Moon

[Tylluan]

Here are some of the moon gods and moon goddesses of major ancient religions.

1. Arma
Nationality: Hittite
Moon God

Arma is the name of a Hittite lunar personification whom some think is connected with the Greek god Hermes.

Reference: "Hittite Ritual at Sardis," by Noel Robertson. Classical Antiquity, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Apr., 1982), pp. 122-140.

2. Artemis
Nationality: Greek
Moon Goddess

In Greek mythology, the sun god was originally Helios (whence words like heliocentric for our sun-centered solar system) and the moon goddess Selene, but over time, this changed. Artemis came to be associated with Selene, just like Apollo with Helios. Apollo became a sun god and Artemis became the goddess of the moon.

3. Bendis
Nationality: Thracian
Moon Goddess

Bendis was a goddess of the moon and hunt, associated by the Greeks with Artemis.

Source: "Balkan mythology" The Oxford Companion to World mythology. David Leeming. Oxford University Press, 2004.

4. Coyolxauhqui
Nationality: Aztec
Moon Goddess

Coyolxauhqui means "Golden Bells." Coyolxauhqui is the sister of the Sun god, Huitzilopochtli.

5. Diana
Nationality: Roman
Moon Goddess

6. Heng-O
Nationality: Chinese
Moon Goddess

Heng-O was the mother of the 12 moons and 10 suns.

7. Ix Chel
"Maya goddess Ixchel"Public Domain. Courtesy of Wikipedia
Nationality: Maya
Moon Goddess

Lady Rainbow was a Maya old woman moon goddess.

8. Khons/Khonsu
Nationality: Egyptian
Moon God

Amen's consort was Mut. Together they had a son, Khons or Khonsu the moon god. His name means "the wanderer." He may have been believed to be capable of flying.

Other Egyptian moon gods:

* Thoth
* Osiris
* Min
* Duau

Shu and Khnum are also associated with the moon.

Source: Hathor and Thoth, by Claas Jouco Bleeker.

9. Mawu
Nationality: African, Dahomey
Moon Goddess

Also spelled Maou. Female.

10. Mên
Nationality: Phrygian, Western Asia Minor
Moon God
Male

Mên is a Phrygian lunar god also connected with fertility, healing, and punishment. Characteristically, Men is depicted with the points of crescent moons on his shoulders. He wears a Phrygian cap. Mên carries a pine cone or patera in his outstretched right hand and rests his left upon a sword or lance.

Source: "Three Images of the God Mên," by Ulrich W. Hiesinger. Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 71, (1967), pp. 303-310.

11. Selene or Luna
Nationality: Greek
Luna in Latin.
Moon Goddess

Actually, Selene/Luna is a moon Titan (since she's female, that could be Titaness), and the daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Thea. Selene/Luna is the sister of the sun god Helios/Sol.

12. Sin/Nanna
Nationality: Sumerian
Moon god.

13. Soma
Nationality: Hindu
Moon God

A moon god in India.

14. Tsuki-Yomi
Nationality: Japanese
Moon God

A Shinto moon god.

15. Yarikh
Nationality: Ugarit
Moon God

Yarikh or Yarih was the lover of Nikkal -- a Sumerian sun goddess.

[Tylluan]

Aglinak
In the legends of the Inuit peoples, Alignak is the god of both the moon and weather. He controls the tides, and presides over both earthquakes and eclipses. In some stories, he is also responsible for returning the souls of the dead to earth so that they may be reborn. Alignak may appear in harbors to protect fishermen from Sedna, the wrathful sea goddess.

Artemis
Artemis is the Greek goddess of the hunt. Because her twin brother, Apollo, was associated with the Sun, Artemis gradually became connected to the moon in the post-Classical world. During the ancient Greek period, although Artemis was represented as a lunar goddess, she was never portrayed as the moon itself. Typically, in post-Classical artwork, she is depicted beside a crescent moon. She is often associated with the Roman Diana as well.

Cerridwen
Cerridwen is, in Celtic mythology, the keeper of the cauldron of knowledge. She is the giver of wisdom and inspiration, and as such is often associated with the moon and the intuitive process. As a goddess of the Underworld, Cerridwen is often symbolised by a white sow, which represents both her fecundity and fertility and her strength as a mother. She is both Mother and Crone; many modern Pagans honour Cerridwen for her close association to the full moon.

Chang'e
In Chinese mythology, Chang'e was married to the king Hou Yi. Although he was once known as a great archer, later Hou Yi became a tyrannical king, who spread death and destruction wherever he went. The people starved and were brutally treated. Hou Yi greatly feared death, so a healer gave him a special elixir that would allow him to live forever. Chang'e knew that for Hou Yi to live forever would be a terrible thing, so one night while he slept, Chang'e stole the potion. When he saw her and demanded she return the potion, she immediately drank the elixir and flew up into the sky as the moon, where she remains to this day. In some Chinese stories, this is the perfect example of someone making a sacrifice to save others.

Diana
Much like the Greek Artemis, Diana began as a goddess of the hunt who later evolved into a lunar goddess. In Charles Leland's Aradia, Gospel of the Witches, he pays homage to Diana Lucifera (Diana of the light) in her aspect as a light-bearing goddess of the moon.

Hecate
Hecate was venerated as a mother goddess, and during the Ptolemaic period in Alexandria was elevated to her position as goddess of ghosts and the spirit world. Many contemporary Pagans and Wiccans honour Hecate in her guise as a Dark Goddess, although it would be incorrect to refer to her as an aspect of the Crone, because of her connection to childbirth and maidenhood. It's more likely that her role as "dark goddess" comes from her connection to the spirit world, ghosts, the dark moon, and magic.

Selene
Selene was the sister of Helios, the Greek sun god. Tribute was paid to her on the days of the full moon. Like many Greek goddesses, she had a number of different aspects. At one point she was worshipped as Phoebe, the huntress, and later was identified with Artemis. Her lover was a young shepherd prince named Endymion, who was granted immortality by Zeus - however, he was also granted eternal slumber, so all that immortality and eternal youth was wasted on Endymion. The shepherd was doomed to sleeping in a cave forever, so Selene descended from the sky every night to sleep beside him. Unlike most other lunar goddesses of Greece, Selene is the only one who is actually portrayed as the moon incarnate by the early classical poets.

Sina
Sina is one of the best-known Polynesian deities. She resides within the moon itself, and is the protector of those who might travel at night. Originally, she lived on earth, but got tired of the way her husband and family treated her. So, she packed up her belongings and left to go live in the moon, according to Hawaiian legend. In Tahiti, the story goes that Sina, or Hina, simply got curious about what it was like on the moon, and so paddled her magical canoe until she got there. Once she had arrived, she was struck by the moon's tranquil beauty and decided to stay.

Thoth
Thoth was an Egyptian god of magic and wisdom, and appears in a few legends as the god who weighs the souls of the dead, although many other stories assign that job to Anubis. Because Thoth is a lunar deity, he is often portrayed wearing a crescent on his head. He is closely associated with Seshat, a goddess of writing and wisdom, who is known as the scribe of the divine.