Selene

Selene is the Greek goddess of the Moon, a daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia and the sister of Helios, the Sun, and Eos, the Dawn. Ancient poets pictured her driving a team of horses across the night sky. Her best-known story is her love for the sleeping Endymion.

Family and Celestial Kinship

Hesiod says that Theia, overcome in love by Hyperion, bore great Helios, bright Selene and Eos, who shines on all who live on earth and on the immortal gods (Theogony 371–374; Apollodorus, Library 1.2.2). Sun, Moon and Dawn are thus three siblings of one Titan household. One poet gives her different parents: the Homeric Hymn to Hermes calls the Moon “Selene, the daughter of lord Pallas, son of Megamedes” (Hymn to Hermes 99–100). The Homeric Hymn to Helios names the mother of the three Euryphaessa, the sister and wife of Hyperion (Homeric Hymn 31.4–7).

Selene’s Role and Symbolism

The Homeric Hymn to Selene describes the goddess bathing in the stream of Ocean, putting on shining clothes and yoking her team of long-maned horses. She drives them swiftly in the evening, and at mid-month, when her orbit is full, her light is at its brightest. The hymn calls her white-armed and bright-tressed, and says her golden crown lights the air and that she is a sign and token for mortals (Homeric Hymn 32.1–13, 17–18).

Pausanias saw the Moon among the gods carved on the pedestal of the throne of Zeus at Olympia, driving what he took to be a horse, though some said her mount was a mule (Pausanias 5.11.8). In the market-place of Elis there were stone images of the Sun and the Moon, with horns projecting from the head of the Moon (Pausanias 6.24.6).

The Moon also has a small part in the war of the gods against the Giants. When Earth sought a herb that would keep the Giants from being destroyed, Zeus forbade Dawn, the Moon and the Sun to shine, and cut the herb himself before anyone else could find it (Apollodorus, Library 1.6.1).

Selene and Endymion

Endymion, the son of Aethlius (or, some said, of Zeus), led Aeolians from Thessaly and founded Elis. He was so beautiful that the Moon fell in love with him. Zeus allowed him to choose what he wished, and he chose to sleep for ever, remaining deathless and ageless (Apollodorus, Library 1.7.5). Apollonius of Rhodes places the story in a cave on Mount Latmus, where Selene, called Mene, goes to the sleeping Endymion (Argonautica 4.54–58), and Strabo says that his tomb was shown in a cave near Latmus in Caria (Geography 14.1.8).

Selene’s Offspring

The Homeric Hymn to Selene says that the son of Cronos, Zeus, once joined her in love and that she bore a daughter, Pandia, outstanding in beauty among the immortals (Homeric Hymn 32.14–16). Pausanias says that the Moon fell in love with Endymion and bore him fifty daughters, although he adds that others, with more probability, gave Endymion a human wife and the sons Paeon, Epeius and Aetolus and a daughter Eurycyda (Pausanias 5.1.4). Virgil mentions a further story: Pan, the god of Arcadia, won the Moon by the gift of a fleece of white wool and called her into the deep woods, and she did not refuse (Georgics 3.391–393).

Selene Sources

Hesiod, Theogony 371–374; Homeric Hymn 32 to Selene; Homeric Hymn 31 to Helios 4–7; Homeric Hymn to Hermes 99–100; Apollodorus, Library 1.2.2, 1.6.1 and 1.7.5; Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 4.54–58; Strabo, Geography 14.1.8; Pausanias 5.1.4, 5.11.8 and 6.24.6; Virgil, Georgics 3.391–393.

See Also: Titans, Hyperion, Theia, Helios, Eos, Artemis, Hecate, Endymion, Zeus, Pan