In the first part of our series ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival, we looked into the vast tapestry of Chinese moon mythology – Chang'e, the Jade Rabbit, mooncakes, stories shaped by longing, selfless acts, and the hope of reunion.
In this feature, we'll expand into moon stories across other civilizations and how this celestial body became a metaphor for love, distance, luck and ambition.
Moon stories across the world
For as long as people have looked up at the night sky, the moon has been more than a distant object glowing above them. It has been a goddess, a home for spirits, a force capable of shaping nature and human fate, or a celestial figure governing the night and the passage of time. Its unusual appearances, from blue moons to blood-red eclipses, have inspired stories, warnings and wonder.
Science has given us answers to many of the questions our ancestors once answered through myth – we now know what causes an eclipse, why the moon changes shape and what its surface is made of.
We may no longer look at a lunar eclipse and prepare an offering to appease the heavens, but as long as people remain curious about the world above them – and the vast universe beyond it – the moon will continue to inspire stories of our own.
For the ancient Greeks, the moon was embodied by Selene, a goddess who crossed the night sky in a chariot.
According to the most enduring version of the myth, Selene first caught sight of Endymion – either a shepherd or the king of Elis depending on the version of the myth – while he was sleeping in a cave on Mount Latmus. Enchanted by his appearance, she descended from the night sky every night to watch over him in her pale, silvery light. One day she asked Zeus to make him always seem this way, so he would never age, never leave and never change. Zeus being Zeus, put Endymion to eternal slumber. And from then on, every night, Selene visits him in his cave, but they can never truly share a life.
The parallel with the story of Chang'e is hard to miss. In Chinese mythology, from the moon, Chang'e watches her beloved husband Hou Yi who remains on Earth, the two separated by an impossible distance.