11. Pausanias

The Eleans we know crossed over from Calydon and Aetolia generally. Their earlier history I found to be as follows. The first to rule in this land, they say, was Aëthlius, who was the son of Zeus and of Protogeneia, the daughter of Deucalion, and the father of Endymion.
The Moon, they say, fell in love with this Endymion [τούτου τοῦ Ἐνδυμίωνος Σελήνην φασὶν ἐρασθῆναι] and bore him fifty daughters. Others with greater probability say that Endymion took a wife Asterodia – others say it was Cromia, the daughter of Itonus, the son of Amphictyon; others again, Hyperippe, the daughter of Arcas – but all agree that Endymion begat Paeon, Epeius, Aetolus, and also a daughter Eurycyda.
Endymion set his sons to run a race at Olympia for the throne; Epeius won, and obtained the kingdom, and his subjects were then named Epeans for the first time. Of his brothers they say that Aetolus remained at home, while Paeon, vexed at his defeat, went into the farthest exile possible, and that the region beyond the river Axius was named after him Paeonia.
As to the death of Endymion, the people of Heracleia near Miletus do not agree with the Eleans; for while the Eleans show a tomb of Endymion, the folk of Heracleia say that he retired to Mount Latmus and give him honour, there being a shrine of Endymion on Latmus.

[V 1, 3-5]


12. Strabon

[...] This mountain [sc. Latmus] lies above Heracleia, and at a high elevation. At a slight distance away from it, after one has crossed a little river near Latmus, there is to be seen the sepulchre of Endymion, in a cave [δείκνυται τύφος Ἐνδυμίωνος ἔν τινι σπηλαίῳ].

[XIV 1, 8]

Auf die in der Kaiserzeit in Mode kommenden Endymion-Sarkophage hat schon filix aufmerksam gemacht.

Im Louvre gibt es ein berühmtes Gemälde: Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson: Der schlafende Endymion (Le Sommeil d‘Endymion).

Merkwürdig diese Auflösung der Selene bei Girodet-Trioson in Licht, die den effeminierten Endymion und seinen Zephyr in einer homoerotischen Szene flutet. Vielleicht noch einen Schritt weiter geht Canova, der selbst das Licht in den milchigen Hochglanz des Marmors, eine Art Mondgestein, verflüchtigt und einen wachsamen Hund als einzigen Betrachter des Schlafenden, ebenfalls als Jäger mit seinem Doppelspeer charakterisiert, zu dessen Füßen setzt. Selene, das sind wir Voyeure. Grotesk die kulturellen Strategien, die genutzt wurden, um die sexuelle Seite dieses göttliche Übergriffs auf einen Narkotisierten zu entschärfen. Auf ihrer Mondsichel wirkt manche Selene wie eine gutmütige Jungfrau Maria, die arglos über den Schlaf eines Schäfers wacht.