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86-548: The term hora comes from the Proto-Indo-European *yóh₁r̥ ("year"). The Horae were originally the personifications of nature in its different seasonal aspects, but in later times they were regarded as goddesses of order in general and natural justice. "They bring and bestow ripeness, they come and go in accordance with the firm law of the periodicities of nature and of life", Karl Kerenyi observed, adding " Hora means 'the correct moment'." Traditionally, they guarded

172-442: A fable -like story in which Selene asked her mother to weave her a garment to fit her measure, and her mother replied that she was unable to do so, as she kept changing shape and size, sometimes full, then crescent-shaped and others yet half her size. In Lucian's Icaromenippus  [ fi ] , Selene complains to the titular Menippus of all the outrageous claims philosophers are making about her, such as wondering why she

258-583: A scholium on Euripides 's play The Phoenician Women which adds Zeus as the father. Furthermore, in Virgil 's Aeneid , when Nisus calls upon Selene/the Moon, he addresses her as "daughter of Latona." According to the Homeric Hymn to Selene , the goddess bore Zeus a daughter, Pandia ("All-brightness"), "exceeding lovely amongst the deathless gods". The 7th century BC Greek poet Alcman makes Ersa ("Dew")

344-535: A French Jesuit who spent most of his life in India, had specifically demonstrated the analogy between Sanskrit and European languages. According to current academic consensus, Jones's famous work of 1786 was less accurate than his predecessors', as he erroneously included Egyptian , Japanese and Chinese in the Indo-European languages, while omitting Hindi . In 1818, Danish linguist Rasmus Christian Rask elaborated

430-659: A PIE homeland, the Kurgan and Anatolian hypotheses are the ones most widely accepted, and also the ones most debated against each other. Following the publication of several studies on ancient DNA in 2015, Colin Renfrew, the original author and proponent of the Anatolian hypothesis, has accepted the reality of migrations of populations speaking one or several Indo-European languages from the Pontic steppe towards Northwestern Europe. The table lists

516-486: A chariot across the heavens. There are no mentions of Selene's chariot in either Homer or Hesiod , but the Homeric Hymn to Selene , gives the following description: The air, unlit before, glows with the light of her golden crown, and her rays beam clear, whensoever bright Selene having bathed her lovely body in the waters of Ocean, and donned her far-gleaming raiment, and yoked her strong-necked, shining team, drives on her long-maned horses at full speed, at eventime in

602-544: A conventional mark of reconstructed words, such as * wódr̥ , * ḱwn̥tós , or * tréyes ; these forms are the reconstructed ancestors of the modern English words water , hound , and three , respectively. No direct evidence of PIE exists; scholars have reconstructed PIE from its present-day descendants using the comparative method . For example, compare the pairs of words in Italian and English: piede and foot , padre and father , pesce and fish . Since there

688-453: A detailed, though conservative, overview of the lexical knowledge accumulated by 1959. Jerzy Kuryłowicz's 1956 Apophonie gave a better understanding of Indo-European ablaut . From the 1960s, knowledge of Anatolian became robust enough to establish its relationship to PIE. Scholars have proposed multiple hypotheses about when, where, and by whom PIE was spoken. The Kurgan hypothesis , first put forward in 1956 by Marija Gimbutas , has become

774-515: A distinct set of four Horae, the daughters of Helios . Quintus Smyrnaeus also attributes the Horae as the daughters of Helios and Selene , and describes them as the four handmaidens of Hera . The seasons were personified by the ancients, the Greeks represented them generally as women but on some antique monuments they are depicted as winged children with attributes peculiar to each season. The Greek words for

860-422: A fragment from a poem, possibly written by Pamprepius , she is called κυανῶπις ( kyanṓpis , "dark-eyed"). Mesomedes of Crete calls her γλαυκὰ ( glaukà , "silvery grey"). The usual account of Selene's origin is given by Hesiod in his Theogony , where the sun-god Hyperion espoused his sister Theia , who gave birth to "great Helios and clear Selene and Eos who shines upon all that are on earth and upon

946-508: 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. 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

