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Mythology of Sailormoon

Who is Selene?

The lovely Greek goddess Selene rides across the evening sky aboard a silver chariot led by two magnificent white steeds. Selene, this bright and clear Titanian goddess, who shines down with soft light and bathes her lovely body in the waters of the Ocean, is the Moon. She resembles a young woman with an extremely white face who travels on a silver chariot drawn by two horses. From this perch, Selene leaves streams of light along her path, thus illuminating Earth with her presence. Her hair and robe whip in the wind as she eagerly rides the celestial currents. Selene is sometimes depicted with wings and a golden diadem with a crescent moon. She takes her position as the orb in the night sky after her brother Helios, the sun god, completes his daily journey. Selene is the daughter of the Titan Hyperion and the goddess Theia, and thus she inherited a divine position in the skies.

She was not one of the twelve great gods on Olympus, however she is the moon goddess and also a tutelary deity of magicians. She was one of the deities of light during dynasty of the Titans. Selene was born twin sister to Helios (sun) and Eos (dawn). Selene represents the full moon face of the lunar cycle along with Artemis (the crescent moon) and Hecate (the waning moon).

She was involved in many love affairs, so she bore Zeus two daughters, Pandia and Erso, another one of her lovers was Pan who gave her a herd of white oxen. But her one true love was the young, handsome King of Elis, Endymion.

Who is Endymion?

In different variations of the legend Endymion was either the king of Elis, a hunter, or a a beautiful shepherd boy of Mount Latmus, near Milete, in Asia Minor. Yet another myth connects the story to Mount Lamos in Caria - where Selene found Endymion asleep in a cave.

The story of Endymion has a peculiar charm from the human meaning which it so thinly veils. We see in Endymion the young poet, his fancy and his heart seeking in vain for that which can satisfy them, finding his favourite hour in the quiet moonlight, and nursing there beneath the beams of the bright and silent witness the melancholy and the ardour which consume him. The story suggests aspiring and poetic love, a life spent more in dreams than in reality, and an early and welcome death.

The Legend of Selene and Endymion:

One calm, clear night Selene, the eternally beautiful goddess of the Moon, saw a beautiful young shepherd named Endymion asleep in a cave of Mount Latmus. As she studied him more, Selene was immediately attracted to him. The cold heart of the virgin goddess was warmed by his surpassing beauty, and she fell madly in love with him, neglecting her duties in order to kiss him, watch over him, and lie beside him as he slept. She kissed his eyes and continued the acts with him in his dreams. Selene visited Endymion every night and kissed him with her rays of light.

The dreams left Endymion's waking world unappealing. The days became unbearable for him, he always waited for night. As a mortal, Endymion was subject to the fate that we all share - aging and eventual death. However, the Greek gods and goddesses did not age and die. Instead, the gods of Greece remained young and beautiful for all time. The relationship between Endymion and Selene, therefore, faced some serious problems.

Wishing to be with him for always but remembering the fate of Tithonis, a prince loved by Eos, she went to Zeus and begged Zeus to grant him eternal life so she might be able to embrace him forever. Endymion was allowed to choose what he would, and wished to have the ability to sleep forever with open eyes so that he will never age and retain his good looks for all time, remaining deathless and ageless, living in the eternal happiness with Selene in his dreams. Zeus granted his wish. (In another legend, the perpetual sleep was a punishment inflicted by Zeus for having dared to fall in love with Zeus's consort, Hera.)

Another version of the myth says that Selene asked Hypnos, the personification of sleep in Greek mythology to let Endymion sleep forever. That is a rather special twist, because Hypnos, according to Homer and some of the others, is the sibling of Thanatos, the personification of the death itself. So even if Endymion didn't ever "die," he was symbolically dead.

In this state of eternal slumber, Endymion kept both his youth and his good looks. Selene, it was said, remained true to Endymion. She took care that his fortunes should not suffer by his inactive life, for she made his flock increase, and guarded his sheep and lambs from the wild beasts. Every night Selene visits him on Mt. Latmus and showers Endymion with her kisses, but he will never know, for he dreams of beautiful meadows and a Utopia in his dreamworld. This didn't manage to stop the couple from having children though. They had fifty daughters who symbolically represented the fifty lunar months that elapse between each Olympiad, or Olympic cycle of four years, one of which they named Naxos. To this day, Endymion still sleeps on the hilltop where Selene first found him.

A Poem by Theocritus:

Endymion the shepherd,
As his flock he guarded,
She, the Moon, Selene,
Saw him, loved him, sought him,
Coming down from heaven
To the glade on Latmus,
Kissed him, lay beside him.
Blessed is his fortune.
Evermore he slumbers,
Tossing not nor turning,
Endymion the shepherd.

"Ethernal youth, ethernal love, ethernal sleep - the choice is yours..."

"Selene's moon rays fall upon sleeping mortals and her kisses fell upon her love, Endymion..."

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