ENDYMIONStories of Love and

Adventures

The Story (Summary) A beautiful young man, Endymion,

catches the attention of Selene, the Moon. Selene puts him in a magical slumber: he lies as if dead, but in fact he is alive and forever asleep. Every night, Selene covers him with kisses, but it is said that she still suffers from loneliness.

Endymion and Selene

Endymion Was variously a handsome

Aeolian.

Lover of Selene, the moon.

Son of Zeus

Selene The Titan goddess of the Moon. She drives her moon chariot across

the heavens. Her Roman equivalent is Luna. The etymology of Selene is

uncertain, but if the name is of Greek origin, it is likely connected to the word selas (σέλας), meaning "light".

Other Facts She believed him to be so beautiful

that she asked Endymion's father, Zeus, to grant him eternal youth so that he would never leave her.

Selene and Endymion had fifty daughters who are equated by some scholars with the fifty months of the Olympiad.

According to a passage in Deipnosophistae, the poet Licymnius of tells a different tale, in which Hypnos, the god of sleep, in awe of his beauty, causes him to sleep with his eyes open, so he can fully admire his face.

In another contradictory myth, Endymion was the first king of Elis in the Greek Peloponessos, who founded the kingdom with Aiolian colonists from Thessalia in the north. Zeus granted him foreknowledge of his death, and when his time had come he set up a race-course at Olympia and commanded his sons competitor the throne. Endymion was then entombed by the starting gate of the course.