Lover and Moon
My love is sleeping,
dark hair spread
like weeping willow
over the pillow.
He does not see
the promenade
of the old maid moon
on our window sill.
Soon the moon
will tickle his eyes
and he will wake
to play with me
Endymion -- George Frederick Watts
My love is sleeping,
dark hair spread
like weeping willow
over the pillow.
He does not see
the promenade
of the old maid moon
on our window sill.
Soon the moon
will tickle his eyes
and he will wake
to play with me
Endymion -- George Frederick Watts
Endymion was a handsome youth whom Gaius Plinius Secundus asserted was the 1st person to observe the moon’s movements. He may have been an Aeolian shepherd or the king of Elis. Perhaps he was the personification of sunset. In any event he was a mortal son of Zeus, and Selene the Titan moon goddess fell in love with him. She asked Zeus to grant him eternal youth. Or perhaps she loved the way he looked when he slept and asked Zeus to remain that way forever. In either case, Zeus granted her wish by putting him into an eternal, ageless sleep. And thus Selene visited him every night while he slept and bore him 50 daughters.
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