Selene / Luna / Feminine personification of the moon

Post date: Aug 04, 2016 10:44:1 AM

See also Selene, Luna, Mah, Chang’e, Mayan goddess, Mama Quilla, Hina.

A number of texts originally in English personify the moon as a woman, named the Old Woman in the Moon, Lady Moon, the Lady in the Moon or Grandmamma Moon, but little is said of her, and these may actually be references to Selene, Luna, Diana or some other lunar goddess, with one 1837 text connecting her to Hecate. (The 16th‐century play The Woman in the Moone is specifically about Pandora.) She is said to be visible on the moon from the earth, but with sources in disagreement as to whether it is her face or figure that can be seen.

• • “I see the moon, and the moon sees me” (nursery rhyme), Gammer Gurton’s Garland, 1783 or 1784. Does not specifically refer to the moon as feminine but is included in Milnes’ “A Child’s Song.” (1810, HathiTrust) (1810, Google Books) (1810, Internet Archive)

    • An Essay on the Archæology of Our Popular English Phrases, and Nursery Rhymes, new ed., vol. 2, by John Bellenden Ker, 1837. (Internet Archive) (HathiTrust)

    • The Nursery Rhymes of England, Collected Principally from Oral Tradition, 1842. (HathiTrust) (Google Books) (Internet Archive)

    • A Book of Nursery Songs and Rhymes, 1895. (HathiTrust)

  • Peter Parley’s Tales About the Sun, Moon, and Stars, ch. 2, “Parley Tells of the Moon,” by Peter Parley [Samuel G. Goodrich], (Dec.) 1830. “There is a dark place on the moon, somewhat resembling the figure of an old woman bent forward ….” Also mentions the Peruvian tale. (1831, HathiTrust) (1831, Google Books)

    • Tales About the Sun, Moon, and Stars, 2nd ed., ch. 3, § “Old Woman in the Moon,” 1837. Connects the old woman to Hecate. (Google Books) (Internet Archive)

  • “A Child’s Song,” Poems of Many Years, by Richard Monckton Milnes, 1838. (HathiTrust) (Google Books) (Internet Archive)

    • Oft reprinted as “Lady Moon.”

  • Letter by P. J. De Smet, undated, published in Annals of the Propagation of the Faith, a Periodical Collection of Letters from the Bishops and Missionaries Employed in the Missions of the Old and New World, vol. 1, no. 1, July 1839. Potawatomi woman in the moon. (HathiTrust) (Internet Archive) (Google Books)

  • “Grandmamma Moon” (poem), Percy’s Year of Rhymes, 1866. (Internet Archive) (HathiTrust) (Google Books)

  • “The Lady in the Moon” (letter and reply), by L. S. V⁠⸺ (also called Miss Lydia), St. Nicholas, vol. 18, no. 1, Nov. 1890. (Internet Archive) (HathiTrust) (Google Books)

  • “If the moon came from heaven” and “O Lady Moon, your horns point to the east” (rhymes), Sing‐Song: A Nursery Rhyme Book, by Christina G. Rossetti, 1893. (Internet Archive)

  • “A Gossip with the Moon” (poem), Jack and the Beanstalk and Other Stories with Many Illustrations, [189‒?]. (Internet Archive) (HathiTrust) (Library of Congress)

  • “The Lady in the Moon” (poem), by Josephine Underwood Woods, The Bluestocking, 1905. (Internet Archive)

  • “Three Cheers for the Lady in the Moon (A Fairy Fable for Freshmen),” by C. V., The Coloradoan, no. 8, 1907 (1906). (Internet Archive) (HathiTrust) (Google Books)

  • “The Moon,” Home Nature‐Study Course, by Anna Botsford Comstock, new series, vol. 5, no. 1, Oct. 1908, pp. 34–40. Lady in the Moon. (Cornell) (1910, Internet Archive) (1910, HathiTrust) (1910, Google Books)

    • Reedited and reprinted in Handbook of Nature‐Study for Teachers and Parents Based on the Cornell Nature‐Study Leaflets, with Much Additional Material and Many New Illustrations, 1911. (Internet Archive) (6th ed., 1916, HathiTrust) (6th ed., 1916, Google Books)

  • More than one poem in The Spinning Woman of the Sky: Poems, by Alice Corbin Henderson, 1912. (Internet Archive)

Mama Quilla

• • Primera parte de los commentarios reales, que tratan del origen de los Yncas, reyes que fueron del Peru, de ſu idolatria, leyes, y gouierno en paz y en guerra : de ſus vidas y conquiſtas, y de todo lo que fue aquel Imperio y ſu Republica, antes que los Eſpañoles paſſaran a el, bk. 2, ch. 23, “Tuuieron cuenta con los eclypſes del Sol, y lo que hazian con los de la Luna,” by el Ynca Garcilaſſo de la Vega, (Sept.) 1609. (Internet Archive) (Internet Archive) (HathiTrust) (Google Books) (Google Books)

    • First Part of the Royal Commentaries of the Yncas, trans. Clements R. Markham, 1869. (Internet Archive) (HathiTrust) (Google Books)

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