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1032-606: A language. From the 1870s, the Neogrammarians proposed that sound laws have no exceptions, as illustrated by Verner's law , published in 1876, which resolved apparent exceptions to Grimm's law by exploring the role of accent (stress) in language change. August Schleicher 's A Compendium of the Comparative Grammar of the Indo-European, Sanskrit, Greek and Latin Languages (1874–77) represented an early attempt to reconstruct

1118-433: A mortal princess, who was later deified as a goddess of cold mountain winds), and the goddess/personification of snow and winter . Along with Chione, Thallo, Auxo, and Carpo were a part of the entourage of the goddess of the turn of the seasons, Persephone . Of the second triad associated to Themis and Zeus for law and order: The last triad of Horae was identified by Hyginus : Nonnus in his Dionysiaca mentions

1204-444: A mountain, Mt. Lilaeon. Ovid mentions how in the myth of Phaethon , Helios' son who drove his father's chariot for a day, when Phaethon lost control of the chariot and burned the earth, Selene in the sky looked down to see in amazement her brother's horses running wild lower than normal. In antiquity, artistic representations of Selene/Luna included sculptural reliefs, vase paintings, coins, and gems. In red-figure pottery before

1290-447: A relief of Selene driving a single horse, as it seemed to him, or as some said, a mule, on the pedestal of the Statue of Zeus at Olympia (c. 435 BC). While the sun chariot has four horses, Selene's usually has two, described as "snow-white" by Ovid . In some later accounts the chariot was drawn by oxen or bulls. Though the moon chariot is often described as being silver, for Pindar it

1376-426: A sign to mortal men. ... Hail, white-armed goddess, bright Selene, mild, bright-tressed queen! Two other sources also mention her hair. The Homeric Hymn to Helios uses the same epithet εὐπλόκαμος ("bright-tressed"), used in the above Hymn to Selene (elsewhere translated as "rich-", "lovely-", or "well-tressed"), while Epimenides uses the epithet ἠυκόμοιο ("lovely-haired"). In late accounts, Selene (like

1462-597: A thousand years. According to the prevailing Kurgan hypothesis , the original homeland of the Proto-Indo-Europeans may have been in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Europe. The linguistic reconstruction of PIE has provided insight into the pastoral culture and patriarchal religion of its speakers. As speakers of Proto-Indo-European became isolated from each other through the Indo-European migrations ,

1548-508: A wheat-sheaf; Autumn, as a Bacchante, in a violet-coloured garment, pressing grapes with one band into a golden cup, which she holds in the other; and Winter as an aged person, placed in the shade at a great distance from the god. Finally, a quite separate suite of Horae personified the twelve hours (originally only ten), as tutelary goddesses of the times of day. The hours run from just before sunrise to just after sunset, thus winter hours are short, summer hours are long: According to Hyginus ,

1634-422: Is a consistent correspondence of the initial consonants ( p and f ) that emerges far too frequently to be coincidental, one can infer that these languages stem from a common parent language . Detailed analysis suggests a system of sound laws to describe the phonetic and phonological changes from the hypothetical ancestral words to the modern ones. These laws have become so detailed and reliable as to support

1720-470: Is as the daughter of Hyperion and Theia , and sister of Helios and Eos . She was, however, the subject of one of the thirty-three Homeric Hymns , which gives the following description: And next, sweet voiced Muses, daughters of Zeus, well-skilled in song, tell of the long-winged Moon. From her immortal head a radiance is shown from heaven and embraces earth; and great is the beauty that ariseth from her shining light. The air, unlit before, glows with

1806-567: Is believed to have had an elaborate system of morphology that included inflectional suffixes (analogous to English child, child's, children, children's ) as well as ablaut (vowel alterations, as preserved in English sing, sang, sung, song ) and accent . PIE nominals and pronouns had a complex system of declension , and verbs similarly had a complex system of conjugation . The PIE phonology , particles , numerals , and copula are also well-reconstructed. Asterisks are used by linguists as

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1892-436: Is called Phoebus ("bright"), Selene, from her identification with Artemis, is also called Phoebe (feminine form). Also from Artemis, Selene was sometimes called "Cynthia", meaning "she of Mount Cynthus " (the birthplace of Artemis). 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 origin, although they were sidelined by later non-PIE newcomers to

