Selene

Roman: Luna

Greek

Moon Night

Selene and Endymion by Sebastiano Ricci
Selene and Endymion Sebastiano Ricci, c. 1713 Chiswick House, London Selene, the Moon, comes down from the sky to her sleeping lover Endymion. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The goddess who is the Moon itself, daughter of two Titans, who drives her chariot across the night sky.

In Hesiod's Theogony, Selene is the daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia and sister of Helios (the Sun) and Eos (the Dawn). The Homeric Hymn to Selene describes her driving her chariot across the heavens. In later tradition, from Sappho on, she fell in love with the shepherd Endymion, who was granted an eternal, ageless sleep.

Symbols

Crescent moon Chariot and horses

In the ancient sources
Homer: the Iliad and the Odyssey
  • Iliad 8.553–555 The Trojan watch-fires are compared to stars shining around the gleaming moon on a windless night.
  • Iliad 18.483–484 Hephaestus works the moon at the full into Achilles' shield, with the earth, sea, sun and stars.

In the Iliad and the Odyssey the moon is only a light in the sky, never a goddess. Selene as a goddess comes from Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns.

Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns
tanysipteros
“long-winged” Homeric Hymn to Selene 32.1
  • Theogony 371–374 Theia bears Hyperion's children: great Helios (the Sun), clear Selene (the Moon) and Eos (the Dawn).
  • Homeric Hymn to Selene (32) She bathes in the Ocean, puts on shining robes and drives her long-maned horses out at evening, full and brightest at mid-month.
  • Homeric Hymn to Selene (32) Zeus lies with her, and she bears a daughter, Pandia, lovely among the gods.

Her parents differ between sources: Theia in Hesiod, Euryphaessa in the Hymn to Helios, and Pallas in the Hymn to Hermes. The Endymion story first appears in Sappho.

Cross-checked against these texts and records, in public-domain or freely available versions where they exist. Line, section and chapter numbers follow the standard editions, so a particular translation may differ slightly.

Correspondences Explore all
Planet
Moon
Moon phase
Full moon
Day
Monday
Colors
Silver, White
Animals
Horses
Tarot
The Moon

These mix ancient attributes with modern associations from contemporary pagan and magical practice; the modern ones weren't part of her original worship.

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