CHINESE VERSION
Ch’ang-O also called Chang’e is the Chinese Goddess of
the Moon. She does not personify the moon like other moon goddesses.
She lives on the moon and is sometimes called the “Woman on the Moon”.
Cha’ngo and how she came to live on the moon has many stories in Chinese mythology and variations.
One story is that Ch’ang-O was a young immortal girl working in the
palace of Heaven for the Jade Emperor. One day she accidentally broke a
valuable porcelain jar in the palace and the Jade Emperor in anger
banished her to live as a mortal on Earth. She could return to Heaven he
said if she contributed valuable service during her time on Earth.
Ch’ang-O as a mortal was a daughter of poor farming family. When she 18
years old she met the young archer Houyi and they became close friends.
One day something strange happened. Ten suns rose over the Earth in the
sky instead of one and began to burn the Earth. As an expert archer,
Houyi saw the suns and was able to shoot down nine suns and leave one
with his bow and arrow. Houyi was a hero for saving the Earth. He became
king of the land and married Ch’ang-O.
In time Houyi became more of a demanding ruler. He ordered an elixir be
made to give him immortality. The pill for this elixir was almost ready
for him when Ch’ang-O discovered it and swallowed the pill. Houyi found
this out that he went after Ch’ang-O in anger. She escaped out of a
window in the palace but did not fall out. She floated instead up into
the sky because of the pill’s effects. She landed on the moon. The king
still tried to shoot her down with arrows but with no success due to her
immortality.
Ch’ang-O felt lonely at first on the moon but then befriended the Jade
Rabbit show also lives on the moon and makes herbal medicine and mixes
elixirs.
Houyi eventually ascended to live and build a palace on the sun and so
Ch’ang-O and Houyi came to symbolize yin and yang.
GREEK VERSION
Selene was the Greek goddess of the Moon. According to the poet Hesiod,
Selene was the daughter of the Titans Theia and Hyperion, making the
goddess the sister of Helios (the Sun) and EOS (the Dawn). However, other ancient sources claim that she was the child of Pallas and Euryphaessa.
Regardless of her ancestry, Selene, as the personification of the
Moon, was an influential goddess. One of her best known myths involves
the handsome Endymion.
The moon-goddess fell in love with this mortal, and she therefore
engaged in an affair with Endymion that resulted in the birth of fifty
daughters. But Endymion was, alas, human, and so susceptible to aging
and eventually death. Selene could not bear the thought of this cruel
fate. According to one version of the myth, she made certain that
Endymion would remain eternally youthful by casting a spell that would
cause him to sleep forever. In this way, Endymion would always live,
sleeping through the ages.It is also important to note that some Classical authors identified Selene with the Olympian goddess Artemis (indeed, in time Artemis was increasingly recognized as a moon goddess in her own right).
Selene was important enough to the ancient Greeks to inspire a Homeric Hymn.
Selene was called Luna in Roman mythology.
JAPANESE VERSION
Tsukuyomi was the second of the "three noble children" born when Izanagi-no-Mikoto, the god who created the first land of Onogoro-shima, was cleansing himself of his sins while bathing after escaping the underworld and the clutches of his enraged dead wife, Izanami-no-Mikoto. Tsukuyomi was born when he washed out of Izanagi's right eye.[4] However, in an alternate story, Tsukuyomi was born from a mirror made of white copper in Izanagi's right hand.
After climbing a celestial ladder, Tsukuyomi lived in the heavens, also known as Takamagahara, with his sister Amaterasu Ōmikami, the sun goddess.
Tsukuyomi angered Amaterasu when he killed Uke Mochi, the goddess of food. Amaterasu once sent Tsukuyomi to represent her at a feast presented by Uke Mochi. The goddess made the food by turning to the ocean and spitting out a fish, then facing the forest and game came out of her mouth, and finally turned to a rice paddy and coughed up a bowl of rice. Tsukuyomi was utterly disgusted by the fact that, although it looked exquisite, the meal was made in a disgusting manner, and so he killed her.[4]
Soon, Amaterasu learned what happened and she was so angry that she refused to ever look at Tsukuyomi again, forever moving to another part of the sky. This is the reason that day and night are never together. In later versions of this myth, Uke Mochi is killed by Susanoo instead.
reference : Wikipedia.org
OTHER VERSION
A Native American myth says that the sun and moon are a chieftain and his wife and that the stars are their children. The sun loves to catch and eat his children, so they flee from the sky whenever he appears. The moon plays happily with the stars while the sun is sleeping. But each month, she turns her face to one side and darkens it (as the moon wanes) to mourn the children that the sun succeeded in catching.
The Efik Ibibio people of Nigeria in West Africa also say that the sun and the moon are husband and wife. Long ago they lived on the earth. One day their best friend, flood, came to visit them, bringing fish, reptiles, and other relatives. Flood rose so high in their house that they had to perch on the roof. Finally he covered the house entirely, so the sun and moon had to leap into the sky.
In a myth of the Luyia people of Kenya in East Africa, the sun and moon were brothers. The moon was older, bigger, and brighter, and the jealous sun picked a fight with him. The two wrestled and the moon fell into mud, which dimmed his brightness. God finally made them stop fighting and kept them apart by ordering the sun to shine by day and the mud-spattered moon to shine by night to illuminate the world of witches and thieves.
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