1978-459: Is ever waxing or gibbous, whether she is populated or not, and stating that she is getting her stolen light from the Sun , causing strife and ill feelings between her and her brother . She asks Menippus to report her grievances to Zeus , with the request that Zeus wipes all these natural philosophers from the face of the earth. Zeus agrees, urged by Selene's complaints and having long intended to deal with

2064-609: Is in the Iliad where they appear as keepers of Zeus 's cloud gates. "Hardly any traces of that function are found in the subsequent tradition," Karl Galinsky remarked in passing. They were daughters of Zeus and Themis , half-sisters to the Moirai . The Horai are mentioned in two aspects in Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns : Of the first, more familiar, triad associated with Aphrodite and Zeus

2150-530: 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. Surviving descriptions of Selene's physical appearance and character, apart from those which would apply to the moon itself, are scant. There is no mention of Selene as a goddess in either the Iliad or the Odyssey of Homer , while her only mention in Hesiod 's Theogony

2236-654: Is not possible. Forming an exception, Phrygian is sufficiently well-attested to allow proposals of a particularly close affiliation with Greek, and a Graeco-Phrygian branch of Indo-European is becoming increasingly accepted. Proto-Indo-European phonology has been reconstructed in some detail. Notable features of the most widely accepted (but not uncontroversial) reconstruction include: The vowels in commonly used notation are: Selene In ancient Greek mythology and religion , Selene ( / s ɪ ˈ l iː n iː / ; Ancient Greek : Σελήνη pronounced [selɛ̌ːnɛː] seh- LEH -neh , meaning "Moon")

2322-594: Is recognized in the male deity and Selene's brother Helios. It seems however that unlike the Dawn (Eos) and the Sun (Helios), the Moon had very little importance in PIE mythology. 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 ( Ancient Greek : Ϝελένα , romanized :  Weléna ), ruling out any possible connection between them. 'Helen'

2408-502: Is the goddess and personification of the Moon . Also known as Mene , she is traditionally the daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia , and sister of the sun god Helios and the dawn goddess Eos . She drives her moon chariot across the heavens. Several lovers are attributed to her in various myths, including Zeus , Pan , and the mortal Endymion . In post-classical times, Selene

2494-424: Is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family . No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. Far more work has gone into reconstructing PIE than any other proto-language , and it is the best understood of all proto-languages of its age. The majority of linguistic work during

2580-522: Is their origins as emblems of times of life, growth (and the classical three seasons of year): At Athens, two Horae: Thallo (the Hora of spring) and Carpo (the Hora of autumn), also appear in rites of Attica noted by Pausanias in the 2nd century AD. Thallo, Auxo and Carpo are often accompanied by Chione , a daughter of Boreas (the god/ personification of the North Wind ) and Orithyia/ Oreithyia (originally

2666-412: Is three; Eirene ("peace"), Eunomia ("order"), and Dike ("justice"), and their parents are Zeus and Themis instead. Lastly, Selene was said to be the mother of the legendary Greek poet Musaeus , with, according to Philochorus , the father being the legendary seer Eumolpus . Like her brother Helios, the Sun god, who drives his sun chariot across the sky each day, Selene is also said to drive

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2752-531: The Doric and Aeolic dialects, her name was also spelled Σελάνα ( Selána ) and Σελάννα ( Selánna ) respectively. Selene was also called Mene . The Greek word mene , meant the moon, and the lunar month. The masculine form of mene ( men ) was also the name of the Phrygian moon-god Men . Mene and Men both derive from Proto-Hellenic *méns ("month"), itself from Proto-Indo-European *mḗh₁n̥s (meaning moon,

2838-531: The Gigantomachy . When Gaia heard of a prophecy that a mortal would help the gods to defeat the giants, she sought to find a herb that would make them undefeatable. Zeus heard of that, and ordered Selene as well as her siblings Helios ( Sun ) and Eos ( Dawn ) not to shine, and harvested all of that plant for himself. Selene's participation in the battle is evidenced by her inclusion in the Gigantomachy frieze of

