Pandia

This article is about the Greek goddess. For the Athenian festival, see Pandia (festival). For the Indian village, see Pandia, Odisha. For a moon of Jupiter, see Pandia (moon).

In Greek mythology, the goddess Pandia /pænˈdaɪə/ or Pandeia (Ancient Greek: Πανδία, Πανδεία, meaning "all brightness")^[1] was a daughter of Zeus and the goddess Selene, the Greek personification of the moon.^[2] From the Homeric Hymn to Selene, we have: "Once the Son of Cronos [Zeus] was joined with her [Selene] in love; and she conceived and bare a daughter Pandia, exceeding lovely amongst the deathless gods."^[3] An Athenian tradition perhaps made Pandia the wife of Antiochus, the eponymous hero of Antiochis, one of the ten Athenian tribes (phylai).^[4]

Originally Pandia may have been an epithet of Selene,^[5] but by at least the time of the late Homeric Hymn, Pandia had become a daughter of Zeus and Selene.^[6] Pandia (or Pandia Selene) may have personified the full moon,^[7] and an Athenian festival called the Pandia (probably held for Zeus^[8]) was perhaps celebrated on the full-moon and may have been connected to her.^[9]