In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Selene (; )A Greek–English Lexicon s.v. σελήνη. is the goddess and personification of the Moon. Also known as Mene (; ), she is traditionally the daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia, and sister of the sun god Helios and the dawn goddess Eos. She drives her moon chariot across the heavens. Several lovers are attributed to her in various myths, including Zeus, Pan, her brother Helios, and the mortal Endymion. In post-classical times, Selene was often identified with Artemis, much as her brother, Helios, was identified with Apollo.Hard, p. 46; Oxford Classical Dictionary, s.v. Selene; Morford, pp. 64, 219–220; Smith, s.v. Selene. 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.Smith, s.v. Selene; Kerényi, pp. 196–197; Oxford Classical Dictionary, s.v. Selene; Hard, p. 43; Morford, pp. 64, 219–221.
Her equivalent in Roman religion and mythology is the goddess Luna.Smith, s.v. Selene; Hard, p. 43.
Etymology and origins Names The name "Selene" is derived from the Greek noun selas (), meaning "light, brightness, gleam".Athanassakis and Wolkow, p. 90, on lines 1–2; Kerényi, pp. 196–197; Keightley, p. 56. In the Doric and Aeolic dialects, her name was also spelled (Selána) and (Selánna) respectively.
Selene was also called Mene.Hard, p. 46; Oxford Classical Dictionary, s.v. Selene; Smith, s.v. Selene. The Greek word mene, meant the moon, and the lunar month.Athanassakis and Wolkow, pp. 90, on lines 1–2, 91, on line 5; Kerényi, p. 197. Athanassakis and Wolkow speculate that Selene's name 'might have developed as a euphemism for the moon proper (Greek "mēnē")'. The masculine form of mene (men) was also the name of the Phrygian moon-god Men.Oxford Classical Dictionary, s.v. Selene; Kerényi, p. 197. Mene and Men both derive from Proto-Hellenic *méns ("month"), itself from Proto-Indo-European *mḗh₁n̥s (meaning moon, the lunar month), which probably comes from the root *meh₁- ("to measure"), and is cognate with the English words "Moon" and "month".Beekes, p. 945. The Greek Stoic philosopher Chrysippus interpreted Selene and Men as, respectively, the female and male aspects of the same god.Obbink 2002, p. 200.
Although no clear attestation for Selene herself has been discovered, in Mycenaean Greek the word for month 'men' has been found in Linear B spelled as (me-no, from genitive form , mēnós).
Just as Helios, from his identification with Apollo, is called Phoebus ("bright"), Selene, from her identification with Artemis, is also called Phoebe (feminine form).Morford, p. 64; Smith, s.v. Selene. Phoebe was also the name of Selene's aunt, the Titan mother of Leto and Asteria, and grandmother of Apollo, Artemis, and Hecate. Also from Artemis, Selene was sometimes called "Cynthia", meaning "she of Mount Cynthus" (the birthplace of Artemis).Pannen, p. 96. For example see Ovid, Heroides 18.59–74. The English Romantic poet John Keats calls Selene Cynthia in his poem Endymion.
Origin Selene, along with her brother, her sister and the sky-god Zeus, is one of the few Greek deities of a clear Proto-Indo-European origin, although they were sidelined by later non-PIE newcomers to the pantheon, as remaining on the sidelines became their primary function, to be the minor deities the major ones were juxtaposed to, thus helping keep the Greek religion Greek.
The original PIE moon deity has been reconstructed as *Meh₁not (from which 'Mene', Selene's byname, is derived), and it appears that it was a male god. The Greek offshoot of this deity however is female. The ancient Greek language had three grammatical genders (masculine, feminine and neuter), so when a god or a goddess personified an object or a concept, they inherited the gender of the corresponding noun; selene, the Greek noun for 'Moon', is a feminine one (whereas men is a masculine one), so the deity embodying it is also by necessity female.Hansen 2004, p. 27 In PIE mythology, the Moon, which is a male figure, was seen as forming a pair—usually wedlock—with the Sun, which is a female figure, and which in Greek mythology is recognized in the male deity and Selene's brother Helios. It seems however that unlike the Dawn (Eos) and the Sun (Helios), the Moon had very little importance in PIE mythology.