2924-549: The Indian subcontinent became aware of similarities between Indo-Iranian languages and European languages, and as early as 1653, Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn had published a proposal for a proto-language ("Scythian") for the following language families: Germanic , Romance , Greek , Baltic , Slavic , Celtic , and Iranian . In a memoir sent to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in 1767, Gaston-Laurent Coeurdoux ,

3010-576: The Neogrammarian hypothesis : the Indo-European sound laws apply without exception. William Jones , an Anglo-Welsh philologist and puisne judge in Bengal , caused an academic sensation when in 1786 he postulated the common ancestry of Sanskrit , Greek , Latin , Gothic , the Celtic languages , and Old Persian , but he was not the first to state such a hypothesis. In the 16th century, European visitors to

3096-506: The Pergamon Altar , fighting against Giants next to her siblings Helios and Eos and her mother Theia in the southern frieze. Selene gallops sidesaddle in advance, and wears a woolen undergarment and a mantle. Additionally, on a rein guide for a chariot a goddess thought to be Selene with a crescent and veil over her head is depicted, who stands with Helios on a gate tower and tries to repel the attacks of snake-legged Giants. According to

3182-471: The 19th century was devoted to the reconstruction of PIE and its daughter languages , and many of the modern techniques of linguistic reconstruction (such as the comparative method ) were developed as a result. PIE is hypothesized to have been spoken as a single language from approximately 4500 BCE to 2500 BCE during the Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age , though estimates vary by more than

3268-428: The Greek populace. A famous example of that is Aglaonice of Thessaly, an ancient Greek astronomer, who was regarded as a sorceress for her (self-proclaimed) ability to make the Moon disappear from the sky ( καθαιρεῖν τὴν σελήνην : kathaireĩn tén selénen ). This claim has been taken–by Plutarch at first, and subsequently by modern astronomers–to mean that she could predict the time and general area where an eclipse of

3354-580: 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." The eternally sleeping Endymion

3440-584: The Lion of Nemea fell from the moon", and quotes Epimenides as saying: For I am sprung from fair-tressed Selene the Moon, who in a fearful shudder shook off the savage lion in Nemea, and brought him forth at the bidding of Queen Hera. Anaxagoras also reports that the Nemean lion was said to have fallen from the moon. Pseudo-Plutarch 's On Rivers has Hera collaborating with Selene, "employing magical incantations" to create

3526-536: The Moon came to be associated with physical growth, menstruation and sickness, the latter particularly in the context of demonic possession or even epilepsy. Owing to her role as the moon goddess, she was sometimes called Nyctimedusa ( Ancient Greek : Νυκτιμέδουσα , romanized :  Nuktimédousa ), meaning "queen of the night". Selene is best known for her affair with the beautiful mortal Endymion . The late 7th-century – early 6th-century BC poet Sappho apparently mentioned Selene and Endymion. However,

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3612-405: 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". Theocritus portrays Endymion's sleep as enviable because (presumably) of Selene's love for him. Cicero seems to make Selene responsible for Endymion's sleep, so that "she might kiss him while sleeping". The Roman playwright Seneca , has Selene abandoned

3698-401: The Moon would occur. Those who brought down the Moon were thought to bring ill fortune upon themselves, as evidenced by the proverb ἐπὶ σαυτῷ τὴν σελήνην καθαιρεῖς ("you are bringing down the Moon on yourself") said for those who caused self-inflicted evils; some witches supposedly avoided this fate by sacrificing their children or their eyeballs. In popular and common belief, Selene as

3784-473: The Nemean Lion from a chest filled with foam. Hyginus says that Selene had "nourished" the lion in a "two-mouthed cave". According to Virgil , Selene also had a tryst with the god Pan , who seduced her with a "snowy bribe of wool". Scholia on Virgil add the story, ascribed to Nicander , that as part of the seduction, Pan wrapped himself in a sheepskin. Diodorus Siculus recorded an unorthodox version of

