ENDYMION, in Greek mythology, son of Aethlius and king of Elis. He was loved by Selene, goddess of the moon, by whom he had 5o daughters. Otherwise, he was a beautiful youth, a shepherd or hunter whom Selene visited every night while he lay asleep in a cave on Mount Latmus in Caria (Pausanias v., I, 3; Ovid, Ars am. iii. 83) . Zeus offered him anything he might desire, and he chose an everlasting sleep, in which he might re main youthful for ever (Apollodorus i. 56) . According to others, Endymion's eternal sleep was a punishment inflicted by Zeus upon him because he ventured to fall in love with Hera (Schol. Theocritus iii. 49). The usual form of the legend, however, rep resents Endymion as having been put to sleep by Selene herself in order that she might enjoy his society undisturbed (Cicero, Tusc. disp. i. 92).