Luna (goddess)

In ancient Roman religion and mythology, Luna (Latin: Lūna) is the divine embodiment of the Moon. She is the partner of the Sun, Sol.

Luna is sometimes one of three Roman goddesses, called the triple goddess, with Diana and either Proserpina or Hecate. Sometimes, Luna is just another name for a goddess acting as the moon goddess, like Diana or Juno.

In Roman art, Luna is shown with a crescent moon and a two-yoke chariot called a biga. In a song from 17 BC, writer Horace called her the "two-horned queen of the stars."

Luna’s stories come from her Greek counterpart, Selene. Many tales about Selene were told using Luna’s name. One well-known story is about Endymion. This story was often painted on walls in Roman homes.

Function and worship

Varro grouped Luna and Sol together as important gods, different from invisible gods like Neptune and deified people such as Hercules. Some believed Luna helped protect Rome. In the Imperial cult, Sol and Luna stood for Rome's power and the hope for peace.

Varro also included Luna and Sol among gods important to farming. Virgil linked them to agriculture, calling them the world's brightest lights. Varro counted Luna among the twenty main gods of Rome, known as the di selecti.

Cult and temples

The ancient Romans believed Luna, the goddess of the Moon, was worshipped back when they had kings. One story says a leader named Titus Tatius brought her worship to Rome from a group called the Sabines. Later, a king named Servius Tullius built a temple for Luna on Aventine Hill, near a temple for Diana. Every year on March 31, people celebrated the day the temple was founded.

The temple had some hard times — a big windstorm broke its doors in 182 BC, and later in 84 BC, it was struck by lightning the same day a leader named Cinna was killed. Some think the temple might have been destroyed in a big fire in Rome during the time of Emperor Nero.

Luna also had another temple on Palatine Hill, where she was called Noctiluna, meaning "Night-Shiner." An ancient writer named Varro said this temple glowed at night, but we don’t know much more about it.

Chariot of the Moon

See also: Sun chariot

Luna is often shown driving a special two-horse chariot called a biga. In Roman art, she is shown next to the Sun, who drives a four-horse chariot called a quadriga.

The writer Isidore of Seville said the quadriga stands for the sun's path through the four seasons. The biga stands for the Moon, because it moves with the sun or because we can see it during the day and at night. It had one black horse and one white horse.

Luna in her biga was also part of Mithraic symbols, often shown with a special image called the tauroctony.

The three forms of Hecate were linked by Servius with Luna, Diana, and Proserpina. The old Greek poet Hesiod said Hecate once had power over the sky, land, and sea.