Have you ever stopped to think whether we should refer to the Moon as He or She?
Personally, I have always thought the Sun to be male and the Moon to be female and I’m neither the first nor the only person to do so.
Lewis Carroll thought so:
The sun was shining on the sea,
Shining with all his might:
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright –
And this was odd, because it was
The middle of the night.
The moon was shining sulkily,
Because she thought the sun
Had got no business to be there
After the day was done –
“It’s very rude of him,” she said,
“To come and spoil the fun!”
Exert from The Walrus and the Carpenter
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When it comes to Greek mythology, Selene was the goddess of the Moon, and Artemis is the ancient Greek goddess of the hunt, wilderness, wild animals, chastity, and the Moon. (What a combination.) There’s also Phoebe a first-generation Titan who is also associated with the Moon.
In Roman mythology there’s the heavenly Diana considered a patron of the Moon, as well as Luna who was the divine embodiment of the Moon.
(I do have to mention there are other mythological Moon deities that are male. There’s Thoth – the Egyptian god of writing, magic, wisdom, and the Moon, Mani – the Norse personification of the Moon, and Sin – the ancient Mesopotamian God of the Moon – just to name a few.)
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When it comes to language, in Spanish, the Moon is called la luna, where la (the Spanish equivalent of the English word ‘the‘) is a singular feminine noun. From this, one could surmise that in Spanish, the Moon is feminine.
The same can be said for French where the Moon is called la lune.
(On the other hand, in German, the Moon is called ‘der Mond’ where the word der is a singular masculine noun. So again, one could deduce that, in German, the Moon is masculine.)
In modern English, however, gendered nouns don’t exist as they once did. Does that mean (at least in the English language) that the Moon is considered to be gender neutral?*
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Personally, I don’t think so and I will continue to believe the Moon is female, a Goddess no less, and every time I gaze upon her beauty – something I do frequently, morning, noon or night – I will always think:
Isn’t she lovely?
* This is not me trying to spark a gender discussion.
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