ARE THE MOONS OF NINNION A REPRESENTATION OF EARTHSHINE?
Keywords:
Archaeoastronomy, Cultural Astronomy, Ancient Greek Vase Painting, Eleusinian Mysteries, Moon, Earthshine.Abstract
The so-called ―Ninnion Tablet‖ is a votive red-figured attic clay plaque, found in the Sanctuary of Eleusis
and dated ca. 370 BCE. It is a private offering, not of the utmost artistic quality, with an original subject of
mortals encountering the Eleusinian deities. The complex iconography has been extensively discussed in
classical scholarship. A frieze depicting a series of lunar discs and crescents, which has not been given much
attention yet, crowns the main scene. In the present paper, we examine these moons and conclude that they
may be the oldest representation of the phenomenon of earthshine in western art.