Although attempts have been made to connect Selene to Helen of Troy due to the similarity of their names, in two early dedications to Helen from Laconia her name is spelled with a digamma (), ruling out any possible connection between them. 'Helen' is more likely related to 'Helios' instead, and it seems that the two figures stem from a common Proto-Indo-European ancestor, the Sun Maiden.
Descriptions
Surviving descriptions of Selene's physical appearance and character, apart from those which would apply to the Moon itself, are scant. There is no mention of Selene as a goddess in either the Iliad or the Odyssey of Homer,Stoll, p. 61. while her only mention in Hesiod's Theogony is as the daughter of Hyperion and Theia, and sister of Helios and Eos.Hesiod, Theogony 371–374. She was, however, the subject of one of the thirty-three Homeric Hymns, which gives the following description:
Two other sources also mention her hair. The Homeric Hymn to Helios uses the same epithet εὐπλόκαμος ("bright-tressed"), used in the above Hymn to Selene (elsewhere translated as "rich-", "lovely-", or "well-tressed"),Homeric Hymn to Helios (31) 6 (Evelyn-White: "rich-tressed"; West 2003: "lovely-tressed"), Homeric Hymn to Selene, (32) 18 (West 2003: "lovely-tressed"; Keightley, pp. 55–56: "well-tressed"). Keightley, describes εὐπλόκαμος, along with λευκώλενος also used in the Hymn to Selene, "white-armed", as being two of the "usual epithets of the goddesses". while Epimenides uses the epithet ἠυκόμοιο ("lovely-haired").Aelian, On Animals, 12.7 [= Epimenides fr. 3B2 Diels = fr. 2 Freeman (Online version at Demonax | Hellenic Library ; A Greek–English Lexicon s.v. εὔκομος.
In late accounts, Selene (like the Moon itself) is often described as having horns.For a horned Selene see for example: Seneca, Medea 98, Phaedra 419; Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica 8.29; Quintus Smyrnaeus, The Fall of Troy 1.147–149; Nonnus, Dionysiaca 1.221, 5.163, 11.186, 48.583. For a horned moon see, for example: Ovid, Metamorphoses 7.179–180; Aratus, Phaenomena 733; Virgil, Georgics 1.436; Statius, Thebaid 12.1–3; Tryphiodorus, The Taking of Ilios 514–519. The Orphic Hymn to Selene addresses her as "O bull-horned Moon", and further describes her as "torch-bearing, ... feminine and masculine, ... lover of horses," and grantor of "fulfillment and favor".Orphic Hymn to Selene (Athanassakis and Wolkow, p. 11). Empedocles, Euripides and Nonnus all describe her as γλαυκῶπις (glaukṓpis, "bright-eyed", a common epithet of the goddess Athena)Keightley, p. 56; Plutarch, Moralia 929 C–D (Concerning the Face Which Appears in the Orb of the Moon 16) [= Empedocles fr. D132 Laks-Most = fr. B42 Diels-Kranz], 934 D (Concerning the Face Which Appears in the Orb of the Moon 21); Euripides fr. 1009 [= Scholia on Apollonius of Rhodes' Argonautica 1.1280–1281]; Nonnus, Dionysiaca 5.70. while in a fragment from a poem, possibly written by Pamprepius, she is called κυανῶπις (kyanṓpis, "dark-eyed").Select Papyri 3.140 Page, pp. 566, 567. Mesomedes of Crete calls her γλαυκὰ (glaukà, "silvery grey").Mesomedes, Hymn to the Sun 15 (Psaroudakes, p. 122).
