"The Astera (Stars) hide away their shining form around lovely #Selene (the Moon) when in all her fullnesss she shines over all the earth." #Sappho, Fragment 34
🏛️ Luna-Selene, relief on the pediment at the Roman Baths
#Selene driving her moon chariot, here shown as a team of four horses. She has a shining aureola around her head and the reins and her riding crop in hand. She is followed by her brother #Helios, the fish around them suggesting that one is descending and the other rising.
🏛️ Canosa, Italy, ca. 330 – 310 BCE; now at Munich, Antikensammlung
Roman sarcophagus with #Selene, the #Moon, in the top left corner with her team of horses and Helios in his quadriga on the right. The scene shows the creation of man by #Prometheus.
🏛️ Roman sarcophagus found in a mausoleum near the ancient Puteoli (Pozzuoli, Naples). Dated to the 4th century CE. Today in the National Archaeological Museum, #Naples.
"Shine, Moon of the night, horned Moon, who loves to look on revels, shine through the lattice and let your light fall on golden Callistiŏn. It is no offence for an immortal to pry into the secrets of lovers. You bless her and me, I know, O Moon, for did not Endymion set your soul afire?"
Philodemos, Epigrams 5.123
🏛️ Roman sarcophagus, detail, dated 3rd century CE
Mosaic of #Helios, #Selene and the 12 labours of the months. The Sun and the Moon are in the centre with the 12 labours arranged around them. Each of the labourers is labelled at the feet with the number of days as well as the Latin name of the month in Greek letters.
🏛️ Roman era #mosaic dated 6th century CE, Beit She'an, Israel
"Swelled like young Mene's the [#Moon's] arching chariot-rail when high over Okeanos' fathomless-flowing stream she rises, with the space half filled with light between her bowing horns."
Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 1.147
🏛️ #Fresco on the facade of the House of Venus and the Four Gods (IX. 7. 1), 1st century CE, Pompeii
Mould-made oil lamp with a circular body and a pierced handle. On the discus is a draped bust of Luna with the horns of a crescent #moon rising on each side of her.
🏛️ Roman oil lamp made by C. Atilius Vestalis, dated 90-140 CE. Today in the British Museum.
Selene-Diana and Endymion as a couple on the ivory Querinian diptych. A diptych is any object with two flat plates forming a pair, for example the standard notebook of the ancient world.
🏛️ Selene-Diana and Endymion, Roman relief, circa 5th century CE, found in Brescia and today residing in the Museo di Santa Giulia, Brescia.
Selene, with her lunar crescent emerging from her shoulders, on her way to meet her lover Endymion. The right hand, which may have held a torch, is missing.
Hail, white-armed goddess, bright #Selene, mild, bright-tressed queen! Now I'll leave you and sing the glories of demigods, whose deeds poets, the servants of the Muses, celebrate with lovely lips.
Homeric Hymn 32
Roman bronze figurine of the moon goddess Selene-Luna with the lunar crescent on her head. She used to hold her iconic torch or crop (now lost) and wears her cloak billowing over her head.
Roman denarius depicting the goddess Luna or Diana in her biga. The lunar crescent right above her and the stars around her give the impression that she is flying through the cosmos.
🏛️ Minted by Manius Aquillius between 101-88 BCE. Today in the Münzkabinett, Landesmuseum Stuttgart.