In Greek mythology, Endymion, was
variously a handsome Aeolian shepherd,
hunter, or king who was said to rule and
live at Olympia in Elis, and he was also
venerated and said to reside on Mount
Latmus in Caria, on the west coast of
Asia Minor.
There is confusion over the correct
location of Endymion, as some sources
suppose that one was, or was related to,
the prince of Elis, and the other was a
shepherd from Caria— or, a later
suggestion, an astronomer: Pliny the
Elder mentions Endymion as the first
human to observe the movements of the
moon, which accounts for Endymion's
love. As such, there have been two
attributed sites of Endymion's burial:
the citizens of Heracleia ad Latmo
claimed that Endymion's tomb was on
Mount Latmus, while the Eleans declared
that it was at Olympia.
However, the role of lover of Selene,
the moon, is attributed primarily to
Endymion who was either a shepherd or an
astronomer, either profession providing
justification for him to spend time
beneath the moon.
Accounts
Apollonius of Rhodes is one of the many
poets who tell how Selene, the Titan
goddess of the moon, loved the mortal.
She believed him to be so beautiful that
she asked Endymion's father, 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 on Mount Latmus, near
Miletus in Caria, that she entreated
Zeus that he might remain that way. In
either case, Zeus granted her wish and
put him into an eternal sleep. Every
night, Selene visited him where he
slept. Selene and Endymion had fifty
daughters who are equated by some
scholars with the fifty months of the
Olympiad.
According to a passage in
Deipnosophistae, the sophist and
dithyrambic poet Licymnius of Chios
tells a different tale, in which Hypnos,
the god of sleep, in awe of his beauty,
causes him to sleep with his eyes open,
so he can fully admire his face.
The Bibliotheke claims that:
Calyce and Aethlius had a son Endymion
who led Aeolians from Thessaly and
founded Elis. 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 a Naiad nymph or, as
some say, by Iphianassa, a son Aetolus,
who slew Apis, son of Phoroneus, and
fled to the Curetian country. There he
killed his hosts, Dorus and Laodocus and
Polypoetes, the sons of Phthia and
Apollo, and called the country Aetolia
after himself.
According to Pausanias, Endymion deposed
Clymenus, son of Cardys, at Olympia.
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 of Protogeneia, the daughter of
Deucalion, 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
wife Asterodia—others say she was
Chromia, the daughter of Itonus, the son
of Amphictyon; others again, Hyperippe,
the daughter of Arcas — but all agree
that Endymion begat Paeon, Epeius,
Aetolus, and also a daughter Eurycyda.
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 river Axius was named
after him Paeonia. As to the death of
Endymion, the people of Heracleia near
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.
Pausanias also reports seeing a statue
of Endymion in the treasury of
Metapontines at Olympia.
Propertius, Cicero's Tusculanae
Quaestiones, and Theocritus discuss the
Endymion myth to some length, but
reiterate the above to varying degrees.
The myth surrounding Endymion has been
expanded and reworked during the modern
period by figures like Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow and John Keats in his 1818
narrative poem Endymion.
Background
No explicit narrative has survived. In
Argonautica the "daughter of Titan," the
Moon, was witness to Medea's fearful
night-time flight to Jason, 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."
Lemprière's Classical Dictionary
reinforces 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.
The mytheme of Endymion being not dead
but endlessly asleep, which was
proverbial ensured that scenes of
Endymion and Selene were popular
subjects for sculpted sarcophagi in Late
Antiquity, when after-death existence
began to be a heightened concern. The
Louvre example, found at Saint-Médard
d'Eyrans, France, is one of this class.
Some believe that he was the
personification of sleep, or the sunset
in, and duein dive], which would imply a
representation of that sort. Latin
writers explained the name from somnum
ei inductum, the "sleep put upon him."
The myth of Endymion was never easily
transferred to ever-chaste Artemis, the
Olympian associated with the Moon. In
the Renaissance, the revived moon
goddess Diana had the Endymion myth
attached to her.
Notes
References
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 Ltd. 1921.
Robert Graves. The Greek Myths 1960,
64.a-c.
Pausanias, Description of Greece. W. H.
S. Jones. Loeb Classical Library.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press;
London, William Heinemann Ltd.. Vol. 1.
Books I–II: ISBN 0-674-99104-4.
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 Ltd. 1966.
Karl Kerenyi. The Gods of the Greeks.
London: Thames & Hudson, 1951.
Hyginus. Fabulae, 271.
Natalia Agapiou. Endymion au carrefour.
La fortune littéraire et artistique du
mythe d’Endymion à l’aube de l’ère
moderne: ISBN 3-7861-2499-X.
External links
Unknown author. "Diana and Endymion
circa 1700- 1730, by Francesco
Solimena". Artwork of the Month.
National Museums Liverpool: Walker Art
Gallery. Retrieved 2008-02-24. 
For works by Gerard de Lairesse, Frans
Floris, in RKD and Bildindex, see the;
et al. "Iconclass Browser".  CS1 maint:
Explicit use of et al.
Diana and Endymion painting by Pierre
Subleyras
