Endymion

Endymion removed Clymenus from the kingship of Elis and ruled there. Zeus and the nymph Calyce were his parents. He belonged to the Aeolian people, although his origin was Carian. Different tellings gave his wife several names. They called her Asterodia, Chromia, Hyperippe, Iphianassa, or Neis.

His wife bore Epeius, Paeon, Aetolus, and Eurycyda. These four were the children of his mortal marriage. Endymion also fathered fifty daughters by Selene. Selene fell deeply in love with him after she saw him asleep in a cave on Mount Latmus in Caria. One still night, she found him lying there, lay down beside him, and gently kissed his closed eyes.

After this, Endymion returned to the same cave and entered a dreamless sleep from which he never woke. In one telling, he asked for the sleep because he feared the approach of old age. In another, Zeus put him to sleep because he suspected Endymion of an affair with Hera. A further telling said that Selene preferred to kiss him while he slept rather than endure his excessive passion. Whatever the cause, Endymion never grew older after that sleep, and his face kept its youthful bloom.