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THE MYTH OF
ENDYMION
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Selene and Endymio
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When the plains below were parched and brown
and dusty with the heat of summer, on Mount
Latmus all was so still and cool, so fresh and
green, that one seemed to be in another world.
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The mountain was most beautiful of allat night,
when the moon drove her chariotoverhead, and
ooded every tree and all the grassy
slopes with
her pale light.
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Endymion was a young shepherd wholed his
oc!s high up on the sides of thismountain and
let them browse on the rich pasturage
along themargins of its snow"fed streams. #e
loved the
pure mountain air, and the stillness ofthe higher
slopes, which was bro!en only by the
tin!le of his
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There he dreamed his days away, while his sheep
and goats were feeding$ or, at night, he leaned his
head on a log or a mossy stone and slept with theoc!. Selene, the moon"goddess, loved to visit
Mount Latmus$ in fact, the mountain belonged, in
some sense, to her. %t was her inuence that made
everything there so &uiet and beautiful.
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'ne night, when she had stolen down
from herplace in the s!y for a wal! through oneof the
owery meadows of Mount Latmus,she found
Endymion there asleep. The shepherdloo!ed as
beautiful as any ower on themountain, or as the
swans which were oating in the la!enear b with
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%f it had not been for his regular breathing,Selene
would have believed that she stood loo!ing at a
marble statue. There, at a little distance, lay his
sheep and goats, unguarded, and liable to be
attac!ed by wild beasts. 'h, Endymion was avery
careless shepherd( That was the e)ect of the air
on Mount Latmus.
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Selene !new that it was the wonderful
air of hermountain which had made the
shepherd
heedless, as well as beautiful,therefore she stayed
by his oc! all night and watched it
herself. Shecame the ne*t night and the ne*t, and
for many
nights, to ga+e at the sleeper, and to
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'ne morning, when she returned to
the s!y, sheloo!ed so pale from her watching that upiter
as!ed her where she had been, andshe
described the beautiful shepherd she
had foundon her mountain, and confessed that
she had
been guarding his sheep.
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Then she begged of upiter that since Endymion
was so very, very beautiful he might alwaysloo! as
she had seen him in his sleep, instead of
growingold as other mortals must. upiter answered,
-Even the gods cannot give to mortalseverlasting
youth and beauty without giving them alsoeverlasting sleep$ but Endymion shall sleep
forever and be forever young.-
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So there, in a cave, on Mount Latmus,Endymion
sleeps on to this day$ and his
wonderful beautyhas not faded in the smallest degree,
but is a oy
still to all who can climb those loftyheights.
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The End