3870-558: The North Adriatic region are sometimes classified as Italic. Albanian and Greek are the only surviving Indo-European descendants of a Paleo-Balkan language area, named for their occurrence in or in the vicinity of the Balkan peninsula . Most of the other languages of this area—including Illyrian , Thracian , and Dacian —do not appear to be members of any other subfamilies of PIE, but are so poorly attested that proper classification of them

3956-622: The Pontic–Caspian steppe and into eastern Europe. Other theories include the Anatolian hypothesis , which posits that PIE spread out from Anatolia with agriculture beginning c. 7500–6000 BCE, the Armenian hypothesis , the Paleolithic continuity paradigm , and the indigenous Aryans theory. The last two of these theories are not regarded as credible within academia. Out of all the theories for

4042-517: The Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Kartvelian languages due to early language contact , as well as some morphological similarities—notably the Indo-European ablaut , which is remarkably similar to the root ablaut system reconstructible for Proto-Kartvelian. The Lusitanian language was a marginally attested language spoken in areas near the border between present-day Portugal and Spain . The Venetic and Liburnian languages known from

4128-484: The birth of Aphrodite on the base of the Statue of Zeus at Olympia . There are indications of a similar framing by Selene and Helios of the birth of Pandora on the base of the Athena Parthenos . Pausanias also reports seeing stone images of Helios, and Selene, in the market-place at Elea , with rays projecting from the head of Helios, and horns from the head of Selene. Selene also appears on horseback as part of

4214-588: The common origin of Sanskrit, Persian, Greek, Latin, and German. In 1833, he began publishing the Comparative Grammar of Sanskrit, Zend , Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, Old Slavic, Gothic, and German . In 1822, Jacob Grimm formulated what became known as Grimm's law as a general rule in his Deutsche Grammatik . Grimm showed correlations between the Germanic and other Indo-European languages and demonstrated that sound change systematically transforms all words of

4300-577: The daughter of Selene and Zeus. Selene and Zeus were also said to be the parents of Nemea, the eponymous nymph of Nemea , where Heracles slew the Nemean Lion , and where the Nemean Games were held. From Pausanias we hear that Selene was supposed to have had fifty daughters, by her lover Endymion , often assumed to represent the fifty lunar months of the Olympiad . Nonnus has Selene and Endymion as

4386-404: The deathless Gods who live in the wide heaven". The Homeric Hymn to Helios follows this tradition: "Hyperion wedded glorious Euryphaëssa, his own sister, who bare him lovely children, rosy-armed Eos and rich-tressed Selene and tireless Helios", with Euryphaëssa ("widely shining") probably being an epithet of Theia. However, the Homeric Hymn to Hermes has Selene as the daughter of Pallas,

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4472-440: The early 5th century BC, she is depicted only as a bust, or in profile against a lunar disk. In later art, like other celestial divinities such as Helios, Eos, and Nyx (Night), Selene rides across the heavens. She is usually portrayed either driving a chariot (see above) or riding sideways on horseback (sometimes riding an ox, a mule or a ram). Selene was often paired with her brother Helios. Selene (probably) and Helios adorned

4558-609: The east pediment of the Parthenon , where the two, each driving a four-horsed chariot, framed a scene depicting the birth of Athena , with Helios and his chariot rising from the ocean on the left, and Selene and her chariot descending into the sea on the right. Selene and Helios also appear on the North Metopes of the Parthenon, with Selene this time entering the sea on horseback. From Pausanias, we learn that Selene and Helios also framed

4644-577: The effects of hypothetical sounds which no longer exist in all languages documented prior to the excavation of cuneiform tablets in Anatolian. This theory was first proposed by Ferdinand de Saussure in 1879 on the basis of internal reconstruction only, and progressively won general acceptance after Jerzy Kuryłowicz 's discovery of consonantal reflexes of these reconstructed sounds in Hittite. Julius Pokorny 's Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch ('Indo-European Etymological Dictionary', 1959) gave

4730-461: The first account of the story comes from the third-century BC Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes , which tells of Selene's "mad passion" and her visiting the "fair Endymion" in a cave on Mount Latmus : 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

