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Selene

The Goddess of the Moon

Domain: Moon & Night
Alignment: Neutral Good
Element: Air
Relics of Power: Crescent Diadem

Speak with Selene

The full Codex

5 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.

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The People

People

Ancient Greeks

Region

Greece & the Mediterranean

Period

8th c. BC – 4th c. AD

The Olympian gods were worshipped by the city-states of ancient Greece, from Athens to Sparta, which raised them temples such as the Parthenon. Reigning atop Mount Olympus, they presided over every aspect of life and were celebrated in festivals like the Olympic Games. Homer and Hesiod fixed their myths, which shaped all of Western culture.

The Olympic Games were held every four years in honor of Zeus, and the Panathenaea celebrated Athena in Athens. The Eleusinian Mysteries initiated the faithful into the secrets of Demeter and Persephone, while crowds consulted Apollo's oracle at Delphi.

At a glance

Selene is the divine personification of the Moon. In Hesiod's Theogony she is the daughter of Hyperion and Theia and the sister of Helios and Eos; Homeric Hymn 31 names Euryphaessa as her mother instead. Homeric Hymn 32 pictures her light embracing the earth, her bath in Ocean and her long-maned horses, and makes Pandia her daughter by Zeus. Her relationship with Endymion has distinct versions: Pseudo-Apollodorus recounts his choice of eternal sleep, while Pausanias records competing genealogies and a disagreement between the tomb shown in Elis and the shrine on Latmus.

19 min read · Reviewed on October 2, 2026 · How we research

Sacred symbols

Lunar crescent, silver chariot, torch and the starry veil

Family

Parents

Hyperion and Theia, according to Hesiod, Theogony 371–374; Hyperion and Euryphaessa, his own sister, according to Homeric Hymn 31.

Siblings

Helios and Eos, in Hesiod, Theogony 371–374, and in Homeric Hymn 31.

Selene

Unions

Endymion in Pausanias 5.1.4; Zeus in Homeric Hymn 32 (closing lines).

Children

Pandia in Homeric Hymn 32 (closing lines); fifty unnamed daughters in Pausanias 5.1.4.

Genealogy according to Hesíodo, Teogonia 371–374; Hino Homérico 31 (início) e 32 (final); Pausânias, Descrição da Grécia 5.1.3–5.

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

Hesiod, Theogony. translation: H. G. Evelyn-White, 1914. read
Homeric Hymns, Hymns 5–33 (includes Hymn 31 to Helios and Hymn 32 to Selene). translation: H. G. Evelyn-White, 1914. read
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Biblioteca, Livro 1. translation: J. G. Frazer, 1921. read
Pausânias, Description of Greece 5.1–15 (Elis). translation: W. H. S. Jones. read
Pausânias, Description of Greece 3.14–26 (Laconia, including Thalamae). translation: W. H. S. Jones. read
Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica, Book 4. translation: R. C. Seaton. read
Theocritus, Idylls (Idyll 2, The Sorceress). translation: J. M. Edmonds. read
Virgil, Georgics, Books 3–4. translation: H. R. Fairclough, 1916. read
Orphic Hymns, Hymn to the Moon (Selene). translation: Thomas Taylor. read

Studies

Theoi Project, Selene, Greek goddess of the Moon (includes the Suda, s.v. Aigle, and the Smith dictionary entry). Theoi.com, consultado em 14/10/2026. open
Wiktionary contributors, Σελήνη, Μήνη, σέλας. Wiktionary, consultado em 14/10/2026. open
Wikipedia contributors, Endymion (poem). Wikipedia, consultado em 14/10/2026. open
Wikipedia contributors, Heracleia under Latmus. Wikipedia, consultado em 14/10/2026. open

Name and epithets

Selene (Σελήνη, Selḗnē) is both the ordinary Greek word for the Moon and the name of the goddess. Wiktionary records the Doric form Σελάνα (Selána), the Aeolic form Σελάννα (Selánna) and the epic, Ionic and poetic form…

In the ancient sources

Theogony (Hesiod), Archaic period. Gives Selene's parentage: Theia, subject in love to Hyperion, bore Helios, 'clear Selene' and Eos, in the Evelyn-White rendering. Homeric Hymn 31 (to Helios), Date uncertain.

The myths

Eternal Love for Endymion and the Sacred Slumber on Mount Latmos. Pseudo-Apollodorus' Library presents Endymion as the founder of Elis and also records a tradition making him Zeus' son.

Worship and archaeology

Pausanias (3.26.1) and Theocritus (Idyll 2) attest the Moon’s cult only indirectly. At Thalamae in Laconia, Pausanias (3.26.1) describes a sanctuary of Ino with an oracle consulted in sleep: the goddess reveals whatever…

How the god was depicted

The literary sources cited here supply the main images. Homeric Hymn 32 speaks of a golden crown whose light makes the unlit air glow, and of long-maned horses driven at full speed.

What scholars debate

Whose Daughter Is Selene?. The sources do not agree on Selene’s parents or children. Hesiod’s Theogony makes Theia and Hyperion the parents of Helios, Selene and Eos; Homeric Hymn 31 gives Hyperion a different wife, his…

After antiquity

John Keats’s poem Endymion was first published in 1818 by Taylor and Hessey of Fleet Street in London. It is based on the Greek myth of the shepherd beloved of the Moon goddess Selene, elaborates the original story and…

Did you know?

Pausanias mentions fifty daughters of the Moon and Endymion, but the passage does not explain their number as an Olympic calendar.

Codex relic

Crescent Diadem. A lunar tiara that pours silver light over the sleeping world and governs the night tides.

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