Notebook

Notebook, 1993-

ANCIENT GREEK CULTURE

[From: Kyriazis, Constantine D. Eternal Greece. Translated by Harry T. Hionides. A Chat Publication.]

Asclepios - Atlas - Boreas - Charites - Cybele - Dryads - Eos - Erinyes - Eros - Gaea - Gigantes - Gorgons - Hades - Harpies - Hebe - Helios - Hermaphroditus - Hestia - Horae - Iris - Kronos - Maenads - Moirai - Muses - Naiads - Nereids - Nereus - Nymphs - Oceanides - Oceanos - Pan - Persephone - Priapus - Prometheus - Rhea - Satyrs - Seilenoi - Seilenos - Selene - Themis - Thetis - Triton - Zephyros

Selene




Selene [moon] - The daughter of Hyperion and Theia, sister of Helios and Eos, she had many amatory adventures. By her union with Zeus she begot two daughters, Nemea and Erse. The Greeks also believed that she had mated with Helios and had as offspring the Horae. The best known legend of love was with Endymion with whom she begot fifty daughters. According to one version of the story, when Endymion was accepted on Olympus, Zeus struck him with a thunderbolt because he dared look upon Hera. Yet another legend says that Endymion received permission from Zeus to select the kind of life he preferred. He thereupon chose eternal sleep without ever losing his youth. Madly in love with him, Selene would visit him in the night and stroke him gently and plant a kiss on the sleeping beauty. There is also a story involving the union of Selene with Pan. The worship of the goddess had been widespread in the Peloponnese. For this reason, before starting on a military expedition, the Spartans were wont to study the phases of the Moon. The Athenians poured abstemious libations to the goddess, of pure water. Traces of her worship which were replaced by others and eventually disappeared, were also found in the Greek colonies. [p. 54] The similarity between the quarter of the moon with the horn of a bull or cow made the Greeks visualize Selene as seated on a bull or in a chariot drawn by a ram, horse, ass, fawn, or goat. Animals sacred to the goddess were the lion, cock, honeybee, and the shrimp. Inanimate symbols associated with her were the lunar crescent, silver, gold, the horns of a bull, the disk, wheel, firebrand, the quiver, and arrows. [pp. 54-55]

[Kyriazis, Constantine D. Eternal Greece. Translated by Harry T. Hionides. A Chat Publication.]




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