Selene, also sometimes called Mene and known as Luna by the Romans, was the Greek goddess of the moon. While several Greek goddesses were associated with the moon, Selene was considered the personification of the moon itself. She was imagined as riding a chariot across the sky each night, illuminating the sky above the mortal world and above the wide heavens of the deathless god (according to Hesiod).
Selene in the Greek Pantheon
The Greeks had an expansive pantheon of deities, many of which were related to one another. But there are often multiple versions for how the gods were related to one another.
Most accounts suggest that Selene was the child of the titans Hyperion and Theia, and was the sister of Helios, the personification of the sun, and Eos, the personification of the dawn.
Other accounts exist of her parentage. For example, another hymn suggests that she was the daughter of an unknown Pallas, the son of Megamedes. In one account, Euripides suggests that she is the daughter rather than the sister of Helios. Aeschylus suggests that she is the daughter of Leto, presumably with Zeus. Virgil calls her the daughter of Latona, and in his play The Phoenician Women, Euripides suggests she is the son of Zeus and Leto. This suggests that he is associating Selene with Artemis, a goddess of the hunt and the forest who was also associated with the moon. Selene and Helios were often, in later times, associated with the children of Zeus and Leto, Artemis and Apollo.
Mother of Gods
Playing her role in the Greek pantheon family tree, Selene was also reportedly the mother of several deities.
With Zeus, she is said to have given birth to Pandia, whose name means “all brightness.” Era, whose name means “dew,” and Nemea, one of the nymphs. With her brother Helios she was reportedly the mother of the Horae, who were the personifications of the four seasons. Nonnius suggests that she was the mother of Narcissus, but alternative parentage for him exists elsewhere in Greek myth. She may also have been the mother of the poet Musaeus.
The geographer Pausanias suggests that she was the mother of 50 daughters with her lover Endymion, who represented the 50 lunar months of the Olympiad. The sources suggest that she was madly passionate for Endymion, whom she could not be with because he was trapped in an internal sleep. It is nowhere clear how exactly this situation occurred, but it is implied that it is due to his love for Selene, or her love for him, that he must sleep.
Role in Mythology
While Selene is conspicuously absent from the Iliad, she appears in a few of the important stories of Greek mythology, especially the Gigantomachy. This starts with the birth of Heracles, who is destined to help the gods defeat the giants. Zeus wanted to lay with Heracles’ mother, the princess Alcmene, for an extended period. So via Hermes, he tells Selene to take her time in the night sky, and he is able to stay with her for three days of continuous night. Some passages in surviving myths also imply that Selene was involved with the birth and rearing of Heracles, but there are no details.
Later, when Gaia decides to set the giants against the Olympian gods, she learns of an herb that will make her side invincible. Zeus learns about this as well and tells Helios, Selene, and Eos not to shine so that Gaia and her followers can not harvest the herbs. The three are depicted fighting in the Gigantomachy on the Pergamum Altar, suggesting that their role was considered common knowledge.
Some accounts suggest that during the war Typhon attacked Selene, initially hurling bulls at her, but she is able to hold her course. He then attacks her as a hissing serpent and the two lock horns. While she again remains on course, this leaves her with scars on her moon orb that are still visible.
Appearance and Attributes
Selene is the subject of one of the 33 Homeric hymns to the gods, which provides a good description of Selene. She is described as “long-winged,” suggesting she was one of the many winged Greek goddesses. It also says that radiance shines from a crown on her immortal head. In most depictions, Selene either appears with a full moon around her head as a kind of halo, or with a crescent moon headpiece that looks like horns. Later accounts also describe her as having the horns of a bull.
The hymn also describes her as commanding a team of long-maned horses. She is usually depicted in a chariot pulled by two horses, while her brother Helios has a four-horse chariot. In most cases, her chariot is silver while his is gold. But her chariot is also sometimes pulled by other animals, for example, bulls or oxen.
She is described as “white-armed” and “bright-tressed” who shines brightest in the middle of the month, presumably when the moon is full.
Selene in Magic
As well as being associated with Artemis, Selene was often associated with Hecate, a goddess of the moon and magic. Selene was also considered linked to magic. First, it was believed that lunar eclipses were caused by witches, who brought bad luck upon themselves through this act. This is where the Greek proverb “You are bringing the moon down on yourself” came from.
Selene was also invoked in love magic. While this is referenced several times in the surviving sources, the most detail is given by Theocritus in his Idylls. It describes a girl casting a fire spell on a neglectful lover, invoking Selene and telling her of her problems. She uses an altar with a statue of Hecate on which she burns successively barley meal, bay leaves, a waxen puppet, and some bran. Next, the coming of the Goddess is heralded by the distant barking of dogs, so the girl pours a libation and starts her prayer.
The invocation could be translated as follows:
So shine me fair, sweet Selene; for to thee, still goddess, is my song, to thee and that Hecate infernal who makes e’en the whelps to shiver on her goings to and fro where these tombs be and the red blood lies. All hail to thee, dread and awful Hecate! I prithee so bear me company that this medicine of my making prove potent as any of Circe’s or Medea’s or Perimed’s of the golden hair.
Wryneck, wryneck, draw him hither.
The full text is available here.
Selene and the moon was also associated with physical growth, menstruation, sickness, and demonic possession by the Greeks.
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