throat."
"Some shots [of rocks from the monster Typhoeus when he was battling Zeus] went past Selene’s car, and scored through the invisible footprints of her moving bulls."
"A team of mules unbridled and a mule-cart with silver wheels are there on the beach, but Selene knows not how to put mules to her yokestrap--she drives a team of bulls!"
"[Ampelos, love of Dionysos, riding on the back of a wild bull :] He shouted boldly to the fullfaced Moon (Mene)--`Give me best, Selene, horned driver of cattle! Now I am both--I have horns and I ride a bull!’ So he called out boasting to the round Moon. Selene looked with a jealous eye through the air, to see how Ampleos rode on the murderous marauding bull. She sent him a cattlechasing gadfly; and the bull, pricked continually all over by the sharp sting, galloped away like a horse through pathless tracts . . . [it then threw him and gorged him to death]."
"O Selene, driver of the silver car!"

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 48.667 ff.

"... Selene also the driver of bulls had her Latmian Endymion who was busy about the herds of cattle;"

Literary descriptions sources

  • Aelian, On Animals 12. 7 (trans. Scholfield) (Greek natural history C2nd A.D.):
"They say that the Lion of Nemea fell from the moon (selene). At any rate Epimenides [C6th B.C. poet] also has these words : `For I am sprung from fair-tressed Selene the Moon, who in a fearful shudder shook off the savage lion in Nemea, and brought him forth at the bidding of Queen Hera.'"
[1] "τανυσίπτερον ["long-winged" (Evelyn-White)]]: the epithet seems to imply lateness of composition. There appears to be no other example of a winged Selene in literature, and the type is very uncertain in art; Roscher (Lex. ii. 3140) doubtfully identifies a winged goddess on a gem (MüllerWieseler ii. 16, 176a) as Selene-Nike. The attribution of wings to Selene is rather due to a confusion with Eos than with Nike. Even when she drives a car, Eos is regularly represented as winged."
"[6] χρυσέου: the epithet “golden” is at least as common as “silver” in classical allusions to the moon; cf. Pind. Ol.3. 20, Eur. Phoen.176, Anth. Pal. v. 15. 1, orac.ap. Jo. Lyd. p. 94, Dion. 44. 192, and other references in Roscher Lex. ii. 3130, 3136. On the “στέφανος” see ib. 3133."
"[18] Πρόφρον ["mild" (Evelyn-White)]]: here a true adjective, “benevolent”; in xxx. 18, xxxi. 17 the word is used predicatively with a verb, as in Homer (Il. 1.543 etc.)."
"In the Homeric Hymn, Selene is given wings, while in the Orphic Hymn, she has horns;"
  • Taylor, Orphic Hymns 8 (Greek hymns C3rd B.C. to 2nd A.D.):
Hear, Goddess queen, diffusing silver light, bull-horn'd and wand'ring thro' the gloom of Night.
With stars surrounded, and with circuit wide Night's torch extending, thro' the heav'ns you ride:
Female and Male with borrow'd rays you shine, and now full-orb'd, now tending to decline.
Mother of ages, fruit-producing Moon [Mene], whose amber orb makes Night's reflected noon:
Lover of horses, splendid, queen of Night, all-seeing pow'r bedeck'd with starry light.
Lover of vigilance, the foe of strife, in peace rejoicing, and a prudent life:
Fair lamp of Night, its ornament and friend, who giv'st to Nature's works their destin'd end.
Queen of the stars, all-wife Diana hail! Deck'd with a graceful robe and shining veil;
Come, blessed Goddess, prudent, starry, bright, come moony-lamp with chaste and splendid light,
Shine on these sacred rites with prosp'rous rays, and pleas'd accept thy suppliant's mystic praise.

