Editing Selene (section)

=== Origin ===
Selene, along with her brother, her sister and the sky-god Zeus, is one of the few Greek deities of a clear [[Proto-Indo-European mythology|Proto-Indo-European]] origin, although they were sidelined by later non-PIE newcomers to the pantheon, as remaining on the sidelines became their primary function, to be the minor deities the major ones were juxtaposed to, thus helping keep the Greek religion Greek.{{sfn|Davidson|2010|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=yOQtHNJJU9UC&pg=PA205 205]}}

The original PIE moon deity has been reconstructed as ''*Meh₁not'' (from which 'Mene', Selene's byname, is derived),{{sfn|Mallory|Adams|1997|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=tzU3RIV2BWIC&pg=PA385 385]}} and it appears that it was a male god.{{sfn|West|2007|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZXrJA_5LKlYC&pg=PA351 351]}} The Greek offshoot of this deity however is female. The ancient Greek language had three grammatical genders (masculine, feminine and neuter), so when a god or a goddess personified an object or a concept, they inherited the gender of the corresponding noun; selene, the Greek noun for 'Moon', is a feminine one (whereas men is a masculine one), so the deity embodying it is also by necessity female.<ref>Hansen 2004, p. [https://archive.org/details/handbookofclassi0000hans/page/26/mode/2up?view=theater 27]</ref> In PIE mythology, the Moon, which is a male figure, was seen as forming a pair–usually wedlock–with the Sun, which is a female figure, and which in Greek mythology is recognized in the male deity and Selene's brother Helios.{{sfn|Gamkrelidze|Ivanov|1995|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=M2aqp2n2mKkC&pg=PA590 590-591]}} It seems however that unlike the Dawn (Eos) and the Sun (Helios), the Moon had very little importance in PIE mythology.{{sfn|West|2007|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZXrJA_5LKlYC&pg=PA351 351]}}{{sfn|Matasović|2009|page=155}}

Although attempts have been made to connect Selene to [[Helen of Troy]] due to the similarity of their names, in two early dedications to Helen from [[Laconia]] her name is spelled with a [[digamma]] ({{langx|grc|Ϝελένα|Weléna}}), ruling out any possible connection between them.{{sfn|West|2007|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZXrJA_5LKlYC&pg=PA231 231]}} 'Helen' is more likely related to 'Helios' instead, and it seems that the two figures stem from a common Proto-Indo-European ancestor, the Sun Maiden.{{sfn|Mallory|Adams|1997|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=tzU3RIV2BWIC&pg=PA164 164]}}{{sfn|West|2007|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZXrJA_5LKlYC&pg=PA137 137]}}