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Endymion

Sources[edit]

Primary sources[edit]

"Then] the mighty strength of the god-like [Aethlius made [fair-formed vigorous Calyce] his wife; and [she bore Endymion,] dear to the blessed gods: him Zeus honored,] and he gave him exceptional gifts: he was his own dispenser of death and old age."
"how sweet love with stealth detaining Trivia beneath the Latmian crags draws her away from her airy circuit"
"And the Titanian goddess, the moon, rising from a far land, beheld her [Medea] as she fled distraught, and fiercely exulted over her, and thus spake to her own heart:
"'Not I alone then stray to the Latmian cave, nor do I alone burn with love for fair Endymion; oft times with thoughts of love have I been driven away by thy crafty spells, in order that in the darkness of night thou mightest work thy sorcery at ease, even the deeds dear to thee. And now thou thyself too hast part in a like mad passion; and some god of affliction has given thee Jason to be thy grievous woe. Well, go on, and steel thy heart, wise though thou be, to take up thy burden of pain, fraught with many sighs.'
"Thus spake the goddess;
  • Scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes, 4.57 (Sappho, Fragment 199, Campbell, p. 197)
"The story goes that Selene comes down to this cave1 to meet Endymion. Sappho and Nicander in Europia Book 2 tell the story of the love of Selene (the Moon).
1 The cave on Mt. Latmos in Caria.
(See also: Weigal, Arthur, Sappho of Lesbos: Her Life and Times, p. 281)
"In the Great Ehoiai it is said that Endymion was carried up by Zeus to heaven, but that he was seized by desire for Hera and was deceived by the phantom of a cloud, and that because of this desire he was thrown out and went down to Hades."
"YOUTHS WHO WERE MOST HANDSOME: ... Endymion, son of Aetolus, whom Luna loved."
"near Latmus, there is to be seen the sepulchre of Endymion, in a cave."
"and naked Endymion allured the sister of Phoebus
(it is said) and lay with the naked goddess in love."
"See how the moon does her Endymion keep
In night conceal'd, and drown'd in dewy sleep."
"[Sappho to Phaon] If Cynthia, [epithet of Artemis, identified with Selene] whose eye extends over all, should chance to fix it upon you, Phaon [like Endymion] would be commanded to prolong his sleep."
  • Commentary on the Heroides of Ovid 15
"[90] Jussus erit somnos continuare Sappho refers to the story of Endymion, a beautiful shepherd. The poets feign that Cynthia loved him, and cast him into a sound sleep, that she might kiss him without restraint. What is thought to have given rise to this story was, his being the first who discovered the course of the moon."
"The Moon, like a faithful attendant to direct my way, furnished a trembling light as I traversed the flood. Regarding her with a wishful look, "Bright Goddess," I said, "favor my design, and call to mind the happy Latmian cliffs. Endymion cannot allow that you should be of an unrelenting mind; favor therefore with a friendly look these my stolen delights. You, though a Goddess, left heaven in quest of a mortal: ..."
"Calyce and Aethlius had a son Endymion who led Aeolians from Thessaly and founded Elis. But some say that he was a son of Zeus. As he was of surpassing beauty, the Moon fell in love with him, and Zeus allowed him to choose what he would, and he chose to sleep for ever, remaining deathless and ageless.
"The radiant goddess17 of the darksome sky burned with love and, forsaking the night, gave her gleaming chariot to her brother to guide in fashion other than his own. He learned to drive the team of night and to wheel in narrower circuit, while the axle groaned beneath the car’s heavier weight; nor did the nights keep their accustomed length, and with belated dawning came the day."
"may no shepherd22 make boast o’er thee."
"Or else, looking down on thee from the starry heavens, the orb35 that was born after the old Arcadians36 will lose control of her white-shining car. And lately she blushed fiery red, though no staining cloud obscured her bright face; but we, anxious for our troubled goddess, thinking her harried by Thessalian charms, made loud jingling sounds: yet ‘twas thou37 hadst been her trouble, thou the cause of her delaying; while gazing on thee the goddess of the night checked her swift course."
"Even as the Latmian hunter, while his comrades are yet scattered in troops about the glens, rests in the summer shade, fit lover for a goddess, and soon the Moon comes with veiled horns"


