ts came; with
others it was the final home whither human spirits returned. Then it
grew into a penal colony, to which egregious offenders were
transported; or prison cage, in which, behind bars of light, miserable
sinners were to be exposed to all eternity, as a warning to the
excellent of the earth. One thing is certain, namely, that, during
some phases, the moon's surface strikingly resembles a man's
countenance. We usually represent the sun and the moon with the
faces of men; and in the latter case the task is not difficult. Some
would say that the moon is so drawn to reproduce some lunar deity:
it would be more correct to say that the lunar deity was created
through this human likeness. Sir Thomas Browne remarks, "The sun
and moon are usually described with human faces: whether herein
there be not a pagan imitation, and those visages at first implied
Apollo and Diana, we may make some doubt." [11] Brand, in
quoting Browne, adds, "Butler asks a shrewd question on this head,
which I do not remember to have seen solved:--

"Tell me but what's the natural cause,
Why on a Sign no Painter draws
The _Full Moon_ ever, but the _Half_?"
(Hudibras, B. II., c. iii.) [12]

Another factor in the formation of our moon-myth was the
anthropomorphism which sees something manlike in everything, not
only in the anthropoid apes, where we may find a resemblance more
faithful than flattering, but also in the mountains and hills, rivers
and seas of earth, and in the planets and constellations of heaven.
Anthropomorphism was but a species of personification, which also
metamorphosed the firmament into a menagerie of lions and bears,
with a variety of birds, beasts, and fishes. Dr. Wagner writes: "The
sun, moon, and stars, clouds and mists, storms and tempests,
appeared to be higher powers, and took distinct forms in the
imagination of man. As the phenomena of nature seemed to
resemble animals either in outward form or in action, they were
represented under the figure of animals." [13] Sir George W. Cox
points out how phrases ascribing to things so named the actions or
feelings of living beings, "would grow into stories which might
afterwards be woven together, and so furnish the groundwork of
what we call a legend or a romance. This will become plain, if we
take the Greek sayings or myths about Endymion and Selene. Here,
besides these two names, we have the names Protogenia and
Asterodia. But every Greek knew that S