The provenance file on Selēnē
Provenance record 229 · Selēnē · one temple, fully accounted for.
Provenance
1. The attestation. Σελήνη — "Moon, light (from σέλας)". On record: LSJ, Beekes, Pape-Benseler, Homer, Odyssey.
2. The preserved evidence. e → ē (Eta: long epsilon); e → ē (Eta: long epsilon) — absent from the ASCII form selene, present in the restoration, verifiable against the sources above.
3. The narrative record. Endymion on Mount Latmus — Selḗnē fell in love with Endymion, a beautiful shepherd or king, and asked Zeús to grant him eternal youth. Zeüs put him into eternal sleep in a cave on Mount Latmus in Caria. The Moon's Journey — Like Hēlios, Selḗnē drives a chariot across the sky. The Homeric Hymn to Selene (1–7) describes her as 'winged' and 'golden-crowned,' driving her chariot through the night while Hēlios rests.
4. The physical record. Reliefs and gems from the Hellenistic and Roman periods show Selene as a winged or chariot-borne goddess with a crescent moon at her brow; the Great Altar of Pergamon includes a Luna/Selene figure. In Elis, Pausanias records a sanctuary of Selene/Sosipolis. Roman marble statues such as the 'Selene and Endymion' group (British Museum) and crescent-moon crowns on imperial coins and Isiac reliefs attest her later astral cult.
5. The current holding. The temple at /sites/selene/, classified Tier 1. The restoration preserves more than the ASCII form can express — stress, length, or a letter the Latin keyboard lost — which places it, mechanically, in Tier-1.
6. The documented resonances. Space, Astronomy & Celestial Science, Women's Health & Femtech, Timekeeping & Calendar Systems — seats argued and weighted in the pattern atlas, read through the myths in this temple's Resonance File.
7. The primary sources. Theogony, Homeric Hymns, Works and Days — the library this file answers to, open at the Sacred Texts collection.
8. The continuing record. Selḗnē is the archetype of the moon as feminine, cyclical, and magical. She governs not only the night sky but the rhythms of women's bodies and the agricultural calendar.
At a Glance
- Restored name: Selēnē
- ASCII form: selene
- Meaning: "Moon, light (from σέλας)"
- Domain of influence: Moon, Night Light
- Pantheon: Greek
- Classification: Tier 1
- Original script: Σελήνη
- Series: The Restoration Files, No. 229 of 287
The File Continues
Read the founding dispatch for the name's full story, the Resonance File for the archetype at work — or the whole archive in one sitting.
Continue the series — previous file: Sḫmt (read it here) · next file: Sšꜣt (read it here).
The Restoration Files are written from the same canonical record as the temples themselves: the lexicon, the lore catalog, the pattern atlas, and the cited scholarly sources. If a file ever disagrees with its temple, the temple is right — tell us, and the file will be corrected.