It is popular in modern times, especially in neopagan circles, to think of the moon as representing a goddess. But what did the ancients think?  Was the moon female to them?

In classical Greece and Rome, the answer to that question is clearly yes.  The original Greek Moon Goddess was Selene, a Titan, or one of the gods of the generation prior to the more famous Olympians.  Selene, as the moon, was the sister of Helios, the sun, and Eos, the dawn.  Eos is an extremely ancient goddess, descended from an Indo-European Goddess of the Dawn, who was seen as the shining morning sun and daughter of the Sky God. In Greek myth she opened the gates of the east each morning and rode out in a chariot.  Soon after, she was followed by Helios who ruled the day in a glowing chariot pulled by fiery horses.

Like her…