Villa del Casale Mythology: Endimione

He was a very beautiful Caria shepherd who was sentenced by Zeus to sleep for forty years on mount Latmo, because he had courted Hera. Artemis, moved to pity and in love with the young man, visited him every night, by the spoils of the moon (Selene), to kiss him with its pale rays of light. Another version wants that Artemis fell in love with Endimione giving him fifty daughters and then, not bearing the idea he died, she put him to sleep for ever in a cave on mount Latmo in Caria where he lays for the eternity keeping himself young and very beautiful.