  • Pausanias, 5.1.3 (c. AD 110 – AD 180)
"The Eleans we know crossed over from Calydon and Aetolia generally. Their earlier history I found to be as follows. The first to rule in this land, they say, was Aethlius, who was the son of Zeus and of Protogeneia, the daughter of Deucalion, and the father of Endymion.
"The Moon, they say, fell in love with this Endymion and bore him fifty daughters. Others with greater probability say that Endymion took a wife Asterodia—others say she was Cromia, the daughter of Itonus, the son of Amphictyon; others again, Hyperippe, the daughter of Arcas—but all agree that Endymion begat Paeon, Epeius, Aetolus, and also a daughter Eurycyda. Endymion set his sons to run a race at Olympia for the throne; Epeius won, and obtained the kingdom, and his subjects were then named Epeans for the first time."
APHRODITE
What is this I hear about you, Selene? When your car is over Caria, you stop it to gaze at Endymion sleeping hunter-fashion in the open; sometimes, they tell me, you actually get out and go down to him.
SELENE
Ah, Aphrodite, ask that son of yours; it is he must answer for it all.
APHRODITE
Well now, what a naughty boy! he gets his own mother into all sorts of scrapes;... But tell me, is Endymion handsome? That is always a comfort in our humiliation.
SELENE
Most handsome, I think, my dear; you should see him when he has spread out his cloak on the rock and is asleep; his javelins in his left hand, just slipping from his grasp, the right arm bent upwards, making a bright frame to the face, and he breathing softly in helpless slumber. Then I come noiselessly down, treading on tiptoe not to wake and startle him—but there, you know all about it; why tell you the rest? I am dying of love, that is all.
"Teucer slew Zechis, Medon's war-famed son, who dwelt in Phrygia, land of myriad flocks, below that haunted cave of fair-haired Nymphs where, as Endymion slept beside his kine, divine Selene watched him from on high, and slid from heaven to earth; for passionate love drew down the immortal stainless Queen of Night. And a memorial of her couch abides still 'neath the oaks; for mid the copses round was poured out milk of kine; and still do men marvelling behold its whiteness. Thou wouldst say far off that this was milk indeed, which is a well-spring of white water: if thou draw a little nigher, lo, the stream is fringed as though with ice, for white stone rims it round."
"Selene, Endymion’s bed-fellow."
"... my comfort is Selene herself who felt the same for Endymion upon Latmos."
"When the Moon saw the girl following a stranger along the shore above the sea, and boiling under fiery constraint, she reproached Cypris in mocking words : `So you make war even upon your children, Cypris! Not even the fruit of your womb is spared by the goad of love! Don’t you pity the girl you bore, hardheart? What other girl can you pity then, when you drag your own child into passion?--Then you must go wandering too, my darling. Say to your mother, Paphian’s child, `Phaethon mocks you, and Selene puts me to shame.’ Harmonia, love-tormented exile, leave to Mene her bridegroom Endymion, and care for your vagrant Cadmos. Be ready to endure as much trouble as I have, and when you are weary with lovebegetting anxiety, remember lovewounded Selene.'"
"Shining Dawn carried off Orion for a bridegroom, and Selene Endymion,"
"I believe Selene bathes in the Aonian [Theban] waves on her way to Endymion’s bed on Latmos, the bed of a sleepless shepherd; but if she has prinked herself out for her sweet shepherd, what’s the use of Asopos after the Ocean stream? And if she has a body white as the snows of heaven, what mark of the Moon has she? A team of mules unbridled and a mule-cart with silver wheels are there on the beach, but Selene knows not how to put mules to her yokestrap--she drives a team of bulls!"
"... the song about the Latmian cowshed of the neversleeping herdsman, while he praised Endymion, the bride-groom of love-smitten Selene, as happy in love’s care on a neighbouring rock."
"Wise Endymion with changing bends of his fingers will calculate the three varying phases of Selene."
"Sing Selene madly in love with Endymion."
"There were the clustering blooms which have the name Narcissos the fair youth, whom horned Selene’s bridegroom Endymion begat on leafy Latmos,"
"... Selene also the driver of bulls had her Latmian Endymion who was busy about the herds of cattle;"

