Topic

Luna

Roman goddess of the Moon

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Overview

In Sabine and ancient Roman religion and myth, Luna is the divine embodiment of the Moon (Latin Lūna ). She is often presented as the female complement of the Sun, Sol, conceived of as a god. Luna is also sometimes represented as an aspect of the Roman triple goddess (diva triformis), along with Diana and either Proserpina or Hecate. Luna is not always a distinct goddess, but sometimes rather an epithet that specializes a goddess, since both Diana and Juno are identified as moon goddesses. In Roman art, Luna attributes are the crescent moon plus the two-yoke chariot (biga). In the Carmen Saeculare, performed in 17 BC, Horace invokes her as the "two-horned queen of the stars" (siderum regina bicornis), bidding her to listen to the girls singing as Apollo listens to the boys. Varro categorized Luna and Sol among the visible gods, as distinguished from invisible gods such as Neptune, and deified mortals such as Hercules. She was one of the deities Macrobius proposed as the secret tutelary of Rome. In Imperial cult, Sol and Luna can represent the extent of Roman rule over the world, with the aim of guaranteeing peace. Luna's Greek counterpart was Selene. In Roman art and literature, myths of Selene are adapted under the name of Luna. The myth of Endymion, for instance, was a popular subject for Roman wall painting.

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Notable quotes

“We've been to six places on the moon, the Soviets went to three and they shared their samples with us. That's not a lot of area. Samples given out now for research are very tiny. So if an engineer needs a larger amount to conduct the kinds of experiments engineers do having access to a wide range of materials would be good.”
— Judy Allton, in Hari Sreenivasan, Sam Weber, Connie Kargbo, "NASA opens a new collection of moon rocks to researchers", PBS NewsHour (July 20, 2019)
“Doth the moon care for the barking of a dog?”
— Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part II, Section III. Mem. 7
“Moonlight is sculpture; sunlight is painting.”
— Nathaniel Hawthorne, The American Notebooks (1835 - 1853).
“The moon can't help it. It's only an object. The moon doesn't mean to set things sloshing—in every ocean's basin, in every female's uterus, in every poet's jar of ink, in every madman's drool.”
— Tom Robbins, Still Life with Woodpecker (1980)
“Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon, July 1969, A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.”
— Apollo 11 Lunar plaque; as qtd. in Jones, Eric M., ed., "One Small Step", Apollo 11 Lunar Surface Journal, NASA (1995)
“It seems the United States can put a man on the moon but it can't solve the ski wax problem.”
— Susie Chaffee, Suzy Chaffe Says '68 Olympians Unlucke, The Milwaukee Sentinel, January 14, 1970.

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.

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Not who you're looking for? Others named Luna: personal computer made by OMRON · American musical group · fictional character in Marvel Comics · tugboat

Overview

In Sabine and ancient Roman religion and myth, Luna is the divine embodiment of the Moon (Latin Lūna ). She is often presented as the female complement of the Sun, Sol, conceived of as a god. Luna is also sometimes represented as an aspect of the Roman triple goddess (diva triformis), along with Diana and either Proserpina or Hecate. Luna is not always a distinct goddess, but sometimes rather an epithet that specializes a goddess, since both Diana and Juno are identified as moon goddesses. In Roman art, Luna attributes are the crescent moon plus the two-yoke chariot (biga). In the Carmen Saeculare, performed in 17 BC, Horace invokes her as the "two-horned queen of the stars" (siderum regina bicornis), bidding her to listen to the girls singing as Apollo listens to the boys. Varro categorized Luna and Sol among the visible gods, as distinguished from invisible gods such as Neptune, and deified mortals such as Hercules. She was one of the deities Macrobius proposed as the secret tutelary of Rome. In Imperial cult, Sol and Luna can represent the extent of Roman rule over the world, with the aim of guaranteeing peace. Luna's Greek counterpart was Selene. In Roman art and literature, myths of Selene are adapted under the name of Luna. The myth of Endymion, for instance, was a popular subject for Roman wall painting.

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Notable quotes

“We've been to six places on the moon, the Soviets went to three and they shared their samples with us. That's not a lot of area. Samples given out now for research are very tiny. So if an engineer needs a larger amount to conduct the kinds of experiments engineers do having access to a wide range of materials would be good.”
— Judy Allton, in Hari Sreenivasan, Sam Weber, Connie Kargbo, "NASA opens a new collection of moon rocks to researchers", PBS NewsHour (July 20, 2019)
“Doth the moon care for the barking of a dog?”
— Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part II, Section III. Mem. 7
“Moonlight is sculpture; sunlight is painting.”
— Nathaniel Hawthorne, The American Notebooks (1835 - 1853).
“The moon can't help it. It's only an object. The moon doesn't mean to set things sloshing—in every ocean's basin, in every female's uterus, in every poet's jar of ink, in every madman's drool.”
— Tom Robbins, Still Life with Woodpecker (1980)
“Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon, July 1969, A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.”
— Apollo 11 Lunar plaque; as qtd. in Jones, Eric M., ed., "One Small Step", Apollo 11 Lunar Surface Journal, NASA (1995)
“It seems the United States can put a man on the moon but it can't solve the ski wax problem.”
— Susie Chaffee, Suzy Chaffe Says '68 Olympians Unlucke, The Milwaukee Sentinel, January 14, 1970.

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.