Iconography sources

"Pausanias tells us that the Birth of Aphrodite on the base of Pheidias's Zeus at Olympia was framed by Helios (the Sun) in a chariot and Selene (the Moon) riding a horse or mule; and rough indications on a miniature copy of the Athena suggest that the creation of Pandora was similarly closed. The charioteers in the [Parthenon] pediment must be the same, unless the goddess is rather Nyx (Night) or Eos (Dawn) disappearing at the moment of sunrise"
"... On one side the Judgement of Paris is framed by Helios in his chariot rising above a hill and Selene on horseback departing"
" The gently radiant SELENE (or Selenaia, or quite often Mene in poetic usage), the goddess of the moon, could be pictured as a charioteer like her brother; no one who has seen the Parthenon marbles is likely to forget the marvellous head of one of her chariot-horses that survives among them. Some authors specify that she drives a pair rather than four like her brother, in accordance with the standard image in vase-paintings and other works of art. She is drawn by two snow-white horses or occasionally by oxen, Or in some portrayals she rides through the heavens on a horse (or steer or mule, or even a ram)" facing sideways with both legs on one flank of her mount.139" (with note 139, p. 608, saying: "The artistic record is more helpful on these matters than literary records, but see for instance Pi. Ol. 3.19–20, Ov. Fast. 4.374, Serv. Aen. 5.721".)
(Images shown of Selene riding sideways on mule (?!) surrounded by stars and crescent moon, and ram with billowing crescent veil overhead)
"[on the North Metopes] The main narrative was set between two metopes giving a cosmic setting (a common Parthenon motif): north 1 represented Helios rising in his chariot, north 29 showed Selene plunging below the horizon on horseback"
"On the painted vases the more usual representations of Selene show her riding sidewards on horseback,"
"Returning to the general scheme of the east pediment, we observe that Selene in the right angle has of late been called Night. The argument is that Selene, in the time of Pheidias, had no chariot, but rode on a horse or a mule. On the base of Zeus at Olympia, Pausanias (v. II, 3) speaks of her having only one horse, and on certain contemporary vases she appears riding a horse or mule"
  • Hammond, "SELENE", pp. 970–971
"...or she rides on a horse or mule or ox".
"The personified form of Selene appears in literature and art no later than that of the sun god, and is always mentioned in connection with her brightness. Her radiance is concentrated in her face in the Homeric Hymn to Selene 3–4 and embraces earth; it is enhanced by her contrast to the dark nocturnal sky. Her golden crown is specifically mentioned in the Hymn (5), together with her white arms (17) and a shining team of horses for her chariot which also appear in art from the early fifth century BC. Alternatively she rides a horse or mule among other celestial divinities such as Helios, Nyx and Eos. The abstract aspect of Selene's brightness is also pronounced in the Hymn (11-12) with regard to her waxing and waning, which are said to be useful signs to mortals (13). It also appears in art as a nimbus-like headdress of the goddess or next to her, while torches are not uncommon attributes of Selene from Hellenistic times onward."
"Horses form part of her [Eos] image in art as in the case of Helios, Nyx and Selene. In this respect, comparison may be made to non-celestial divinities whose image is associated with both light and horses in art and literature. ... The role of the horse in connection with divinities who incarnate or bear light is not clear. Could this be ... Further associations between celestial personifications and animals include bulls, possibly due ..."
"[Amongst the illustrations on the throne of Zeus at Olympia ] Selene (the Moon) is driving what I think is a horse. Some have said the that steed of the goddess is a mule and not a horse, and they tell a silly story about the mule."
"In visual representations, Selene appears with her attribute, the moon, or in company with Eos and Helios. In the Homeric Hymn, Selene is given wings, while in the Orphic Hymn she has horns; in art she is usually depicted with a crescent moon crowning her head but without wings. In antiquity, she appears on various media: reliefs, vase paintings, gems, and coins. Selene also appears on the Pergamon Altar in a scene representing the Gigantomachy. In an Attic red-figure kylix krater [Blacas Krater] from ca. 430 B.C.E. (British Museum, London), Selene is shown in company with her siblings. Here, Helios drives a four-horse chariot, and Eos pursues the hunter Cephalus on foot, while Selene rides on horseback."
"... just as Helios has his solar disc, so Selene has her moon. Sometimes, as in the Berlin kylix (fig. 2), this takes the form of a disc placed on the head of the goddess, like that above Helios, only it does not radiate;3 sometimes it is a profile female head, enclosed in a circle,4 probably an allusion to the full moon;5 the commonest sign is however the characteristic crescent moon, a sign which in the best period is always placed beside Selene, and generally between two stars,6 while later artists place it on her head. It is obvious that by this time the realistic representation of the phenomenon has gradually lost itself in the symbol; in earlier work, such as our vase, instead of the crescent, the goddess wears a golden diadem from which dart effulgent rays.1
"There are as well known two classic types of Selene, one on horseback the other in a chariot; the former was the favourite type in the fifth century, and it is well known that Pheidias used it on the bathron of Zeus at Olympia. Up to a very recent period it was supposed that it was the only one recognized by the master, and that in the Parthenon pediment also Selene was on horseback, but recent investigations show that she, like Helios at the other end,2 was in a chariot drawn by four horses. This does not in my opinion3 necessitate a renaming of the group, for the idea of Selene journeying in a chariot is of fairly ancient date.4 Judging from the monuments of all periods of ancient art it appears to be the more popular of the two, and if the riding type was more common in the fifth century it did not entirely oust it from public favour. A proof of this is to be found in the Berlin kylix to which we have already had occassion to refer, in a red-figured vase of severe style from Cuma,5 and in the Athenian vase under discussion, which is but little removed from the Parthenon marbles in point of date, and in point of composition recalls the chariot groups on the frieze"
"Selene, the Moon, appears in many of the scenes already described under Helios, as on the Blacas krater. She is depicted under two types, either on horseback,2 or driving a chariot like Helios,3 both as a single figure and in scenes; and she is sometimes characterized by the lunar disc or crescent. Besides the scenes already referred to, she appears on horseback at the birth of Dionysos4 and at the pursuit of Medeia by Jason5. The magic arts used by Thessalian witches to draw down the moon from heaven are also the subject to vase-painting,6 where two women essay to perform this feat by means of a rope, addressing her, "O Lady Moon!"

