Phoebe: The Woman in the Moon

Phoebe. Drawn by me.

Sad to say, there aren't a lot of sources giving a hoot about Phoebe's awesomeness as a goddess. People almost always put her in the background. Not too good a publicity for a personage who could have easily been the original Sailor Moon.

Just another woman of light? From a woman whose name means "bright" and "radiant," she might as well have been a Titan goddess of light, alongside Theia.  According to some reliable sources, those two sisters were actually the best of friends (And, I find it so sweet!). 

I am guessing that their bonding moments could have included sun bathing, moon gazing, reading beauty magazines, and test driving the Sun and Moon chariots which they actually built! (I got that last bit from here.)

Moony-Eyed Over Phoebe

True enough, this goddess was a lot of wonders. Phoebe was a top Titanide, a daughter of Heaven and Earth; making her a princess. She was married to Coeus, the Titan of Intellect, and had the hotties Leto and Asteria for children. Now hers is another uber-BRIGHT family.

(Source: click here)

Her Lunar Legacy. One site says that Phoebe was never actually a moon goddess. But I beg to disagree. According to Pelasgian Myth (I got this one from Paleothea), the Supreme Goddess Eurynome gave Phoebe and the Titan Atlas (I'm really curious about this pairing. Since Phoebe was not partnered with Coeus this time, it could have been that they were not yet married during the distribution of powers), the dominion over the Moon and its Essence, Enchantment.

No wonder, many witches (both ancient and modern) draw seriously poppin' powers from the Moon.

According to the Official Guide to the Mythological Universe, some of the perks that Phoebe enjoyed as moon goddess included: the mystical powers to fly, the ability to conjure a silver light, and the ability to attract and repel objects (perhaps in reference to the moon's gravitational pull).

Like Grandmother, Like Granddaughters. Yeah, so Phoebe was the grandma of two of the most powerful goddesses of Ancient Greece:

• Hecate, goddess of witchcraft and sorcery, daughter of Asteria; and
• Artemis, goddess of hunting and chastity, daughter of Leto (don't worry, I'll be discussing Apollo later).

In addition to that, she also served as Selene's foster mother after her biological mother, Theia, had gone all nuts and vanished (you might want to read her full story here).

(ALERT: I just made up the Selene thingie. No reliable sources found. Beware.)

Phoebe loved her granddaughters so much that decided to give up her being the moon goddess for the girls. She separated her Moon Power into three, and gave each one to them. And so, the moon has got three forms. As Edith Hamilton (I'm quite sure everybody has read her in school) puts it:

Selene in the sky, Artemis on earth, Hecate in the lower world and in the world above when it is wrapped in darkness. 

Mythology, p 32

Yeah, talk about awesome family heirlooms.

In the Navel (Pun Intended)

Ruins of the Oracle at Delphi, the so-called 'navel of the earth' (Source)

Aside from being the original goddess of the moon, Phoebe was also a prophetic goddess of the famous Delphic Oracle, which was called the 'navel of the earth'. In this case, she was the 'temple associate' of Themis, the oracle's main goddess during the reign of Cronus. The ever reliable Theoi Project relates that Phoebe in the Oracle of Delphi:

... probably spoke with the prophetic voice of her mother Earth, while her husband Koios or Polos (literally "axis of heaven"), was the Titan who uttered the prophecies of his father the Sky. The daughters of the pair--Asteria and Leto--may have represented the oracles of darkness and light.

 As a really bright goddess, Phoebe opted not to take part in the gruesome Titanomachy. You could just imagine her chillin' at Delphi with Themis (who quietly supported the younger gods, BTW). After Zeus' victory against the Titans, Themis got hired to be King Zeus' personal adviser and was transferred to work in Olympus. Phoebe thereafter became the principal goddess of the Delphic Oracle. She was even made the goddess of all earth-based prophecies. Checking from God Checker, I also found out that Phoebe became a:

Goddess of Wise Counsel, Thoughtful Replies and Snappy Answers.

(Nice employment benefits for Phoebe, actually.) 

When her daughter Leto gave birth to the twins Apollo and Artemis, the proud grandmother Phoebe was so delighted that she decided to give her only grandson Apollo her Oracle as a birthday present.

What's left of her

Phoebe was such a generous goddess that she gave away all her powers and offices to her grandchildren (and one of her nieces). You might think that all that's left of her is her NAME.

Uhhh... just so you know, she gave that one away, too:

• Apollo became popularly known as Phoebus Apollo (Some people even say that it was his full name.); and
• Artemis as the goddess of the moon also became called Phoebe.

After that, we can only guess that Phoebe (like Theia) also just vanished; her Essence, which continued to exist within the three younger goddesses, became the light that makes the moon shine. Sweet.

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Meanwhile, let us get nostalgic about the good old days of Phoebe (and our own) with this little known (but very pleasing, I say) instrumental made by a project called Windsor Airlift: