Mene (, ), in ancient Greek religion and mythology, is an epithet of Selene, the Greek lunar goddess, as a goddess presiding over the months.Hard, p. 46; Oxford Classical Dictionary, s.v. Selene; Smith, s.v. Selene.
Etymology The Greek word (mēnē) means both the Moon and the lunar month.Athanassakis and Wolkow, pp. 90, on lines 1–2, 91, on line 5; Kerényi, p. 197 It represents the feminine form of the older masculine noun (mēn), which in turn derives from the oblique stem of the Indo-European word *meh₁nōt ("moon; month"). The name of the Phrygian moon-god Men derives from the same word.Oxford Classical Dictionary, s.v. Selene; Kerényi, p. 197. Further cognates include "Moon" and "Máni."
William Smith writes of Mene as "a goddess presiding over the months".Smith, s.v. "Mene" Apostolos Athanassakis and Benjamin Wolkow speculate that Selene's name, which is derived from the word (selas, "light") and thus means "luminous one", might have originally developed as a euphemism, before becoming the Moon and its goddess's proper name.
See also Proto-Indo-European religion Proto-Indo-European language H2éwsōs Manat (goddess)
Notes
References Athanassakis, Apostolos N., and Benjamin M. Wolkow, The Orphic Hymns, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013. . Google Books.
Hard, Robin, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004, . Google Books. Kerényi, Karl (1951), The Gods of the Greeks, Thames and Hudson, London, 1951. Internet Archive. Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). "Mene"