Endymion

English

Endymion and Selene, by Sebastiano Ricci, 1713

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Ancient Greek Ἐνδυμίων (Endumíōn)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛnˈdɪmi.ən/

Proper noun

Endymion

1. (Greek mythology) A man described variously as a handsome Aeolian shepherd, hunter, or king, who was loved by Selene or Artemis (the two being often conflated) and was said to rule and live at Olympia in Elis, as well as venerated and said to reside in Caria, southwest Asia Minor, on Mount Latmus.
   • a. 1864 Walter Savage Landon, Pericles and Aspasia, Little, Brown, and Company, Boston, 1905, page 82,

     The heavenly bodies may keep their secrets two or three thousand years yet; but one or other of them will betray them to some wakeful favorite, some Endymion beyond Latmos, perhaps in regions undiscovered, certainly in uncalculated times.

2. (astronomy) 342 Endymion, an asteroid.
3. (astronomy) A crater on the Moon.

Usage notes

Notably the eponymous protagonist of John Keats' 1818 narrative poem Endymion, which adapts the myth and describes him as a "shepherd prince" at Mount Latmus.