The Story of Endymion
The chaste Diana was not only a famous huntress, but she was goddess of
the moon as well. By day she roamed the forest with her band of nymphs,
and by night she sailed in her bright moon-car across the star-strewn
sky, and looked down at the sleeping earth lying in the shadow except
where her soft light fell. As soon as Apollo had driven his tired,
foam-flecked horses within the western gates, and twilight had begun to
creep over the hills, Diana mounted her silver car drawn by milk-white
steeds, and started on her nightly journey. During the first hours of
her ride, the friendly twilight kept a faint glow in the heavens, and
the road lay plain before her; but as night came on and the blackness
deepened, her horses might have wandered from their accustomed path had
not the stars wakened from their day-dreaming and come out in great
luminous clusters to light the goddess on her way. Though the journey
was always the same, night after night, Diana never wearied of her
course or found the sleeping earth less lovely, as it unfolded hour by
hour before her eyes.
One evening as she looked down upon the quiet scene, she saw the form
of a shepherd-boy lying upon a grassy hilltop, where the moonlight
shone full upon his upturned face. Diana was not susceptible to love;
but when she saw Endymion sleeping, she marveled at his beauty, and
felt a strange longing to be near him. So she stepped softly from
her silver car and floated down to the earth--to the spot where the
unconscious shepherd lay dreaming. There was perfect stillness all
around, and no whisper came but the soft murmur from the pine-trees,
which sounded like some great creature sighing in its sleep. For some
time the goddess watched the youth in silence, then, stooping, she
gently kissed him. Endymion half wakened at her touch, and looked
sleepily around, bewildered by the radiance that seemed to be enfolding
him in its unearthly light. But in a moment the glory had faded away,
and there was only the deep blueness of the night all about him; for
Diana, frightened at her own boldness, had hurried back to her silver
car and had sped away into the darkness. Endymion thought then that he
had dreamed a dream of some beautiful form that had lingered by his
side, and although he waited patiently and hopefully all through the
night, he saw no other vision, and only the dawn came to greet his
weary eyes.
The next night Diana drove her milk-white horses impatiently and often
at random, until the quiet stars, as they watched her restless course,
wondered and felt half afraid. When the clouds wrapped her closely in
their white embrace, the goddess drove them angrily aside, lest they
shut out from her eyes the sight of the sleeping earth. At last she
drew near the hillside where Endymion lay, and, on seeing him there,
Diana glided again from her silver car and stood beside his unconscious
form. At her light touch he stirred, and tried to rouse himself from
his heavy slumber; but some spell seemed to bind his eyelids, and
through sleep-dimmed eyes he saw the radiance fade away. Night after
night he felt the presence of that bright being whom his eyes so longed
to behold; but only in his dreams could he see her face or touch her
floating garments that passed by him like the rustle of the night wind.
Each night Diana left her restless horses to stand unwatched among
the shifting clouds, while she lingered on the earth to gaze upon the
sleeping shepherd-boy; and as she stood beside him she wished that he
might always be as now--ever beautiful, ever young. So to keep him
untouched by sickness or sorrow or death she took him to Mount Latmus,
where there was a cave dedicated in her honor which no mortal foot had
ever profaned. Here she placed Endymion, and caused an eternal sleep
to fall upon him, so that his body in all its youth and beauty might
never know decay. And every night when her long journey was ended,
and the watchful stars had withdrawn their shining, Diana hastened to
the lonely cave on Mount Latmus, there to linger beside Endymion[16]
sleeping, and touch him with a kiss that could not waken.