The forgotten Proto-European nations (Welsh, Basques, Euganeans, Maltese, etc.)
A map of European tribal nations from 9,000 years ago would have to take into account the inhabitable regions covered under permanent glaciers and somewhat less restrictive but permanent sheets of ice amid the mountain ranges separating northern and southern Europe. In other words a "small Europe," consisting of most of what is today southern Europe; as well as a much harsher but habitable "east-west trail" from the very southernmost England, down including most of France, over to Ukraine and perhaps beyond it a bit. The Alps would have been particularly harsh at that time, with the only route between southern and northern Europe likely having been by sea. All European would have been essentially the same sub-race, as they would have been prior to this glacial movement.
It should be noted that the Temple of Artemis is similar to Stonehenge, or to others such as the Ġgantija megalithic temple complex in Malta, in that it is both a symbol of the modern culture to which it belongs and to the wider very ancient Proto-European culture from which it is truly rooted. In other words, Stonehenge was not constructed specifically by the Druids; nor was the Temple of Artemis constructed specifically by the Olympian Greeks... but symbols of an earlier expression of their Proto-European ancestors. Margaret Murray was right! All one has to do is go back far enough! There was a widespread "Witch-Cult," and it easily predated the last glacial movement. There have been widespread artistic depictions of both a male Horned God (Cave of the Trois-Frères) and of a female Mother Goddess (Venus of Willendorf) going back tens of thousands of years.
The Proto-European Goddess as "The Triformis"(durron597 - mythology.stackexchange.com - May 3, 2015)
I always thought that Artemis was the Goddess of the Moon (and Hunting, stags, etc.)... until I thought about how there's Helios/Apollo which caused me to learn about Selene. But further research revealed yet another Moon goddess - Hecate, who is associated with the moon, and is Selene's grandmother. Still further research revealed Phoebe, whose Wikipedia article is pretty sparse and is the grandmother of Selene.
Did the goddess who had domain of the moon change over time? Did they all sort of do it together?
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Don't forget Achelois. . . – HDE 226868I'm still confused, i have to search up hecate for a social studies project, and my friend is searching up selene, I'm trying to say my goddess is better than hers, but now other gods are coming into this project! I understand that gaia is the mother or grandmother of hecate but are hecate and selene sisters or something since they both have the power of the moon?This all here is probrally pretty confusing, but the again, we are talking about greek goddesses! – user954
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Actually the list of moon-goddesses goes on since, according to Selene's Theoi page:
Other Greek moon goddesses included Pasiphae, the Leukippides, Eileithyia, Hekate, Artemis, Bendis, and Hera (who sometimes doubled for Selene in the Endymion myth).
But let's focus first on the one you mentioned:Artemis. Her association with the moon seems relatively straight-forward: if Apollo is associated with the Sun, then his sister has to be associated with the moon.
Selene (= Mene or Luna). She is the proper Titan-goddess of the Moon, often even the personnification of the moon itself. See among many other sources, Apollonius Rhodius's Argonautica:
Rising from the distant east, the Lady Selene (Moon), Titanian goddess...
Phoibe/Phoebe. The Titan Phoibe doesn't actually seem to be associated with the moon, the confusion comes from Selene being often nicknamed Phoebe (i. e. 'bright'). Phoibe was apparently a prophetess Titan-goddess and as such is supposed to have held the Oracle of Delphi at some point. From the first line of Aeschylus's Eumenides:
THE PYTHIAN PRIESTESS
First, in this prayer, of all the gods I name
The prophet-mother Earth; and Themis next,
Second who sat-for so with truth is said-
On this her mother's shrine oracular.
Then by her grace, who unconstrained allowed,
There sat thereon another child of Earth-
Titanian Phoebe.
Hecate. Now Hecate is something else I think. The different sources we have tend to contradict each other on her parentage, descendance, attributions etc. leading some scholars to think that Hecate was in fact a goddess foreign to the Greek Pantheon that was only added later (and well integrated thanks to the place Hesiod gave her in the Theogony). See for instance what Sarah Johnston says about it in 'Restless Deads':
Let us go back further, to Hecate's place of origin. There is general agreement that this was Caria, in southwestern Asia Minor, which is supported by the fact that by the Hellenistic period her precinct in Lagina was the largest of all the precincts there (in constrast, in all of Greece, only Aegina seems to have had any significant sanctuary devoted wholly to Hecate).
Caria being in southwestern Anatolia. Similarly (from the list I mentioned earlier), Pasiphae seems to have been the cretan moon-goddess and Bendis the one from Thrace.
The specific reason why Hecate was associated with the moon seems a bit complex. Originally, in Caria, Hecate seems to have been a fairly generic mother Goddess. Even in Hesiod's Theogony she is presented as having dominion over basically everything:
For to this day, whenever any one of men on earth offers rich sacrifices and prays for favour according to custom, he calls upon Hecate. [...] For as many as were born of Earth and Ocean amongst all these she has her due portion. The son of Cronos did her no wrong nor took anything away of all that was her portion among the former Titan gods: but she holds, as the division was at the first from the beginning, privilege both in earth, and in heaven, and in sea.
According to Sarah Johnston in 'Hekate Soteira: A Study of Hekate's Role in the Chaldean Oracles and Related Literature' (which I haven't been able to find and thus read so I might be misrepresenting her idea here), the association came relatively late (1st Century AD) from the fact that at some point Hecate was seen as a "liminal" goddess, an intermediary between two worlds (hence also probably the association between Hecate and witchcraft), which is a quality that was supposedly shared by the Moon.
So to summarize, the difference between Selene and Artemis is that one is the moon while the other is just associated with it, and on top of that one is a Titan while the other is an Olympian; Phoebe has nothing to do with the moon; and the others are foreign/regional goddesses integrated a posteriori into the Greek Pantheon.... but I'm afraid I didn't find anything interesting on Achelois – plannapus
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Thanks! I've upvoted, but I'd like to see a little more discussion on what Hecate's relationship is with the moon in particular before I accept. – durron597
************Theia is the sister of Phoebe wich makes Phoebe Selene's aunt , Artemis's mother Leto is the daughter of Phoebe wich makes her Selene's cousin. Leto had a sister named Asteria who bore Hecate wich makes Hecate Artemis's cousin . Selene was believed to be the moon itself in ancient greeks , Artemis and Hecate juste came later to be associated with the moon, also Hecate's mother Asteria was also Selene's cousin . Hecate and Artemis where not associated with the moon for nothing cose they're mothers Leto and Asteria where closely related to Selene !.
pedro
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Can you please add some references or links? – kenorb
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Hecate, Artemis and Selene are one in the same. Artemis is known as the Goddess of the Triple Aspect because she has three identities. Artemis is the virgin goddess of the hunt (Earth form), Selene is goddess of the moon (sky form) and Hecate is the goddess of witchcraft and the underworld (cthonian/underworld form). We can see this in depictions of Artemis wearing the "horns of the moon" on her crown, or images of Hecate as a three-faced goddess. It is possible that at some point they were separate deities and their stories became confused by later Greeks and Romans but our current understanding is of the three as different aspects of one.Source: Classics 430 class at University
Josie
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"Our current understanding is of the three as different aspects of one." I'm going to need to see a source for that statement, because as far as I am aware that statement is incorrect. – Hamlet
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According to Theoi.com (theoi.com/Olympios/ArtemisGoddess.html#Selene) the Artemis-Selene-Hecate triad comes from Roman-period poetry, not from Greek myth. – solsdottir
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I was taught the same. – tox123
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