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Mythographia

    Selene

    Selene is a daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia, and the personification of the moon, sharing dominion over light with her brother Helios and her sister Eos, the dawn. Virgil's Georgics tells a stranger story about her: the god Pan lured her into the deep woods with a bribe of snow-white wool, a tale the poet admits he is not certain should be believed.

    A serene face with a crescent moon resting above the forehead, engraved in bronze linework inside a circular medallion frame.
    Illustration, not a source

    Selene, Titan goddess of the moon

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    By Reviewed by Mythographia Editorial Team

    Core Myth

    Hesiod's Theogony gives Selene's parentage in the same single line that introduces her brother and sister: Theia, one of the original Titans, was subject in love to her brother Hyperion and bore him three children who govern light across the sky - great Helios the sun, clear Selene the moon, and Eos the dawn, who shines upon everyone on earth and the gods in wide heaven alike. Selene herself has little independent narrative in the earliest Greek sources; like Helios, her role is defined by what she is rather than by what she does, crossing the night sky the way her brother crosses the day.

    Who are Selene's parents and siblings?

    Hesiod names her parents as the Titans Hyperion and Theia, the same pairing that produced her siblings Helios, the sun, and Eos, the dawn - all three share dominion over light in different forms, born of the same single union.

    Hesiod, Theogony 371-374

    Does Selene have a well-known myth of her own in early Greek sources?

    Not really. Hesiod's Theogony introduces her only through her parentage alongside Helios and Eos, without giving her an independent story - her identity in the earliest sources is defined by what she is, the moon crossing the night sky, rather than by anything she does.

    Hesiod, Theogony 371-374

    What story does Virgil tell about Selene and Pan?

    In the Georgics, Virgil recalls that Pan once lured Luna, the moon, into the deep woods by offering her a bribe of snow-white wool - a tale he passes on with an explicit note of uncertainty, introducing it as something to believe only "if ear may trust the tale" rather than as settled fact.

    Virgil, Georgics 3.391-393

    Is Selene the same figure as Artemis?

    Not in the earliest sources. Hesiod keeps Selene, a Titan and personification of the moon itself, entirely separate from Artemis, an Olympian goddess of the hunt. Later Greek and Roman writers increasingly blurred the two together as lunar imagery attached itself to Artemis, the same pattern that happened between Helios and Apollo.

    Why does Virgil call Selene by the Roman name Luna instead?

    Because he is writing in Latin for a Roman audience, and Luna is simply the Roman name for the same moon goddess - the Georgics passage is a Roman telling of a story about the same figure Greek sources call Selene, not a claim about two separate deities.

    Later Traditions

    Roman tradition gave her a stranger story that Greek sources do not tell in the same form. Virgil's Georgics, in a passage about winning animals over with the right offering, recalls that the god Pan once snared and beguiled Luna, the moon, by tempting her with a gift of snow-white wool and calling her into the deep woods - Virgil frames the tale itself with a note of doubt, writing "if ear may trust the tale," rather than presenting it as settled fact.

    Lineage

    See the full family tree

    4 recorded relations, each with the ancient line behind it.

    Parents

    Siblings

    Also Connected

    1 recorded connection, each with the ancient line behind it.

    Connected

    Where Accounts Differ

    • how reliable is the Pan-and-wool story
    • Virgil himself flags the Pan-and-wool story as uncertain ("if ear may trust the tale") rather than presenting it as an established fact.

    Read the full source verification →

    Mythology

    Related Terms

    Sources

    Primary sources
    • Hesiod, Theogony 371-374
    • Virgil, Georgics 3.391-393
    Further reading
    • Timothy Gantz, Early Greek Myth (1993)