InGreek mythology,Endymion[a](/ɛnˈdɪmiən/;Ancient Greek:Ἐνδυμίων,gen.: Ἐνδυμίωνος) was variously a handsomeAeolianshepherd,hunter, or king who was said to rule and live at Olympia inElis.[1]He was also venerated and said to reside onMount LatmusinCaria,on the west coast ofAsia Minor.[2]
| Endymion | |
|---|---|
 The Sleep of EndymionbyAnne-Louis Girodet(1791), Musée du Louvre, Paris. | |
| Abode | ElisorMount Latmus |
| Genealogy | |
| Parents | AethliusandCalyce ZeusandPhoenissa |
| Consort | Selene IphianassaorAsterodiaorChromiaorHyperippe |
| Children | Narcissus,Aetolus,Eurypyle,Eurycyda,Paeon,Epeius,fifty daughters withSelene |
There is confusion over Endymion's identity, as some sources suppose that he was, or was related to, the prince ofElis,and others suggest he was a shepherd from Caria. There is also a later suggestion that he was an astronomer:Pliny the Elder[3]mentions Endymion as the first human to observe the movements of the moon, which (according to Pliny) accounts for Endymion's infatuation with its tutelary goddess. Consequently, Endymion's tomb has been attributed to two different sites. The people ofHeracleiaclaimed that he was laid to rest on Mount Latmus, while the Eleans declared that it was atOlympia.[4]
However, the role of lover ofSelene,the Moon, is attributed primarily to the Endymion who was either a shepherd or an astronomer, as either profession provides justification for the time he spent gazing at the Moon.[citation needed]
Mythology
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Apollonius of Rhodes[5](3rd century BC) is one of the many poets[6]who tell howSelene,theTitangoddess of the Moon,[b]loved the mortal Endymion. She found Endymion so beautiful that she asked his cousin,Zeus,to grant him eternal youth so that he would never leave her. Alternatively, Selene so loved how Endymion looked when he was asleep in the cave onMount Latmus,nearMiletusin Caria,[7]that she entreated Zeus that he might remain that way. In some versions, Zeus wanted to punish Endymion for daring to show romantic interest inHera(much likeIxion). Whatever the case, Zeus granted Selene's wish and put Endymion into an eternal sleep. Every night, Selene visited him where he slept, and by him had fifty daughters[8]who are equated by some scholars (such asJames George FrazerorH. J. Rose) with the fifty months of theOlympiad.[9][need quotation to verify].[10][11]
According to a passage in theDeipnosophistae,the sophist anddithyrambicpoetLicymnius of Chios[12](probably 4th century BCE) told a different tale, in whichHypnos,the god of sleep, loves Endymion and does not close the eyes of his beloved even while he is asleep, but lulls him to rest with eyes wide open so that he may without interruption enjoy the pleasure of gazing at them.[13]
TheBibliothekeclaims that:
CalyceandAethliushad a son Endymion who led Aeolians fromThessalyand foundedElis.But some say that he was a son of Zeus. As he was of unsurpassed 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. Endymion had by aNaiadnymph or, as some say, byIphianassa,a sonAetolus,who slewApis,son ofPhoroneus,and fled to theCuretiancountry. There he killed his hosts, Dorus and Laodocus andPolypoetes,the sons ofPhthiaandApollo,and called the countryAetoliaafter himself.[14]
In a similar vein, a scholiast onApollonius Rhodiuswrote that, according toHesiod,Zeus allowed Endymion to be the keeper of his own death and to decide on his own when he would die.[15]
According toPausanias,Endymion deposedClymenus,son of Cardys, atOlympia.[16]Describing the "early history" of the Eleans, Pausanias reports that:
- The first to rule in this land, they say, was Aethlius, who was the son of Zeus and ofProtogeneia,the daughter ofDeucalion,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 wifeAsterodia—others say she wasChromia,the daughter ofItonus,the son ofAmphictyon;others again,Hyperippe,the daughter ofArcas—but all agree that Endymion begatPaeon,Epeius,Aetolus,and also a daughterEurycyda.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. Of his brothers they say that Aetolus remained at home, while Paeon, vexed at his defeat, went into the farthest exile possible, and that the region beyond the riverAxiuswas named after himPaeonia.As to the death of Endymion, the people ofHeracleianear Miletus do not agree with the Eleans for while the Eleans show a tomb of Endymion, the folk of Heracleia say that he retired to Mount Latmus and give him honor, there being a shrine of Endymion on Latmus.[17]
Pausanias also reports seeing a statue of Endymion in the treasury ofMetapontinesat Olympia.[18]
Propertius(Book 2, el. 15),Cicero'sTusculanae Quaestiones(Book 1), andTheocritusdiscuss the Endymion myth at some length, but reiterate the above to varying degrees. The myth surrounding Endymion has been expanded and reworked during the modern period by figures likeHenry Wadsworth LongfellowandJohn Keats(in his 1818 narrative poemEndymion).