4816-478: The four seasons of year: Here Spring appears with flowery chaplets bound. Here Summer in her wheaten garland crown'd; Here Autumn the rich trodden grapes besmear. And hoary Winter shivers in the rear. Nicolas Poussin has represented the four seasons by subjects drawn from the Bible : Spring is portrayed by Adam and Eve in paradise: Summer, by Ruth gleaning: Autumn, by Joshua and Caleb bearing grapes from

4902-553: The gates of Olympus , promoted the fertility of the earth, and rallied the stars and constellations. The course of the seasons was also symbolically described as the dance of the Horae, and they were accordingly given the attributes of spring flowers, fragrance and graceful freshness; for example, in Hesiod 's Works and Days , the fair-haired Horai , together with the Charites and Peitho crown Pandora —she of "all gifts"—with garlands of flowers. Similarly Aphrodite , emerging from

4988-403: The girl into a fly ( Ancient Greek : μυῖα , romanized :  muía ). In memory of the beautiful Endymion, the fly still grudges all sleepers their rest and annoys them. Philologist Max Müller 's interpretation of solar mythology as it related to Selene and Endymion concluded that the myth was a narrativized version of linguistic terminology. Because the Greek endyein meant "to dive,"

5074-455: The god Dionysus . One day, in Nonnus' account, Ampelus rode on a bull, and proceeded to compare himself to Selene, saying that he was her equal, having horns and riding bulls just like her. The goddess took offense, and sent a gadfly to sting Ampelus' bull. The bull panicked, threw Ampelus and gored him to death. When Zeus desired to sleep with the mortal queen Alcmene and sire Heracles, he made

5160-419: The late account of Nonnus , when the gigantic monster Typhon laid siege against the heavens, he attacked Selene as well by hurling bulls at her, though she managed to stay in her course, and rushed at her hissing like a viper. Selene fought back the giant, locking horns with Typhon; afterwards, she carried many scars on her orb, reminiscent of their battle. Ampelus was a very beautiful satyr youth, loved by

5246-400: The light of her golden crown, and her rays beam clear, whensoever bright Selene having bathed her lovely body in the waters of Ocean, and donned her far-gleaming raiment, and yoked her strong-necked, shining team, drives on her long-maned horses at full speed, at eventime in the mid-month: then her great orbit is full and then her beams shine brightest as she increases. So she is a sure token and

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5332-756: The list is only of nine, borrowed from the three classical triads alternated: A distinct set of ten or twelve Hours is much less known and they are described as daughters of Chronos (Time): The last set of hours of the day and night is allegorically represented in the following: Proto-Indo-European Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European Proto-Indo-European ( PIE )

5418-674: The lunar month), which probably comes from the root *meh₁- ("to measure"), and is cognate with the English words "Moon" and "month". The Greek Stoic philosopher Chrysippus interpreted Selene and Men as, respectively, the female and male aspects of the same god. Although no clear attestation for Selene herself (or any prodecessor of hers) has been discovered, in Mycenaean Greek the word for month 'men' has been found in Linear B spelled as 𐀕𐀜 (me-no, from genitive form μηνός , mēnós ). Just as Helios, from his identification with Apollo,

5504-654: The main Indo-European language families, comprising the languages descended from Proto-Indo-European. Slavic: Russian , Ukrainian , Belarusian , Polish , Czech , Slovak , Sorbian , Serbo-Croatian , Bulgarian , Slovenian , Macedonian , Kashubian , Rusyn Iranic: Persian , Pashto , Balochi , Kurdish , Zaza , Ossetian , Luri , Talyshi , Tati , Gilaki , Mazandarani , Semnani , Yaghnobi ; Nuristani Commonly proposed subgroups of Indo-European languages include Italo-Celtic , Graeco-Aryan , Graeco-Armenian , Graeco-Phrygian , Daco-Thracian , and Thraco-Illyrian . There are numerous lexical similarities between

5590-571: The mid-month: then her great orbit is full and then her beams shine brightest as she increases. So she is a sure token and a sign to mortal men. The earliest known depiction of Selene driving a chariot adorns the inside of an early 5th century BC red-figure cup attributed to the Brygos Painter , showing Selene plunging her chariot, drawn by two winged horses, into the sea (Berlin Antikensammlung F 2293). The geographer Pausanias , reports seeing

