JOURNAL ARCHIVES
OCTOBER 2007
The mythology of butterflies and moths
Aung San Suu Kyi: Fighting the power of fear
Ten oxherding pictures (Shubun)
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OCTOBER 3, 2007
MOON DEITIES
Diana is the Roman goddess of the moon and the hunt. She is also the twin and counterpoint to her brother Apollo, god of the sun.
The crescent moon headpiece on this statue dates the piece as post-Classical. Ancient statues sometimes feature crescent moons but these are always additions from later periods.
The Greek equivalent of Diana is Artemis.
(left) Diana. Louvre.
Thoth is an Egyptian lunar deity who can manifest in several forms. The most common is a man with the head of an ibis, holding a palette and stylus. Another (shown here) is in the shape of a baboon.
One of the most powerful gods in the Egyptian pantheon, Thoth is a mediator, messenger for the gods, judge of the dead, and the inventor of writing. Egyptian myth states that he is self-created, arising from the power of his own language.
(left) Thoth in his signature crescent moon and disc headpiece. Louvre.
The phases of the moon. Galileo. 1616
"...the New Moon is the white goddess of birth and growth; the Full Moon, the red goddess of love and battle; the Old Moon, the black goddess of death and divination." Robert Graves
© 2007 by Wesley Usher. All rights reserved.