The satirical authorLucianofSamosatarecords an otherwise unattested myth where a fair nymph namedMyiabecomes Selene's rival for Endymion's affections; the chatty nymph would endlessly talk to him when he slept, waking him up. This annoyed Endymion, and enraged Selene, who transformed the girl into a fly. In memory of Endymion, the fly still grudges all sleepers their rest.[19]
| Relation | Names | Sources | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hesiod | Conon | Apollodorus | Pausanias | Nonnus | Clement | Stephanus | |||
| Parents | Aethlius and Calyce | ✓ | ✓ | ||||||
| Aethlius | ✓ | ||||||||
| Aethnos | ✓ | ||||||||
| Zeus | ✓ | ||||||||
| Zeus and Phoenissa | ✓ | ||||||||
| Wife | Naiad nymph | ✓ | |||||||
| Iphianassa | ✓ | ||||||||
| Selene | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||
| Asterodia | ✓ | ||||||||
| Cromia | ✓ | ||||||||
| Hyperippe | ✓ | ||||||||
| Children | Aetolus | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||
| Eurypyle | ✓ | ||||||||
| 50 daughters | ✓ | ||||||||
| Eurycyda | ✓ | ||||||||
| Epeius | ✓ | ||||||||
| Paeon | ✓ | ||||||||
| Narcissus | ✓ | ||||||||
| Naxos | ✓ | ||||||||
Background
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No explicit narrative has survived. In theArgonautica(iv.57ff) the "daughter of Titan," the Moon, was witness toMedea's fearful night-time flight toJason,and "rejoiced with malicious pleasure as she reflected to herself: 'I'm not the only one then to skulk off to the Latmian cave, nor is it only I that burn with desire for fair Endymion'"she muses." But now you yourself it would seem, are a victim of a madness like mine. "[21]Lemprière'sClassical Dictionaryreinforces Pliny's account of Endymion's attachment to astronomy and cites it as the source of why Endymion was said to have a relationship with the moon as she passed by.
Themythemeof Endymion being not dead but endlessly asleep, which was proverbial (the proverb—Endymionis somnum dormire,"to sleep the sleep of Endymion" )[22]ensured that scenes of Endymion and Selene were popular subjects for sculptedsarcophagiinLate Antiquity,when after-death existence began to be a heightened concern. The Louvre example, discovered atSaint-Médard-d'Eyrans,France (illustration above), is one of this class.
Some[who?]believe that he was the personification of sleep, or the sunset (most likely the last one as his name, if it were Greek rather thanCariancan be construed from "to dive in" [Greeken(ἐν) in, andduein(δύειν) dive], which would imply a representation of that sort. Latin writers explained the name fromsomnum ei inductum,the "sleep put upon him".[23])
The myth of Endymion was never easily transferred to ever-chasteArtemis,the Olympian associated with the Moon.[24]In the Renaissance, the revived moon goddessDianahad the Endymion myth attached to her.
Notes
edit- ^Michael Drayton's spelling inEndimion and Phœbe(1597) did not catch on.
- ^Her Roman equivalent isLuna.
Citations
edit- ^Classical sources linking Endymion with Elis includePausanias,5.1.3&Pseudo-Apollodorus.Bibliotheca, 1.7.5-6
- ^Classical sources linking Endymion with Mount Latmus includeOvid,Heroides,18.61–65;Ovid,Ars Amatoria,3.83;Lucian,Dialogi Deorum19,where Endymion is discussed byAphroditeand Selene;Cicero,Tusculan Disputationsi.38.92.
- ^Pliny'sNaturalis HistoriaBook II.IV.43.
- ^John Lemprière'sClassical Dictionary
- ^Argonautica4.57ff.
- ^ComparePlato,Phaedo72c.
- ^Sappholocalises the myth at Mount Latmus.
- ^Pausanias5.1.4
- ^J. Davidson, "Time and Greek Religion", inA Companion to Greek Religion,edited by D. Ogden (John Wiley & Sons, 2010)ISBN978-1-44433417-3,pp. 204–5.
