Overview of Selene’s Main Myths

Selene & Endymion: The seduction of Endymion is the love affair that brings Selene the most fame. She fell in love with the shepard, Endymion, and seduced him while he lie sleeping in a cave. Some sources say Endymion was a king or a hunter, rather than a shepherd. Her seduction of Endymion resulted in the birth of fifty daughters, one of which was Naxos. Since Selene was so deeply in love with Endymion she asked Zeus to allow him to decide his own fate. Zeus granted Selene’s request, and Endymion chose never to grow old and to sleep eternally. However, Endymion’s eternal sleep did not prevent him from Selene’s nightly visitations and she gave birth to his daughters – all 50 of them! – representing the 50 lunar months between Olympiads.

The Nemean Lion: Some sources report that the fearful Nemean Lion fell to earth from the moon as a result of an affair between Zeus and Selene. Other sources say that She nursed and suckled the beast.

Zeus: Selene was said to have had an affair with Zeus which produced three daughters: Pandeia, Ersa, Nemea.

Pan: The goat-footed God of Nature and Wild Places was said to have onces seduced Selene by disguising himself by wrapping his form in the fleece of a white sheep and then gave her a herd of white oxen that drew the chariot in which she is represented in sculptured reliefs, with her windblown veil above her head like the arching canopy of sky.