Endymion (episode)

***Miscellaneous Myths: Endymion*** is the eleventh episode in the *Miscellaneous Myths* series, and it’s centered on Greek mythology. It talks about the relationship of the two sun-and-moon divine sibling pairs Apollo and Artemis with Helios and Selene, Artemis’ stance on sex, romance and relationships as well as the myth of Selene’s love for the mortal man Endymion.

## Summary

Red says that although she and Blue likes to make fun of the Romans for mixing up their gods, truth is that the Ancient Greeks were also prone to that; for example, a thing many people might not know is that Artemis was mashed together with Selene, the original Greek moon goddess, much like their brothers Apollo and Helios were mashed together. The difference is that while the transition of their sun god brothers was fairly smooth because Helios’ myth could easily be ascribed to Apollo, thanks to their non-contradictive personalities, Selene and Artemis ran into characterization issues (this is depicted as Apollo happily holding the Sun, with Helios entirely out of the picture, while Selene and Artemis fight over the Moon).

While Apollo liked music and pretty girls, Artemis was of an entirely mind entirely; she didn’t like men at all, like she didn’t like women either. She never showed interest in sex at all, and only had romantic feelings for a single person, the hunter Orion. With minimal interest in sexual relationships, and her only romantic feelings flourishing after an established and intimate relationship, Red theorizes that what might best describe Artemis is demiromantic asexual.

This came into direct contrast with Selene, whose only major story involves her falling head over hills in love with a mortal man.

Endymion was either a mortal king or shepherd (versions vary) who was beyond pretty. Selene spotted him sleeping in a cave one night and fell in love with him. After a while, she decides she can no longer handle this, and goes to Zeus, asking him to do something about it.

Zeus grants Selene’s wish and puts Endymion in eternal slumber, so he won’t age at all, but he’ll never wake up again either. Selene is fine with this (and Red explains that at this point her love for Endymion is purely physical, and better resembles the Greek concept of *mania*, obsessive love, rather than *eros*, which is genuine love) and has fifty children with a sleeping Endymion (prompting Red to exclaim angrily “Whoa! Not cool lady, he’s asleep!).

## Credits

In the credits Red sings her cover of *What’s Love Got to Do with It* by Brian Gibson, and explains that Selene’s named is pronounced seh-leh-neh, but she learnt of this after having finished the recording (where she pronounces her name as seh-lean).

## Characters appearing

Selene

Artemis

Apollo

Helios

Orion

Endymion

Zeus

Selene and Endymion’s fifty children

## Notes

1. ↑ See *Miscellaneous Myths: Orion* for further details on Artemis and Orion’s relationship.
2. ↑ It’s to be noted however, that in ancient myths it’s Endymion himself who asks for eternal slumber, not Selene; in fact no version has her ask Zeus for it.
3. ↑ The children are all drawn as male, but it was specified in myths that all fifty were female.