ABSTRACT
Endymion is of interest in two respects, both for the romantic stories that told of his relationship with the moon-goddess Selene and his eternal sleep, and for the part that he played in the dynastic affairs of Elis. Although it was generally agreed that he was an attractive young man who aroused the love of Selene and that he sank into an everlasting sleep for one reason or another, the tradition of these matters is inconsistent and poorly attested. According to one account, Zeus offered him the choice of whatever he desired at the urging of Selene after she fell in love with him, and he asked to sleep forever so as to be exempted from the ravages of age and from death itself in its usual form;53 or else Zeus allowed him to choose the time and manner of his passing, and he fell asleep forever at a moment selected by himself;54
or since legend related that Selene used to visit him while he was asleep, it came to be suggested that she herself had put him to sleep so as to be able to visit him at will and steal kisses from him.55 A wholly different story recounted that he was admitted into the company of the gods and fell in love with Hera, to the understandable annoyance of Zeus, who put an end to the matter by condemning him to eternal sleep; or in a variant that was doubtless inspired by the corresponding legend of Ixion (see p. 554), Zeus fooled him into making love with a cloud-image of Hera and cast him into Hades for his pains.56
