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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