5676-408: The moon itself) is often described as having horns. The Orphic Hymn to Selene addresses her as "O bull-horned Moon", and further describes her as "torch-bearing, ... feminine and masculine, ... lover of horses," and grantor of "fulfillment and favor". Empedocles , Euripides and Nonnus all describe her as γλαυκῶπις ( glaukṓpis , "bright-eyed", a common epithet of the goddess Athena ) while in

5762-524: The most popular. It proposes that the original speakers of PIE were the Yamnaya culture associated with the kurgans (burial mounds) on the Pontic–Caspian steppe north of the Black Sea. According to the theory, they were nomadic pastoralists who domesticated the horse , which allowed them to migrate across Europe and Asia in wagons and chariots. By the early 3rd millennium BCE, they had expanded throughout

5848-428: The myth, in which Basileia, who had succeeded her father Uranus to his royal throne, married her brother Hyperion, and had two children, a son Helios and a daughter Selene, "admired for both their beauty and their chastity". Because Basileia's other brothers envied these offspring, and feared that Hyperion would try to seize power for himself, they conspired against him. They put Hyperion to the sword, and drowned Helios in

5934-505: The name Endymion ("Diver") at first simply described the process of the setting sun "diving" into the sea. In this case, the story of Selene embracing Endymion, or Moon embraces Diver, refers to the sun setting and the moon rising. Gaia , angered about her children the Titans being thrown into Tartarus following their defeat, brought forth the Giants , to attack the gods, in a war that was called

6020-455: The night last three days, and ordered Selene via Hermes to dawdle in the sky during that time. Selene also played a small role in the first of Heracles' twelve labours ; whereas for Hesiod, the Nemean Lion was born to Orthrus and the Chimera (or perhaps Echidna ) and raised by Hera , other accounts have Selene involved in some way in its birth or rearing. Aelian states: "They say that

6106-505: The night sky for Endymion's sake having entrusted her "shining" moon chariot to her brother Helios to drive. The Greek satirist Lucian 's dialogue between Selene and the love goddess Aphrodite has the two goddesses commiserate about their love affairs with Endymion and Adonis , and suggests that Selene has fallen in love with Endymion while watching him sleep each night. In his dialogue between Aphrodite and Eros, Lucian also has Aphrodite admonish her son Eros for bringing Selene "down from

6192-538: The order of nature), or Eunomia (goddess of good order and lawful conduct) and her sisters Dike (goddess of Justice) and Eirene (goddess of Peace). In Argos , two Horae, rather than three, were recognised, presumably winter and summer: Auxesia (possibly another name for Auxo) and Damia (possibly another name for Carpo). In late euhemerist interpretations, they were seen as Cretan maidens who were worshipped as goddesses after they had been wrongfully stoned to death. The earliest written mention of Horai

6278-487: 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. The original PIE moon deity has been reconstructed as *Meh₁not (from which 'Mene', Selene's byname, is derived), and it appears that it was a male god. The Greek offshoot of this deity however is female. The ancient Greek language had three grammatical genders (masculine, feminine and neuter), so when

6364-480: The parents of the beautiful Narcissus , although in other accounts, including Ovid 's Metamorphoses , Narcissus was the son of Cephissus and Liriope . Quintus Smyrnaeus makes Selene, by her brother Helios , the mother of the Horae , goddesses and personifications of the four seasons; Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn. Quintus describes them as the four handmaidens of Hera, but in most other accounts their number

6450-482: The philosophers himself. Claudian wrote that in her infancy, when her horns had not yet grown, Selene (along with Helios – their sister Eos is not mentioned with them) was nursed by her aunt, the water goddess Tethys . According to pseudo-Plutarch , Lilaeus was an Indian shepherd who only worshipped Selene among the gods and performed her rituals and mysteries at night. The other gods, angered, sent him two lions to tear him apart. Selene then turned Lilaeus into

6536-411: The promised land; and Winter, by the deluge . In more modern representations the seasons are often surrounding Apollo: Spring, as Flora, crowned with flowers, and in a shaded green drapery over a white robe: Summer, standing under the lion in the zodiac, with a gold-coloured drapery over a white gauze vestment, the edges of which are tinged by the yellow rays of the sun, holding a sickle, having near her

