A lunar deity or moon deity is a

deity A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines ''deity'' as a God (male deity), god or god ...

who represents the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

, or an aspect of it. These deities can have a variety of functions and traditions depending upon the culture, but they are often related. Lunar deities and Moon worship can be found throughout most of

recorded history Recorded history or written history describes the historical events that have been recorded in a written form or other documented communication which are subsequently evaluated by historians using the historical method. For broader world h ...

in various forms.

Moon in religion and mythology

Many cultures have implicitly linked the 29.5-day lunar cycle to women's

menstrual cycle The menstrual cycle is a series of natural changes in hormone production and the structures of the uterus and ovaries of the female reproductive system that makes pregnancy possible. The ovarian cycle controls the production and release of eg ...

s, as evident in the shared linguistic roots of "menstruation" and "moon" words in multiple

language families A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term ''family'' is a metaphor borrowed from biology, with the tree model used in historical linguistics ana ...

. This identification was not universal, as demonstrated by the fact that not all moon deities are female. Still, many well-known mythologies feature moon goddesses, including the Greek goddess

Selene In ancient Greek mythology and Ancient Greek religion, religion, Selene (; , meaning "Moon")''A Greek–English Lexicon's.v. σελήνη is the goddess and personification of the Moon. Also known as Mene (), she is traditionally the daughter ...

, the Roman goddess Luna, the Chinese goddess Chang'e, and the Mayan goddess Coyolxauhqu, who's decapitation may represent a lunar eclipse. Several goddesses including

Artemis In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Artemis (; ) is the goddess of the hunting, hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, transitions, nature, vegetation, childbirth, Kourotrophos, care of children, and chastity. In later tim ...

, Hecate, and

Isis Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom () as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her sla ...

did not originally have lunar aspects, and only acquired them late in antiquity due to

syncretism Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various school of thought, schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or religious assimilation, assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the ...

with the de facto Greco-Roman lunar deity

/ Luna.

Male lunar gods are also common, such as

Sin In religious context, sin is a transgression against divine law or a law of the deities. Each culture has its own interpretation of what it means to commit a sin. While sins are generally considered actions, any thought, word, or act considered ...

of the

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

ns, Khonsu of the

Egyptians Egyptians (, ; , ; ) are an ethnic group native to the Nile, Nile Valley in Egypt. Egyptian identity is closely tied to Geography of Egypt, geography. The population is concentrated in the Nile Valley, a small strip of cultivable land stretchi ...

(or the earlier Egyptian lunar deity Iah), Mani of the

Germanic tribes The Germanic peoples were tribal groups who lived in Northern Europe in Classical antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. In modern scholarship, they typically include not only the Roman-era ''Germani'' who lived in both ''Germania'' and parts ...

, Tsukuyomi of the Japanese, Igaluk/ Alignak of the

Inuit Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwe ...

, and the Hindu god Chandra. The original

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-Euro ...

lunar deity, ''*Meh₁not'' appears to have been male, with many possible derivatives including the Homeric figure of

Menelaus In Greek mythology, Menelaus (; ) was a Greek king of Mycenaean (pre- Dorian) Sparta. According to the ''Iliad'', the Trojan war began as a result of Menelaus's wife, Helen, fleeing to Troy with the Trojan prince Paris. Menelaus was a central ...

. Cultures with male moon gods often feature sun goddesses. An exception are

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...

and Philippine animism featuring both male and female aspects of the solar divine. Pre-colonial Philippine societies practiced animism, in which nature was imbued with spirits and deities with both male and female moon gods prevalence of many male moon gods in Philippine mythology, unlike in many other cultures where the moon is typically personified as female. As the Philippines absorbed influences from Hindu-Buddhist, indigenous beliefs sometimes merged or adapted.The Philippines has multiple moon deities because of its diverse ethnolinguistic groups and rich pre-colonial unified belief systems. The ancient Egyptians had several moon gods including Khonsu and Thoth, although Thoth is a considerably more complex deity.'' Thoth, the Hermes of Egypt: a study of some aspects of theological thought in ancient Egypt, page 75''

Set Set, The Set, SET or SETS may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Mathematics *Set (mathematics), a collection of elements *Category of sets, the category whose objects and morphisms are sets and total functions, respectively Electro ...

represented the moon in the ancient

Egyptian calendar The ancient Egyptian calendar – a civil calendar – was a solar calendar with a 365-day year. The year consisted of three seasons of 120 days each, plus an Egyptian intercalary month, intercalary month of five epagomenal days treated as outs ...

. In Bakongo religion, the earth and moon goddess Nzambici is the female counterpart of the sun god Nzambi Mpungu. Metztli, Coyolxauhqui and

Tēcciztēcatl In Aztec mythology, Tecciztecatl ( , "person from Tēcciztlān," a place name meaning "Place of the Conch," from ''tēcciztli'' or "conch"; also Tecuciztecatl, Teucciztecatl, from the variant form ''tēucciztli'') was a lunar deity, representing t ...

are all lunar deities in the Aztec religion. In the Manichean religion,

Jesus Christ Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

was worshipped as a lunar deity, often being called the King of the Moon, or simply Jesus the Moon. Many cultures are oriented chronologically by the Moon, as opposed to the Sun. The

Hindu calendar The Hindu calendar, also called Panchangam, Panchanga (), is one of various lunisolar calendars that are traditionally used in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, with further regional variations for social and Hindu religious purposes ...

maintains the integrity of the lunar month and the moon god Chandra has religious significance during many Hindu festivals (e.g. Karwa Chauth, Sankashti Chaturthi, and during eclipses). Ancient Germanic tribes and the peoples they were in contact with, such as the

Baltic Finnic peoples The Baltic Finnic peoples, often simply referred to as the Finnic peoples, are the peoples inhabiting the Baltic Sea region in Northern Europe, Northern and Eastern Europe who speak Finnic languages. They include the Finns, Estonians (including ...

, were also known to have a lunar calendar. Calendars such as the

Runic calendar A Runic calendar (also Rune staff or Runic almanac) is a perpetual calendar, variants of which were used in Northern Europe until the 19th century. A typical runic calendar consisted of several horizontal lines of symbols, one above the ...

fixing the beginning of the year at the first full moon after

winter solstice The winter solstice, or hibernal solstice, occurs when either of Earth's geographical pole, poles reaches its maximum axial tilt, tilt away from the Sun. This happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere (Northern Hemisphere, Northern and So ...

. The Moon features prominently in art and literature, often with a purported influence on human affairs.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lunar Deity 01 Comparative mythology Mythological archetypes

Moon in religion and mythology

See also

References