- ^
Frazer, James George(1911). "The Mortality of the Gods".The Golden Bough.Volume 4, Part 3 of The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (3 ed.). London: Macmillan and Company, Limited. p. 90.Retrieved19 January2023.
[...] as scholars have already perceived, Endymion is the sunken sun overtaken by the moon below the horizon, and his fifty daughters by her are the fifty lunar months of an Olympiad, or, more strictly speaking, of every alternate Olympiad.
- ^
Bos, A. P.(1989).Cosmic and Meta-Cosmic Theology in Aristotle's Lost Dialogues.Volume 16 of Brill's studies in intellectual history. Leiden: E. J. Brill. p. 210.ISBN9789004091559.Retrieved19 January2023.
Endymion is sometimes called the founder of the Olympic games, which links up with the legend that the moon goddess bore him fifty daughters, Pausanius 5.1.4. H. J. Rose (Oxf. Class. Dict.s.v.) sees this as a reference to the fifty months of an Olympiad.
- ^Licymnius is known only through a few quoted lines and second-hand through references (William Smith, ed.Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities1870Archived2007-04-05 at theWayback Machine)
- ^Licymnius,Fragment 771(from Athenaeus, Scholars at Dinner) (trans. Campbell, Vol. Greek Lyric V)
- ^Apollodorus,1.7.5-6
- ^Hesiod,Catalogue of Womenfrag8
- ^Pausanias,Graeciae Descriptio5.8.1
- ^Pausanias,5.3–5.
- ^Pausanias,6.19.11.
- ^Lucian,Praising a Fly10
- ^Accession Number 24.97.13.
- ^Richard Hunter,Apollonius of Rhodes: Jason and the Golden Fleece(Oxford University Press) 1993:100.
- ^Described in SirJames George Frazer,ed.,Apollodorus, Library and Epitome[1].
- ^Graves, 1960, 64 note 2.
- ^Hyginus (Fabula271) identifies Endymion as he "whom Luna loved", keeping the necessary moon connection but avoiding Diana.
References
editAncient
edit- Apollonius of Rhodes,Argonautica;with an English translation by R. C. Seaton. William Heinemann, 1912.
- Apollodorus.Apollodorus,The Library,with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann 1921.
- Pausanias,Description of Greece.W.H.S. Jones (translator).Loeb Classical Library.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann (1918). Vol. 1. Books I–II:ISBN0-674-99104-4.
- Plato.Plato in Twelve Volumes,Vol. 1 translated by Harold North Fowler; introduction by W.R.M. Lamb. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann 1966.
- Lucian,Phalaris.Hippias or The Bath.Dionysus.Heracles.Amber or The Swans.The Fly.Nigrinus.Demonax.The Hall.My Native Land.Octogenarians.A True Story.Slander.The Consonants at Law.The Carousal (Symposium) or The Lapiths.Translated by A. M. Harmon. Loeb Classical Library 14. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1913.
- Hyginus.Fabulae,271.
Modern
edit- Karl Kerenyi.The Gods of the Greeks.London: Thames & Hudson, 1951 (pp. 196–98).
- Robert Graves.The Greek Myths(1955) 1960, 64 a-c.
- Natalia Agapiou. "Endymion at the Crossroads: The Fortune of the Myth of Endymion at the Dawn of the Modern Era", inRes Publica Litterarum: Studies in the Classical Tradition,27/7 (2004), p. 70-82.
- Natalia Agapiou.Endymion au carrefour. La fortune littéraire et artistique du mythe d'Endymion à l'aube de l'ère moderne(Berlin, 2005):ISBN978-3-7861-2499-3.
External links
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- ENDYMION in The Theoi Project
- ENDYMION in Greek Mythology Link
- "Diana and Endymion circa 1700–1730, by Francesco Solimena (1657–1747)".Artwork of the Month.National Museums Liverpool: Walker Art Gallery. November 1999. Archived fromthe originalon 2 February 2012.Retrieved2008-02-24.
- For works by Gerard de Lairesse, Frans Floris, in RKD (The Hague) and Bildindex (Marburg), see the; et al."Iconclass Browser".
{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) 
The Awakening of Endymion., a poem byLetitia Elizabeth Landon,being one of her Subjects for Pictures, 1837.- Diana and Endymionpainting byPierre Subleyras(c. 1740)
- The Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (images of Endymion)