Family Parents
The usual account of Selene's origin is given by Hesiod in his Theogony, where the sun-god Hyperion espoused his sister Theia, who gave birth to "great Helios and clear Selene and Eos who shines upon all that are on earth and upon the deathless Gods who live in the wide heaven".Hard, p. 43; Hesiod, Theogony 371–374. See also Apollodorus 1.2.2, Hyginus, Fabulae Preface 12. The Homeric Hymn to Helios follows this tradition: "Hyperion wedded glorious Euryphaëssa, his own sister, who bare him lovely children, rosy-armed Eos and rich-tressed Selene and tireless Helios",Hard, p. 46; Homeric Hymn to Helios (31) 4–7. Assuming that their order of mention is meant to be their order of birth, Hesiod and Hyginus (Fabulae Preface 12) make Helios the oldest of the siblings, with Eos the youngest, while the Hymn swaps the order of Eos and Helios, and Apollodorus (1.2.2) has Selene as the youngest, with Eos as the oldest. with Euryphaëssa ("widely shining") probably being an epithet of Theia.Morford, p. 61; West 2003, p. 215 n. 61. However, the Homeric Hymn to Hermes has Selene as the daughter of Pallas, the son of an otherwise unknown Megamedes.Vergados, p. 313; Hard, p. 46; Gantz, p. 34; Homeric Hymn to Hermes (4), 99–100. 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.Vergados, p. 313; Hard, p. 46; Hesiod, Theogony 375–377. As Vergados points out, there is no indication of this genealogy elsewhere in Greek texts, however for Ovid, Aurora (Dawn), the Roman counterpart of Selene's sister Eos, was the daughter of Pallas, see Fasti 4.373–374, Metamorphoses 9.421, 15.191, 15.700. Other accounts give still other parents for Selene: Euripides has Selene as the daughter of Helios (rather than sister),Hard, p. 46; Keightley, p. 54 with n. 9; Euripides, The Phoenician Women 175–176 (with scholia); so also Nonnus, Dionysiaca 5.162–166, 44.191; Scholia on Aratus 445. Keightley quotes the Euripides scholiast as saying that Aeschylus (and others) said that Selene is Helios' daughter "because she partakes of the solar light, and changes her form according to the solar positions". while an Aeschylus fragment possibly has Selene as the daughter of Leto,Hard, p. 46, Gantz, pp. 34–35; Aeschylus fr. 170 Sommerstein [= fr. 170 Radt, Nauck]. as does a scholium on Euripides's play The Phoenician Women which adds Zeus as the father.Smith, s.v. Selene; Scholia on Euripides' The Phoenician Women 179. Furthermore, in Virgil's Aeneid, when Nisus calls upon Selene/the Moon, he addresses her as "daughter of Latona."Virgil, Aeneid 9.404.
Offspring According to the Homeric Hymn to Selene, the goddess bore Zeus a daughter, Pandia ("All-brightness"),Fairbanks, p. 162. "exceeding lovely amongst the deathless gods".Hard, p. 46; Gantz, p. 34; Homeric Hymn to Selene (32) 15–16; so also Hyginus, Fabulae Preface 28. Allen, "ΠανδείηΝ", says that Pandia, "elsewhere unknown as a daughter of Selene ... seems to be merely an abstraction of the moon herself". Cook p. 732 says that it seems probable that, instead of being her daughter, "Pandia was originally an epithet of Selene". Either Selene or her daughter may have been connected to the Athenian festival Pandia. The 7th century BC Greek poet Alcman makes Ersa ("Dew") the daughter of Selene and Zeus.Hard, p. 46; ní Mheallaigh, p. 26; Keightley, p. 55; Alcman fr. 57 Campbell [= Plutarch, Moralia, 659 B = fr. 48 Bergk = fr. 43 Diehl] (see also Plutarch, Moralia 918 A, 940 A). According to Hard, "this is really no more than an allegorical fancy referring to the heavy dew-fall associated with clear moonlit nights". 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.Cook, p. 456; Smith, s.v. Selene; Pausanias, 2.15.3 has Asopus as the father of Nemea, with no mention of a mother.