Language Matters | Moon goddesses through history, from Chang’e in Chinese myth to ancient Greeks’ Artemis, and how homage has been paid to them
- Many mythologies feature moon goddesses, from the Greco-Roman deity Artemis to Chinese mythology’s Chang’e to Davana in Slavic folklore
- Space agencies have used their names: Nasa’s Artemis space programme vows to put the first woman on the moon, while China’s Chang’e lunar landings began in 2013
Gaze up at the sky during the Mid-Autumn Festival, and wonder at the moon’s divine significance.
Lunar deities figure in all cultures. While not all are female, many mythologies feature moon goddesses – and homage has been paid to them in several lunar missions.
The Latin lūna – originating in the Proto-Indo-European root *leuk- “light, brightness” – is the name of the divine embodiment of the moon in Roman mythology, Luna.
The Greco-Roman goddesses of the moon tended to be worshipped in a triadic manner. Thus Selene/Luna, goddess in heaven and of the full moon, was associated with Artemis/Diana, goddess on Earth and of the half-moon, and Hekate/Hecate, goddess in the underworld and of the dark moon.
Artemis and Hecate did not originally have lunar aspects, but acquired them later in antiquity through the syncretism common to Greco-Roman religion.
The English lunar, from the Latin lūna, refers to anything associated with the moon, but it is Artemis who has lent her name widely as a moniker.
