Moon in Greek Mythology

Hey dear community, first of all I would like to welcome you all to my new post and hope you have a day full of positive experiences! Today I would like to talk a little about Greek mythology and hope you can expand your knowledge a little.

Here are some pictures that I recently took at the full moon and the last full moon this year is also known as the cold moon and the name goes back to the Native Americans Algonquins who were known to orient themselves very much with the help of the moon phases and the name cold moon is associated with the temperatures during this time. Already one of the oldest poets from ancient Greece Homer, who wrote the two well-known works Odyssey and Iliad, already addressed the moon and mentioned it in his writings and many followed him and some scholars thought that the seas of this earth would be reflected in the moon and a well-known philosopher who devoted himself to the topic was Plutarch who said that the moon was a mixture of the fifth element aether and air. In ancient Greece, people orient themselves almost exclusively on the sun or the moon and did not yet know a calendar as the humanity do today and the moon was of great importance and at that time opinions about the moon were strongly divided and Ancient greek changed astronomy very much and numerous methods for mathematical measurements were also spread from Greece. The ancient Greeks worshipped many moon deities at that time and all were associated with female goddesses and one of them is the goddess of hunting Artemis, who is said to have already been oriented towards the lunar times and according to traditions she went hunting at full moon together with her companions.

She was also depicted with a crescent on the forehead and her bow as well as the arrows consisted of silver matching the alchemy, where the moon was associated with the metal silver and was depicted according to the alchemical alphabet with a crescent moon. Among her most important companions were the nymphs and one of them who was also often associated with the moon was Callisto and the equivalent of Artemis from Roman mythology is also known as Diana. Probably the best-known moon goddess from Greek mythology is the personification of the moon Selene and together with her brother Helios, who was also revered as a Sun god, she was responsible for ensuring that people have a light at night. Of great importance was also the goddess of magic Hecate, who was known for being able to transform into three shapes and she was associated with the moon and especially often she was linked to the different phases of the moon due to the talent of being able to transform herself and with all the different moon goddesses in ancient Greece there are often views that there was a lot of competition with each other and there were disputes and also the beloved of Zeus Danaë was also revered as a moon goddess. In the visual arts, moon deities from ancient Greece were often used as a motif and especially often you can see Artemis or Selene which have been found again and again in various works of art since ancient times and inspired many artists.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you could learn something new about mythology! I captured these pictures with my Camera Sony Alpha 6000 plus 55-210 mm lens!