Secondary sources[edit]

Endymion "had incurred the anger of Zeus by becomming enamored of Hera, wherefore he was condemned to sleep forver; and the moon saw him asleep and was struck by his beauty, so that she came often to the cavern on Latmos."
"1 As to Endymion and the Moon, see Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.57ff., with the Scholiast; Paus. 5.1.4; Mythographi Graeci, ed Westermann, pp. 319ff., 324; Hyginus, Fab. 271. The present passage of Apollodorus is quoted almost verbally by Zenobius, Cent. iii.76, but as usual without mention of his authority. The eternal sleep of Endymion was proverbial. See Plat. Phaedo 72c; Macarius, Cent. iii.89; Diogenianus, Cent. iv.40; Cicero, De finibus v.20.55; compare Cicero, Tusc. Disp. i.38.92."
  • Grimal, "Selene", p. 415
"She was usually described as the lover of Endymion, the handsome shepherd by whom she supposedly had 50 daughters."
  • Grimal, "Endymion", pp. 145–146
"When Selene saw Endymion, depicted in the legend as a young shepherd of great beauty, she fell violently in love with him and seduced him. At Selene's request Zeus promised to grant Endymion one wish; he chose the gift of eternal sleep, remaining young forever. Some versions claim that it was during this sleep that Selene saw him and fell in love with him. Sometimes the Peloponnese is the location of the legend, and sometimes Caria, not far from Miletus ... Endymion is said to have given his lover fifty daughters."
  • Hammond, "SELENE", pp. 970–971
"Selene has few myths. Best known is the story of her love for Endymion which caused Zeus to cast him into an eternal sleep in a cave on Mount Latmus, where Selene visits him"
"The most famous of Selene's lovers, however was Endymion. In one version of the myth he is said to have been herding cattle when Selene took him for her lover. Most versions agree that he was in an eternal sleep inside a cave, however. In some versions the youth pursued the goddess Hera, and his eternal sleep was a punishement from Zeus, who was Hera's brother and Husband; in another version Zeus offered him the privilege of choosing how he was to die, and he selected eternal sleep; in another account Selene fell in love with Endymion and asked Zeus to give him immortality and eternal yout, so Zeus put him into an eternal sleep. Once Endymion was asleep, Selene occasionalyy visited the cave and roused him to make love. Ancient Greeks believed that when the moon was elcipsed, Selene was in the cave with Endymion."
  • Morford, p.64
"Only one famous myth is linked with Selene and that concerns her love for the handsome youth Endymion, who is usually depicted as a shepherd. On a still night, she lay down beside him in a cave on Mt. Latmus (in Caria). Night after night, she lay down beside him as he slept. There are many variants to this story, but in all the outcome is that Zeus granted Endymion perpetual sleep with perpetual youth. This may be represented as a punishment (although sometimes Endymion is given some choice) because of Selene's continual absence from her duties in the heavens, or it may be the fulfillment of Selene's own wishes for her beloved.""
"Somewhere about 200 B.C., Apollonius of Rhodes wrote a poem, called Argonautica, in which occurred the line: "So then, I am not the only woman to go off in quest of the Latmian cave," the cave, that is to say, in which the legendary Endymion slept; and against this line an ancient scholiast, or marginal commentator, has written: "The love-story of Selene (the Moon) is told by Sappho ... and there it is said that Selene comes down to Endymion in his cave."1 The famous legend is thus to be traced back to Sappho, who probably gave form to some vague folk-tale current in the Ionian lands around Mount Latmos in Asia Minor, that is to say behind the city of Miletus ..."

