(), a youth distinguished for his beauty, and
renowned in ancient story by the perpetual sleep in which he spent his life. Some traditions
about Endymion refer us to Elis, and others to Caria, and others again are a combination of
the two. According to the first set of legends, he was a son of Aethlius and Calyce,or of Zeus
and Calyce, and succeeded Aethlius in the kingdom of Elis. (Paus.
5.1.2.) Others again say that he expelled Clymenus from the kingdom of Elis, and
introduced into the country Aeolian settlers from Thessaly. (Apollod.
1.7.5, &c. ; Paus. 5.8.1.) Conon (Narrat 14) calls him a son of Zeus and Protogencia, and Hyginus (Hyg. Fab. 271) a son of Aetolus. He is said to have been married to
Asterodia, Chromia, Hyperippe, Neis, or Iphianassa; and Aetolus, Paeon, Epeius. Eurydice, and
Naxus are called his children. He was, however, especially beloved by Selene, by whom he had
fifty daughters. (Paus. 5.1.2.) He caused his sons to engage in
the race-course at Olympia, and promised to the victor the succession in his kingdom, and
Epeius conquered his brothers, and succeeded Endymion as king of Elis. He was believed to be
buried at Olympia, which also contained a statue of his in the treasury of the Metapontians.
(Paus. 6.19.8, 20.6.) According
to a tradition, believed at Heracleia in Caria, Endymion had come from Elis to mount Latmus in
Caria, whence he is called the Latmian (Latmius ; Paus. 5.1.4; Ov. Ars Am. 3.83, Trist.
2.299). He is described by the poets either as a king, a shepherd, or a hunter (Theocrit.
3.49, 20.37 with the Scholiast), and while he was slumbering in a cave of mount Latmus, Selene
came down to him, kissed, and lay by his side. (Comp. Apollon.
4.57.) There also he had, in later times, a sanctuary, and his tomb was shewn in a
cave of mount Latmus. (Paus. 5.1.4 ; Strab. xiv. p.636.) His eternal sleep on Latmus is assigned to different causes in
ancient story. Some said that Zeus had granted him a request, and that Endymion begged for
immortality, eternal sleep, and everlasting youth (Apollod.
1.7.5.); others relate that he was received among the gods of Olympus, but as he there
fell in love with Hera, Zeus, in his anger, punished him by throwing him into eternal sleep on
mount Latmus. (Schol. ad Theocrit. 3.49.) Others, lastly, state that
Selene, charmed with his surpassing beauty, sent him to sleep, that she might be
able to kiss him without being observed by him. (Cic. Tuscul. 1.38.) The
stories of the fair sleeper, Endymion, the darling of Selene, are unquestionably poetical
fictions, in which sleep is personified. His name and all his attributes confirm this opinion
: Endymion signifies a being that gently comes over one ; he is called a king, because he has
power over all living creatures; a shepherd, because he slumbered in the cool caves of mount
Latmus, that is, " the mount of oblivion." Nothing can be more beautiful, lastly, than the
notion, that he is kissed by the soft rays of the moon. (Comp. Plat. Phaed. p. 72. b; Ov. Am. 1.13. 43.) There is a beautiful
statue of a sleeping Endymion in the British Museum.