LUNA (LOO-nuh)
1.
Roman moon goddess of myth
2.
A large moth of North America
Common
clues: Kind of moth; Roman moon goddess; Large green moth; Our
moon; Pale-green moth; Moon goddess; Goddess of the moon
Crossword
puzzle frequency:
2 times a year
Frequency
in English language:
34280 / 86800
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In
Greek mythology, Selene
("moon")
(the Roman moon goddess being Luna)
was an ancient lunar deity, and the daughter of the Titans
Hyperion and Theia.
Roman
statue of the goddess Luna/Selene
A
moon goddess is invariably a major role. If her name is Greek it
is connected with selas
"light"
(Kerenyi p. 197). Selene was eventually largely supplanted by
Artemis, thus, later writers sometimes describe her as a daughter
of Zeus, or of Pallas. In the Homeric Hymn
to Hermes,
with its characteristically insistent patrilineality, she is
"bright Selene, daughter of the lord Pallas, Megamedes'
son."
In
the traditional divine genealogy, Helios, the sun, is her
brother: after her brother, Helios finished his journey across
the sky, Selene began her own journey as night fell upon the
earth. Her sister Eos is goddess of the dawn. Eos, it will be
remembered, also carried off a human lover, Cephalus (Burkert
1985 p. 176).
Apollonius
of Rhodes (4.57) tells how she loved a handsome shepherd—
or in the version Pausanias knew a king of Elis, or a hunter—
named Endymion from Asia Minor. He was so beautiful that Selene
asked Zeus to grant him eternal life so he would never leave her:
her asking permission of Zeus reveals itself as an Olympian
transformation of an older myth: Cicero (Tusculanae
Disputationes)
recognized that the moon goddess had acted autonomously.
Alternatively, Endymion made the decision to live forever in
sleep. Every night, Selene slipped down behind Mount Latmus near
Miletus. (Pausanias v.1.5). Selene had fifty daughters from
Endymion, including Naxos. The sanctuary of Endymionat Heracleia
on the southern slope, is a horseshoe-shaped chamber with an
entrance hall and pillared forecourt.
Though
the story of Endymion is best known today, the Homeric hymns tell
that Selene also had three daughters with Zeus (including Pandia,
the "utterly shining" full moon— and, according
to some sources, the Nemean Lion as well. She also had an affair
with Pan, who seduced her by wrapping himself in a sheepskin
(Kerenyi p 19) gave her the yoke of white oxen that drew the
chariot in which she is represented in sculptured reliefs, with
her windblown veil above her head like the arching canopy of sky.
In
art, Selene was depicted as a beautiful woman with a pale face,
riding a silver chariot pulled by a yoke of oxen or a pair of
horses. Often, she was shown riding a horse or bull, wearing
robes and a half-moon on her head and carrying a torch.
In
Rome, Luna ("moon") had a temple on the Aventine Hill.
It was built in the 6th century BC but was destroyed in the Great
Fire of Rome under Nero.
Actias
luna, commonly known as the Luna Moth, is a lime-green,
Nearctic Saturniid moth in the subfamily Saturniinae. It has a
wingspan of up to four and a half inches,[1] which ranks it as
one of the largest moths in North America.
This
moth is found in North America from east of the Great Plains in
the United States to northern Mexico and from Manitoba eastward
through central Quebec to Nova Scotia in Canada.
This
article is licensed under the GNU
Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Selene"
and “Actias
luna”.
LUNA
(130) 43
Tu >1 04 Moon goddess
15
We >1 09 Kind of moth
8
We- >1 07 Roman moon goddess
6
Tu >1 00 Large green moth
09
Our moon
5
We- >1 08 Pale-green moth
4
Th+ >1 99 ___ moth
3
Mo+ >1 05 Goddess of the moon
3
We CSy 08 Moon personification
3
Th- >1 08 Selene's counterpart
2
Th >1 07 Large moth
2
Tu- >1 03 Moth variety
2
Th- >1 09 Roman goddess of the moon
2
We- >1 06 Soviet space probe
2
We CSy 06 Type of long-tailed moth
1
Th NYT 03 1960's Soviet moon program
1
Fr NYT 97 50's-70's Soviet spacecraft series
1
Tu LAT 99 A.k.a Diana
1
Th NYT 90 Bertolucci film
1
Th NYT 93 Bertolucci film: 1979
1
Th NYT 99 Coney Island's ___ Park
1
Tu NYT 87 Coney Island's —— Park
1
Th NYT 09 Counterpart of Apollo
1
Th NYT 02 Early Soviet space probe
1
Tu NYT 00 Far-side-of-the-moon photographer of 1959
e-moon
photographer of 1959
1964
k
heroine
|