Anyone visiting Geographical Images of the Gods (giotg.org) might wonder why a logo with lunar imagery has been seen representing a website whose theme is geographical imagery. Although it may not be apparent, the image of the moon goddess seen in the logo is, in fact, a geographical image, or at least that is what I suspect some ancients thought.

When we look at the full moon, we see, as we have always seen, only one never-changing side of the moon. As we now know, this is because the moon rotates once while it revolves around the earth once, which results in the same side of the moon always facing the earth.

Some ancients, I believe, had a more poetic view of this phenomenon. Some looked upon the moon as being sort of a shining mirror reflecting imagery of the earth. And the image that I believe stood out most to the ancients was the goddess depicted in the logo.

So, where exactly on earth was the geographical or geophysical head that was being reflected? I suspect there was disagreement among the ancients on this matter, but some probably believed the head being reflected belonged to the goddess Athena, who I introduce in Part 1, although her figure was in this case named Selene, a goddess strongly associated with the moon in myth.

I also suspect some believed the head belonged to Aphrodite, who I introduce in Part 1, as well. Although, here again, Aphrodite’s figure was probably known as one or more of the several goddesses known to have been associated with the moon.

Although my thoughts on the moon goddess are speculative and require further research, whenever I look at the full moon, I can’t help but see a moon goddess, whoever or wherever she might really be.