Danustouch
February 28th, 2002, 12:23 PM
Reprinted with permission of the author (Pip, from Wilsons' Almanac):
Day of Selene, dedicated to the Greek Moon Goddess
She was daughter of Hyperion and Theia, approximately corresponding with the Roman Diana. Selene had 50 daughters fathered by Endymion and three by Zeus, including Erse, the Jew. She is represented with a diadem and wings on her shoulders, driving a chariot drawn by two white horses.
Endymion was a young shepherd of great beauty. One night, as he lay on the mountainside, sleeping, Selene, the Moon Godess, came down to kiss him and was so taken by his beauty that she lay beside him. Vowing that no one else should ever enjoy his beauty, Selene kissed him into eternal slumber. He has never awoken from his sleep.
Selene still visits him from time to time as he sleeps forever on the mountainside, and covers him with kisses. However, her sleeping lover brings only sadness, and never pleasure to the lonely goddess of the moon.
Around the world there are traditions that say that there is not a Man in the Moon, but a Woman. Samoans, when beholding the moon, see Sina and her child, mallet and board. Sina, while beating bark to make cloth during a time of famine, asked the moon, who looked like a breadfruit, to come down and feed her baby. The indignant moon swept down and picked up Sina and child, and the tools, which remain on the moon’s face.
In Tonga, the people see a woman in the moon sitting down and beating bark. In the Pacific Northwest of America, the Kwakiutl people see a girl and bucket. The Shawnee tribe of southeastern US se a woman and cooking pt, with a little dog nearby.
In the Cook Islands, the image is said to be of a girl making tapa cloth from paper mulberry bark. When the girl pushes aside the stones which hold down the tapa, it thunders. In the Hervey group island of mangaia, the woman is Ina who is making a cloth of white clouds. She took a husband on earth, but so she would not be defiled by death, sent him back to earth on a rainbow.
The Masai of Africa see the sun and moon as a quarreling husband and wife. After their fights, the sun is bright with shame, while the moon shows marks of a missing eye and a swollen lip. Eurpean tradition mainly has it that it is a man in te moon, though one folktale says that it is Mary Magdalene.
The Chams of Cambodia say it is Pajan Yan, the goddess of healing, who was banished to the moon before she could restore life to the dead.
(in exchange for allowing the reprint of this article, I was asked to post this link)
*WILSON'S ALMANAC & Planet Directory*
http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com
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Day of Selene, dedicated to the Greek Moon Goddess
She was daughter of Hyperion and Theia, approximately corresponding with the Roman Diana. Selene had 50 daughters fathered by Endymion and three by Zeus, including Erse, the Jew. She is represented with a diadem and wings on her shoulders, driving a chariot drawn by two white horses.
Endymion was a young shepherd of great beauty. One night, as he lay on the mountainside, sleeping, Selene, the Moon Godess, came down to kiss him and was so taken by his beauty that she lay beside him. Vowing that no one else should ever enjoy his beauty, Selene kissed him into eternal slumber. He has never awoken from his sleep.
Selene still visits him from time to time as he sleeps forever on the mountainside, and covers him with kisses. However, her sleeping lover brings only sadness, and never pleasure to the lonely goddess of the moon.
Around the world there are traditions that say that there is not a Man in the Moon, but a Woman. Samoans, when beholding the moon, see Sina and her child, mallet and board. Sina, while beating bark to make cloth during a time of famine, asked the moon, who looked like a breadfruit, to come down and feed her baby. The indignant moon swept down and picked up Sina and child, and the tools, which remain on the moon’s face.
In Tonga, the people see a woman in the moon sitting down and beating bark. In the Pacific Northwest of America, the Kwakiutl people see a girl and bucket. The Shawnee tribe of southeastern US se a woman and cooking pt, with a little dog nearby.
In the Cook Islands, the image is said to be of a girl making tapa cloth from paper mulberry bark. When the girl pushes aside the stones which hold down the tapa, it thunders. In the Hervey group island of mangaia, the woman is Ina who is making a cloth of white clouds. She took a husband on earth, but so she would not be defiled by death, sent him back to earth on a rainbow.
The Masai of Africa see the sun and moon as a quarreling husband and wife. After their fights, the sun is bright with shame, while the moon shows marks of a missing eye and a swollen lip. Eurpean tradition mainly has it that it is a man in te moon, though one folktale says that it is Mary Magdalene.
The Chams of Cambodia say it is Pajan Yan, the goddess of healing, who was banished to the moon before she could restore life to the dead.
(in exchange for allowing the reprint of this article, I was asked to post this link)
*WILSON'S ALMANAC & Planet Directory*
http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com
Have you seen this popular daily ezine?
Daily celebrations by free email: Folklore of each day; global festivals; ancient Christian & pagan calendar customs; New Age; spiritual; alternatives; On This Day; inspiration; humor