The sleep of Endymion[edit]

"Yet nevertheless they have always been conceived as, at all events, living, and therefore living actively, for we cannot suppose they are always asleep like Endymion.
"Endymion, indeed, if you listen to fables, slept once on a time on Latmus, a mountain of Caria, and for such a length of time that I imagine he is not as yet awake. Do you think that he is concerned at the Moon's being in difficulties, though it was by her that he was thrown into that sleep, in order that she might kiss him while sleeping."*
"in the end, you know, that would make the sleeping Endymion mere nonsense;"
"O would I were Endymion that sleeps the unchanging slumber on,"
  • Cholmeley (Commentary on Theocritus) 3.49
"ἄτροπον dist. xxiv. 7 εὕδετ᾽ ἐμὰ βρέφεα γλυκερὸν καὶ ἐγέρσιμον ὕπνον: Mosch. Epit. Bion. 117 (of sleep of death) εὕδομες εὖ μάλα μακρὸν ἀτέρμονα νήγρετον ὕπνον. Endymion loved by Selènê was thrown by her into an endless sleep that she might ever look on him and kiss him sleeping; cf. A. Pal. v. 164 (Meleager): “ ὁ δ᾽ ἐν κόλποισιν ::ἐκείνης
ῥιπτασθεὶς κείσθω δεύτερος ᾿Ενδυμίων.

50 daughters[edit]

"These 50 children are the number of lunar months between the Olympic Games, which were held every four years (as they still are today). More exactly, the interval between the Olympic Games was alternatively 49 and 50 months, showing that the festival cycle was a period of eight years divided into two halves — the precise period which reconciles the Hellenic Moon year of 354 days with the solar year of 365 1/4 days.105 ..."
"The exorbitant figure [the fifty daughters of Danaos], very popular in Greek myths, has its explanation: it is the number of seven-day weeks in one lunar year (50 x 7 = 350, the rounded number of days of a lunar year instead of the more exact 354). The proof of this is supplied by Odyss. XII: 129-130, where Helios is said to possess 7 herds of 50 cows each and 7 herds of 50 sheep each, a transparent allegory of the days and nights of the year. Selene, the Moon, also had from Endymion 50 daughters—it is the same motif. Further ..."
"They had 50 daughters who were often interpreted as the 50 lunar months of the four-year cycle that governed many of the great festivals—for example, the Olympic Games."
  • Beale, Greek Athletics and the Olympics p. 41
Note to Pausanias 6.20.9: "Endymion ... he was loved by Selene (the moon goddess), and they had 50 daughters according to Pausanias. Zeus allowed him to sleep forever while retaining his youth" (No mention of connection between the 50 daughters and the Olympics).
  • Westmorland, Ancient Greek Beliefs p. 104'
" Examples: 1. Danus, ... 2. Hecuba, ... 3. Nereus and Doris, ... 4. Selene, ... 5. Thespius, ..."
  • Heinrich Wilhelm Stoll, Handbook of the religion and mythology of the Greeks, tr. by R.B. Paul, and ed. by T.K. Arnold 1852. Francis John Rivington. p. 61
"These fifty daughters represent the fifty months which compose an Olympiad."
  • Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland, Volume 21 1889 p. 550
Other 50 daughters/ gods related to lunar years
  • Tonsing, A Celtic Invocation: Cétnad nAíse PDF pp. 5–6
"... fifty daughters are produced (possibly the number of months between the Olympic games).
"Some scholars see in these fifty daughters the fifty lunar months that composed the four-year period of an Olympiad."
  • Jebb, The Poems and Fragments p. 297
"In an old legend of Elis, the 50 lunar months of this cycle appear as fifty daughters born by Selene to Endymion"
  • Seffert, A Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, Mythology, Religion, Literature and Art, from the German of Dr. Oskar Seyffert, p. 213
""They were supposed to symbolize the fifty lunar months which intervened between Olympic games."

Endymion Sarcophagus[edit]

  • Living with Myths: The Imagery of Roman Sarcohagi, p. 96
  • Hell and Its Afterlife, p. 16
"The popularity of this myth on sarcophagi is evidenced by the 120 extant examples, as Sorabella notes, p. 70"
  • Hell and Its Afterlife p. 18
"On one end of the Endymion sarcophagus, the Sun god Helios drives his chariot over the reclining personification of the Ocean, while on the other end the Moon goddess Selene rides over the female figure of the Earth (both not pictured)."
[Describing The Endymion Sarcophagus] " .. her veil billows over her head like a crescent-shaped moon, which when combined with the drapery of her dress, also forms the outline of the full moon"
  • Facing the Gods: Epiphany and Representation in Graeco-Roman Art, Literature and Religion, [1]
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