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The roots of the Moon’s appropriation to femininity, and the
subsequent connection of Silver to them both lie in the ancient
lands of Mesopotamia, once home to the world’s most advanced
civilizations during the late Neolithic period. |
Observing the Moon’s waxing and waning within a 28-day cycle,
the Mesopotamians were the first to connect the synchronicity
between our sister planet’s movements and the female reproductive
cycle. This led to the Moon symbolizing fertility, and its eventual
appropriation with the Mesopotamian god and goddess, Nanna and
Ningal. |
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Ningal
and Nanna were the patron deities of one of the most important
cities in southern Mesopotamia, Ur. They resided in the temple
called Ikinugal, meaning the 'House of Moonlight’ and were often
represented by a crescent Moon shape. Archeologists believe
that this shape was not only used to signify the crescent Moon, but also
the shape of the womb and equally the horns of a bull, a sacred
symbol of fertility in Mesopotamia and the successive cultures
of Greece and Rome.
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Although the Mesopotamians
had already recognized the seven planets, assigning each one
a god or goddess, it was the Egyptians who were the first to
appropriate the planets and their deities with metals, starting
with gold and Silver. |
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All seven planets and their gods were finally associated with
the seven known metals in the classical Greek period. The seven metals were highly revered, not only being identified with the
gods and planets themselves, but were also used to symbolize
their generations. First, born from the waters of Chaos, came
the Titan Gods, the Titans marked the ‘ Golden Age’ of Greek
mythology. The succeeding generation of gods were the Olympians,
led by Zeus, who gave rise to the ‘ Silver Age’ of classical
Greece.
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The first Greek goddess of the Moon was Selene, born from the
Titan ‘ Golden Age’, and later known by the Romans as Luna. Although
she was elevated to a very high status in the Greek pantheon
she was never fully accepted as one of the twelve great
gods and goddesses of the Olympian ‘ Silver Age’. Interestingly,
Selene as is the case for many ancient Greek deities, gave her
name to the metal Selenium whose properties change in relation
to the density of light, much like the goddess herself. |
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Selene,
daughter of the Titan sun god Hyperion and Theia, was the sister
of Eos the goddess of the dawn, and Helios the Olympian sun
god. It was said that everyday Selene bathed in the sea waiting
for her brother Helios to complete his journey across the sky. Selene represented the evening and the night, and in this sense
was often depicted as a young woman with a lily-white
complexion. She traveled across the night sky in a Silver chariot pulled by two horses carrying a torch and adorned
with a diadem of a half moon on her head.
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Selene,
a romantic favorite with painters and poets, was known for her
many ‘liaisons d’amour’. Two of her most notorious affairs were
with Pan, and the father of Olympus Zeus. Zeus and Selene were alleged to have conceived the Nemean
lion, immortalized in the first trail of Hercules, which was said
to have fallen to Earth from the Moon. Selene’s most famous
love affair was with a handsome mortal called Endymion, who she
visited each night kissing him to sleep. Eventually Selene begged
Zeus to give Endymion anything he wished hopping that he would
ask for immortality, but Endymion was vain and instead asked
Zeus to preserve his good looks for eternity. Zeus complied
and put him in eternal sleep.
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During both Greek and Roman Empires the goddesses of our sister Moon, much like the planet itself, had dark and light sides and were often represented in an almost schizophrenic manner. Their symbolic significance becomes clearer through understanding the physical nature of the Moon and its affect on the Earth. The different cycles of the Moon were represented by different goddesses and their attributes. Selene, Luna to the Romans, was the ‘Waxing Moon' fertile and full she was the mother goddess pregnant with life. Artemis, known as Diana to the Romans, was the virgin goddess of the hunt reflecting the qualities of the ‘New Moon'. Hecate, Trivia to the Romans, was the goddess of the wanning or Moonless night, cloaked in mysticism with the power to heal or transform.
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The Romans had their
equivalent of Selene in the form of Luna. Appearing in much
the same way with a crescent Moon on her head driving a silver two-horse chariot Luna was also connected to the Moons changing
faces. Luna could be kind as much as she could be crazed;
it is from the latter that we derive the term “Moonstruck’,
‘ Lunatic’ and ‘ Lunacy’. The roots of the appropriation of
the goddess’ name to this excited mental state are related
to bi-polar disorder, or cyclothymia, which is a type of depression
where moods can be altered by light intensity.
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The Moon's dark side was symbolized by the godess Hecate, who was the Greek
goddess of the crossroads said to appear when the ebony Moon shone. Hecate was often depicted as having three heads: a dog,
a snake and a horse and was usually seen with two ghost hounds.
Often misunderstood as the goddess of witchcraft or evil, Hecate
did many heroic deeds including the rescue of Persephone, Demeter's
daughter, from Hades in the Underworld. Hecate was said to haunt
a three-way crossroad, each of her heads facing in a certain
direction from this the Romans gave her the name Trivia. These correlations
made between goddesses and the different appearances of
the Moon show some of the many faces of woman.
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