Editing Selene (section)

==Cult==
[[File:Altar Selene Louvre Ma508.jpg|thumb|Selene from an altar piece, flanked by either the [[Castor and Pollux|Dioscuri]], or by [[Phosphorus (morning star)|Phosphorus]] and [[Hesperus]].<ref>de Clarac, [https://books.google.com/books?id=R9M-AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA340 p. 340]; {{Cite web|url=http://cartelfr.louvre.fr/cartelfr/visite?srv=car_not&idNotice=27493|title=Site officiel du musée du Louvre|website=cartelfr.louvre.fr|access-date=2020-04-22}}; {{Cite web|url=https://research.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details/collection_image_gallery.aspx?assetId=1539982001&objectId=3598949&partId=1|title=Image gallery: drawing / album|website=British Museum|language=en-GB|access-date=2020-04-22}}.</ref>]]

Selene's presence in ancient Greek worship is very limited, even in comparison to her brother. Her presence in cult was linked to her connection to more major, important divinities such as Artemis and Hecate, and she is hardly divorced from her identifications when it comes to worship; in later times, she was adopted into pre-existing cults that had not originally included her, along with several other figures.<ref>Athanassakis & Wolkow 2013, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=TTo3r8IHy0wC&pg=PA89 89]</ref>

Moon figures are found on [[Cretan]] rings and gems (perhaps indicating a [[Minoan civilization|Minoan]] moon cult), but apart from the role played by the moon itself in magic, folklore, and poetry, and despite the later worship of the Phrygian moon-god Men, there was relatively little worship of Selene.<ref>Athanassakis and Wolkow, [https://books.google.com/books?id=TTo3r8IHy0wC&pg=PA89 p. 89]; ''[[Oxford Classical Dictionary]]'', s.v. Selene; Burkert 1991, p. 176.</ref> An oracular sanctuary existed near Thalamai in [[Laconia]]. Described by [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], it contained statues of Pasiphaë and Helios. Here ''Pasiphaë'' is used as an epithet of Selene, instead of referring to the [[Pasiphaë|daughter of Helios]] and wife of [[Minos]].<ref>[[Plutarch]], ''Agis'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plut.+Agis+9&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0005 9]; [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+3.26.1 3.26.1].</ref> Pausanias also described seeing two stone images in the market-place of [[Elis (city)|Elis]], one of the sun and the other of the moon, from the heads of which projected the rays of the sun and the horns of the crescent moon.<ref>Pausanias, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+6.24.6 6.24.6].</ref> Selene (along with Helios, Nyx and others) received an altar at the sanctuary of [[Demeter]] at [[Pergamon]], possibly in connection with the [[Orphism (religion)|Orphic]] mysteries.<ref>Ridgeway, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Y6Jj6rcIup4C&pg=PA55 p. 55].</ref>

[[File:Attic red-figure kylix depicting Selene Antikensammlung Berlin.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.2|Attic [[Kylix]] with Selene and her horse and crescent Moon, circa 450 BC, by the [[Brygos Painter]].]]

Originally, Pandia may have been an epithet of Selene,<ref>Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA46 p. 46]; Cashford 2003a, [https://archive.org/details/homerichymns0000unse_y4i4/page/174/mode/2up?view=theater p. 174]; Willetts, p. 178; Cook, [https://archive.org/stream/zeusstudyinancie01cookuoft#page/732/mode/2up p. 732]; Roscher, [https://archive.org/stream/berseleneundver00poligoog#page/n125/mode/2up p. 100].</ref> but by at least the time of the late ''Hymn to Selene'', Pandia had become a daughter of Zeus and Selene. Pandia (or Pandia Selene) may have personified the full moon,<ref>Cashford 2003a, [https://archive.org/details/homerichymns0000unse_y4i4/page/174/mode/2up?view=theater p. 174]; [[Károly Kerényi|Kerényi]], [https://archive.org/details/godsofgreeks00kerrich/page/197/mode/2up?view=theater p. 197]; Cox, pp. [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.24849/page/n157/mode/2up 138], [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.24849/page/n159/mode/2up 140].</ref> and an Athenian festival, called the [[Pandia (festival)|Pandia]], usually considered to be a festival for [[Zeus]],<ref>Parker, [https://books.google.com/books?id=F_ATDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA477 pp. 477&ndash;478].</ref> was perhaps celebrated on the full moon and may have been associated with Selene.<ref>Robertson 1996, [https://books.google.com/books?id=AMTNIZ_LQjoC&pg=PA75 p. 75 n. 109]; Willetts, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=wz0qAAAAYAAJ&q=Pandia+Selene 178–179]; Cook, [https://archive.org/stream/zeusstudyinancie01cookuoft#page/732/mode/2up. 732]; Harpers, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0062%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DS%3Aentry+group%3D8%3Aentry%3Dselene-harpers s.v. Selene]; Smith, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text;jsessionid=BDFA02D9C2623BF90A2B1EC34D743408?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0063%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DP%3Aentry+group%3D1%3Aentry%3Dpandia-cn s.v. Pandia].</ref> At Athens, wineless offerings (''nephalia'') were made to Selene, along with other celestial gods, Selene's siblings Helios and Eos, and [[Aphrodite Urania|Aphrodite Ourania]];<ref>Meagher, [https://books.google.com/books?id=vBDfKCyC2LMC&pg=PA142 p. 142 n. 137]; Scholia on [[Sophocles]] ''[[Oedipus at Colonus]]'' 91 (Xenis, [https://books.google.com/books?id=3HBLDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA70 pp. 70&ndash;71]).</ref> in [[Attica]], it seems that Selene was identified with [[Aphrodite]].<ref>Müller, [https://archive.org/details/fragmentahistori01mueluoft/page/530/mode/2up?view=theater p. 531]</ref>