6622-426: The proto-Indo-European language. By the early 1900s, Indo-Europeanists had developed well-defined descriptions of PIE which scholars still accept today. Later, the discovery of the Anatolian and Tocharian languages added to the corpus of descendant languages. A subtle new principle won wide acceptance: the laryngeal theory , which explained irregularities in the reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European phonology as

6708-428: The regional dialects of Proto-Indo-European spoken by the various groups diverged, as each dialect underwent shifts in pronunciation (the Indo-European sound laws ), morphology, and vocabulary. Over many centuries, these dialects transformed into the known ancient Indo-European languages. From there, further linguistic divergence led to the evolution of their current descendants, the modern Indo-European languages. PIE

6794-439: The river Eridanus. Selene herself, upon discovering this, took her own life. After these deaths, her brother appeared in a dream to their grieving mother and assured her that he and his sister would now transform into divine natures; and: that which had formerly been called the "holy fire" in the heavens would be called by men Helius ("the sun") and that addressed as "menê" would be called Selenê ("the moon"). Plutarch recorded

6880-527: The sea and coming ashore at Cyprus , is dressed and adorned by the Horai , and, according to a surviving fragment of the epic Cypria , Aphrodite wore clothing made for her by the Charites and Horai, dyed with spring flowers, such as the Horai themselves wear. The number of Horae varied according to different sources, but was most commonly three: either the trio of Thallo , Auxo , and Carpo (goddesses of

6966-708: The set of correspondences in his prize essay Undersøgelse om det gamle Nordiske eller Islandske Sprogs Oprindelse ('Investigation of the Origin of the Old Norse or Icelandic Language'), where he argued that Old Norse was related to the Germanic languages, and had even suggested a relation to the Baltic, Slavic, Greek, Latin and Romance languages. In 1816, Franz Bopp published On the System of Conjugation in Sanskrit , in which he investigated

7052-537: The sky". While Quintus Smyrnaeus wrote that, while Endymion slept in his cave beside his cattle: Divine Selene watched him from on high, and slid from heaven to earth; for passionate love drew down the immortal stainless Queen of Night." Lucian also records an otherwise unattested myth where a pretty young girl called Muia becomes Selene's rival for Endymion's affections; the chatty maiden would endlessly talk to him while he slept, causing him to wake up. This irritated Endymion, and enraged Selene, who transforms

7138-509: The son of an otherwise unknown Megamedes. This Pallas is possibly identified with the Pallas , who, according to Hesiod's Theogony , was the son of the Titan Crius , and thus Selene's cousin. Other accounts give still other parents for Selene: Euripides has Selene as the daughter of Helios (rather than sister), while an Aeschylus fragment possibly has Selene as the daughter of Leto , as does

7224-488: Was golden. In antiquity, the lunar eclipse phenomena were thought to be caused by witches, particularly the ones from Thessaly , who brought the Moon/Selene down with spells and invocations of magic. References to this magical trick, variously referred to as καθαιρεῖν ( kathaireĩn ), are scattered throughout ancient literature, whereas eclipses of both the Sun and the Moon were called kathaireseis ("casting-downs") by

7310-516: Was often identified with Artemis , much as her brother, Helios, was identified with Apollo . Selene and Artemis were also associated with Hecate and all three were regarded as moon and lunar goddesses , but only Selene was regarded as the personification of the Moon itself. Her equivalent in Roman religion and mythology is the goddess Luna . The name "Selene" is derived from the Greek noun selas ( σέλας ), meaning "light, brightness, gleam". In

7396-543: Was proverbial, but exactly how this eternal sleep came about and what role, if any, Selene may have had in it is unclear. According to the Catalogue of Women , Endymion was the son of Aethlius (a son of Zeus), and Zeus granted him the right to choose when he would die. A scholiast on Apollonius says that, according to Epimenides , Endymion fell in love with Hera, and Zeus punished him with eternal sleep. However, Apollodorus says that because of Endymion's "surpassing beauty,

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