Berlin Gigantomachy cup (c. 490–485 BC)

"... Selene tondo inside the Brygos Painter's Gigantomachy cup in Berlin of ca. 490–485 B.C. ... Selene, with outlined moon disk shimmering over her head, plunges her frontal chariot pulled by winged horses into the sea."
"The Selene tondo is the first depiction of the moon goddess as a fully embodied being shown in the context of a broader image. Earlier in red-figure, Selene is shown only as a profile head or bust upon the reserved moon disk itself. Gesturing with one outlined hand raised before her outline profile face, Selene appears on a reserved moon disk under the B/A handle of the Parade cup in Berlin (fig. 6) [c. 500 BC] with the potter-signiture of Sosias.48 Shown with a frontal eye and outlined lips, the goddess wears a disk earring with two pendants; her black hair is bound by a reserved fillet. A similar outline image of Selene appears against a moon disk on the tondo of a cup in Bonn from the early fifth century ..."
""In the Brygos Painter's daring composition on the cup's tondo, the moon goddess, Selene descends into the sea, her chariot drawn by two winged horses toward the viewer (fig. 47.3). The moon's descent places the god's victory in the Gigantomachy at the dawn of a new day. A similar cosmological framework recurs in the iconographic program of the Parthenon. This is the earliest preserved Greek depiction of Selene in her chariot, ... Stars twinkle on both sides of Selene's sakkos-covered head. ... The shaded moon disk floating directly above Selene's profile head, ..."
(Image)

Mixing urn, Athens, National Museum (2nd half of 5th century)

"23. Selene has mounted her two wheeled chariot, and is steering the winged pair of horses across the sea with a thorny stick for whip. Hermes goes before the horses, there is a new moon and a star;"
"Selene, goddess of the moon, driving across the sea. Mixing urn in Athens, Nat. Mus., second half of 5th century."

Temple of Apollo at Delphi?

  • Waldstein, (1885a) The Nineteenth Century, Volume 17, p. 671
  • Waldstein, (1885b) Essays on the art of Pheidias, p. 176
  • Pausanias 10.19.4

Horns

[The moon goddess Inanna] "'Crowned with great horns', she 'flares' in the sky at night. We are to imagine the goddess as the heavens, with the horns of the Crescent Moon as a crown upon her head, ..."
"Hathor, the Egyptian cow goddess with crescent horns, whose great belly was the heavens and whose four legs sttod upon the Earth as the pillars of the universe, was also in her nightly aspect the Moon.9
? [Get book page from library!]
"In early thinking, however, the sharp horns of a bull or cow were seen to match the pointed curve of the waxing and waning crescents so exactly that the powers of the one were attributed to the other, each gaining the other's potency as well as their own. ..."
  • "She is sometimes portrayed with horns to symbolize the crescent moon." p. 67
  • "horns representing the crescent moon" (p. 597)

Endymion Sarcophagus

  • Living with Myths: The Imagery of Roman Sarcohagi, p. 96
  • Hell and Its Afterlife, p. 16
"The popularity of this myth on sarcophagi is evidenced by the 120 extant examples, as Sorabella notes, p. 70"
  • Hell and Its Afterlife p. 18
"On one end of the Endymion sarcophagus, the Sun god Helios drives his chariot over the reclining personification of the Ocean, while on the other end the Moon goddess Selene rides over the female figure of the Earth (both not pictured)."
[Describing The Endymion Sarcophagus] " .. her veil billows over her head like a crescent-shaped moon, which when combined with the drapery of her dress, also forms the outline of the full moon"
  • Facing the Gods: Epiphany and Representation in Graeco-Roman Art, Literature and Religion, [4]

Images

On Wikipedeia

From Personification In The Greek World: From Antiquity To Byzantium p. 34

  • Karusu 1984 910-15 nos 18-73
  • Gury 1994, 706-15

Horseback

Blacas krater illustration

Ram

  • Vase? ram, torch, billowing veil: Hansen, p. 221

Helios

"Horns"

Crescent behind shoulders

Crescent, disk, stars

Helios and Eos

Blacas krater illustration

Driving horses

Driving bulls

Driving mules

Billowing veil

Torch

Sarcophagus

Other

Notes

  1. ^ Apollonius, loc. cit.; Pausanias v.1.5.
  2. ^ Burkert, Walter (1985). Greek Religion (p. 176).
  3. ^ Metropolitan Museum of Art, Endymion sarcophagus acc. no. 24.97.13
  4. ^ British Museum, east pediment horse head
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