[[File:Kanishka I. Circa AD 127-151. Monolingual Greek issue. Main mint in Baktria Early phase. Obverse BACIΛЄYC BACIΛЄωN KANHÞKOY, Reverse CAΛHNH to right, Selene, wearing lunar horns.jpg|thumb|[[Kushan Empire|Kushan]] coinage of [[Kanishka I]] with Selene (Greek legend "CAΛHNH") on the reverse, wearing lunar horns, c. AD 127 – 151.<ref>[[British Museum]] [https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_IOC-282 IOC.282]; {{cite book |last1=Errington |first1=Elizabeth |title=Charles Masson and the Buddhist Sites of Afghanistan |date=2017 |publisher=British Museum Research Publications |location=London |pages=158–159, Fig. 242.14 |doi=10.5281/zenodo.3355036 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/3355036}}</ref>]]

Selene was sometimes associated with [[childbirth]], for it was believed that during the [[full moon]] women had the easiest labours; this helped in her identification with the goddess [[Artemis]],<ref>[[Chrysippus]] [https://archive.org/details/stoicorumveterum02arniuoft/page/212/mode/2up?view=theater fr. 748].</ref> as well as other goddesses connected to women's labours. The idea that Selene would also give easy labours to women paved way for identification with [[Hera]] and  the Roman [[Juno (mythology)|Juno]] and [[Lucina (mythology)|Lucina]], three other childbirth goddesses; [[Plutarch]] calls Selene "Hera in material form."<ref>[[Plutarch]], ''[[Moralia|Quaestiones Romanae]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0007.tlg084a.perseus-eng1:77 77].</ref> Roman philosopher [[Cicero]] connected Selene's Roman counterpart [[Luna (goddess)|Luna]]'s name to childbirth goddess Lucina's, both deriving from "light" (thus bringing the unborn child into the light).<ref>[[Cicero]], ''[[De Natura Deorum]]'' [https://topostext.org/work.php?work_id=137#2.68 2.68].</ref> [[Nonnus]] also identified Selene with [[Eileithyia]].<ref>[[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://archive.org/details/dionysiaca03nonnuoft/page/102/mode/2up?view=theater 38.150].</ref>

Selene played an important role in love magic.<ref>Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA46 p. 46].</ref> In Theocritus' second ''Idyll'', a young girl invokes Selene in a love-spell.<ref>Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA46 p. 46]; Athanassakis and Wolkow, [https://books.google.com/books?id=TTo3r8IHy0wC&pg=PA90 p. 90]; [[Theocritus]], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/theocritus-poems_i-xxx/2015/pb_LCL028.39.xml 2.10&ndash;11, 69&ndash;166].</ref> The idyll opens with the girl ordering her maid to bring potions and magical utensils, followed by an invocation to Selene and Hecate, and finally the rather lengthy spell itself; once she finishes her spell, the girl recounts to Selene of how she met and was betrayed by her lover, and calls upon the goddess to witness and help her, hence the love tail is woven into the love spell.<ref>ní Mheallaigh, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=NdX7DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA33 33-34]</ref> And, according to a scholium on [[Theocritus]], [[Pindar]] wrote that lovesick women would pray to Selene for help, as [[Euripides]] apparently had [[Phaedra (mythology)|Phaedra]], Selene's great-niece, do in his lost play ''[[Hippolytus Veiled]]''.<ref>Faraone, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Aq-Yg6B51NsC&pg=PA139 p. 139]; Collard and Cropp, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL504.469.xml p. 469]; [[Scholia]] on [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZgUd8TCc6UYC&pg=PA38 Theocritus 2.10].</ref> Plutarch wrote that Selene was called upon in love affairs because she, the Moon, constantly yearns for the Sun, and compared her in that regard to [[Isis]].<ref>[[Plutarch]], ''On Isis and Osiris'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plut.+De+Iside+52&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0239 52]</ref>

Her and her brother's worship is also attested in [[Gytheio|Gytheum]], a town in [[Laconia]] near [[Sparta]], via an inscription (''C.I.G. 1392'').<ref>''The Classical Review'', volume VII, [[University of Illinois]] Library, 1893, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=LQgOi5LWx5QC&pg=PA77 77], vol. VII</ref> In the city of [[Epidaurus]], in [[Argolis]], Selene had an altar dedicated to her.<ref>Vermaseren, [https://books.google.com/books?id=peh5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA149 p. 149].</ref> Records show that a type of cake called {{lang|grc|βοῦς}} (''boûs'', "ox") decorated with horns to represent the full moon or an ox was offered to her and other divinities like Hecate, Artemis and Apollo.<ref>[[Julius Pollux]] [https://books.google.com/books?id=m2U-AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA23 6.76]</ref><ref name=":cake">Allaire Brumfield, ''Cakes in the Liknon: Votives from the Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore on Acrocorinth'', Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens Vol. 66, No. 1 (Jan. - Mar., 1997), [https://www.ascsa.edu.gr/uploads/media/hesperia/148477.pdf pp. 157; 171], [[The American School of Classical Studies at Athens]].</ref> In addition, a type of flat, round moon-shaped cake was called 'selene' ("moon") and was offered "to the goddess."<ref name=":lsj"/><ref name=":cake"/><ref>[http://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/sol/sol-entries/sigma/204 "Selenai."] ''[[Suda]] On Line''. Trans. Rocco Marseglia on 9 November 2012.</ref> The ancient Greeks also called [[Monday]] "day of the Moon" (''ἡμέρα Σελήνης'') after her.<ref>Olderr, [https://books.google.com/books?id=y5gZDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA98 p. 98].</ref>