Mene (goddess)

This article is about an epithet of Selene, the Greek moon goddess. For other uses, see Mene (disambiguation).

Not to be confused with Men (deity).

Mene (Ancient Greek: Μήνη, romanized: Mḗnē, lit. '"moon, month"', pronounced [mɛ̌ːnɛː]), in ancient Greek religion and mythology, is an epithet of Selene, the Greek lunar goddess as a goddess presiding over the months.^[1]

Etymology

The Greek word μήνη (mēnē) means both the Moon and the lunar month.^[2] It represents the feminine form of the older masculine noun μήν (mēn), which in turn derives from the oblique stem of the Indo-European word *meh₁nōt ("moon; month").^[3] The name of the Phrygian moon-god Men derives from the same word.^[4] Further cognates include "Moon" and "Máni."

William Smith writes of Mene as "a goddess presiding over the months".^[5] Apostolos Athanassakis and Benjamin Wolkow speculate that Selene's name, which is derived from the word σέλας (selas, "light") and thus means "luminous one", might have originally developed as a euphemism, before becoming the Moon and its goddess's proper name.^[2]

See also

• Proto-Indo-European religion
• Proto-Indo-European language
• H₂éwsōs

Notes

1. Hard, p. 46; Oxford Classical Dictionary, s.v. Selene; Smith, s.v. Selene.
2. Athanassakis and Wolkow, pp. 90, on lines 1–2, 91, on line 5; Kerényi, p. 197
3. Beekes 2009, p. 945.
4. Oxford Classical Dictionary, s.v. Selene; Kerényi, p. 197.
5. Smith, s.v. "Mene"

References

• Athanassakis, Apostolos N., and Benjamin M. Wolkow, The Orphic Hymns, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013. ISBN 978-1-4214-0882-8. Google Books.
• Beekes, R. S. P. (2009). Etymological Dictionary of Greek. Leiden: Brill. p. 1:945.
• Hard, Robin, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004, ISBN 9780415186360. Google Books.
• Kerényi, Karl (1951), The Gods of the Greeks, Thames and Hudson, London, 1951. Internet Archive.
• Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). "Mene"

External links

• MENE/SELENE from the Theoi Project