Is the Moon she? Is the Sun he? (2025)

Hello,

Which pronoun can be used when talking about the Moon and the Sun?

I think I have read somewhere or other that the Moon is she and the Sun is he. The trouble is I cannot find the source to confirm or refute that claim.

Thank you!

Nun-Translator said:

This may be true in figurative or poetic language (like the film Brother Sun, Sister Moon),

Click to expand...

That's what I meant!

Nun-Translator said:

but in everyday discourse, both are "it" as far as I know.

Click to expand...

I do know!

Thank you, Nun-Translator!

In poetic language you can get away with pretty much anything, so anthropomorphized celestial bodies are effectively hermaphroditic.

If you wanted to describe the sun as some sort of nurturing matron, causing the plants to grow and such, then probably "she."
If instead you wanted the sun as a prehistoric deity, ruling the skies with an iron fist, maybe "he"?

There's no real right or wrong answer for you here, I think.

xqby said:

In poetic language you can get away with pretty much anything, so anthropomorphized celestial bodies are effectively hermaphroditic.

If you wanted to describe the sun as some sort of nurturing matron, causing the plants to grow and such, then probably "she."
If instead you wanted the sun as a prehistoric deity, ruling the skies with an iron fist, maybe "he"?

There's no real right or wrong answer for you here, I think.

Click to expand...

It is intriguing (at least for Polish students) since in my mother tongue the Moon is masculine.

Anyway, thank you for your help!

Loob said:

Don't forget the Man in the Moon

Click to expand...

I will not, dear Loob!

Latin with

sol, solis m. sun
luna, lunae f. moon

matches up with audiolaik's memory. But Latin is not English, observes Salvage.

Salvage said:

sol, solis m. sun
luna, lunae f. moon

Click to expand...

This is what is called a comprehensive explanation!

Thank you, Salvage!

W.S.Gilbert, or maybe his creature, Yum-Yum, took the view that the Sun was male and the moon female: Here's Yum-Yum's song to the sun and moon. Gilbert was careful about such things.

The sun, whose rays are all ablaze with ever-living glory,
does not deny his majesty--he scorns to tell a story!

that placid dame, the moon's celestial highness;
There's not a trace upon her face of diffidence or shyness:

Thomas Tompion said:

W.S.Gilbert, or maybe his creature, Yum-Yum, took the view that the Sun was male and the moon female: Here's Yum-Yum's song to the sun and moon. Gilbert was careful about such things.

The sun, whose rays are all ablaze with ever-living glory,
does not deny his majesty--he scorns to tell a story!

that placid dame, the moon's celestial highness;
There's not a trace upon her face of diffidence or shyness:

Click to expand...

Thank you, TT, for your kind input!

Milton takes the same view in Paradise Lost -

Sometimes towards Heaven, and the full-blazing sun,
Which now sat high in his meridian tower:

There's that wonderful description of evening in Chapter Four which ends:

Hesperus, that led
The starry host, rode brightest, till the moon,
Rising in clouded majesty, at length
Apparent queen unveiled her peerless light,
And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw.

I always thought of Venus and the moon as female heavenly bodies. In fact, I thought that in classic literature the moon was a representation of things feminine. I have an art piece that was made by a Native American that is called, "The Day the Raven Stole the Moon." He did it while he was caring for his dying mother, and I interpreted it to be the day the Giver of Life (the raven in many Native American stories) took his mother away.

However, in non-emotional everyday English, the moon and sun are as nun-translator says--they are "its."

It's surprising, when you think about it, that the English-language poetic tradition should so clearly have the sun as male and the moon as female.

In Germanic mythology the Sun is female and the Moon is male.

Click to expand...

(Source)

I blame the Romans, myself.

Thomas Tompion said:

W.S.Gilbert

Click to expand...

Thomas Tompion said:

Milton

Click to expand...

Oh and don't forget Marc Almond, Audio, in THIS SONG

Moglet said:

It's not surprising to me that there seems to be some sort of unspoken convention where the Sun is referred to as a masculine entity and the Moon a feminine one. In classical mythology (Roman, Greek, and Egyptian), deities associated with the Sun tend to be gods, and those associated with the Moon goddesses. Such cultural influences can be very strong.

Click to expand...

I strongly agree with your point of view!

Malfatti said:

As a fledgling poet and writer, I usually call the sun he and the moon she. That's cool for me and as well for my readers.

Click to expand...

Well, you're Italian, Malfatti, so that makes sense....

audiolaik said:

I think I have read somewhere or other that the Moon is she and the Sun is he.

Click to expand...

This is so in Latin. In Germanic it is the other way round. Old English mona is masculine and Old English sunne is feminine. The classical hypothesis is that the gender follows the climate in which these languages developed: In the Mediterranean region, the sun is burning hard (a masculine trait) and the moon is cool and soft (a feminine trait). Germanic developed in the cold north where the sun is warm and soft and the moon is biting cold.

But I am sceptical. Why then is OE dæg masculine and OE niht feminine?

berndf said:

the gender follows the climate in which these languages developed: In the Mediterranean region, the sun is burning hard (a masculine trait) and the moon is cool and soft (a feminine trait).

Click to expand...

But in Arabic (and I'm sure in Arabia the sun does burn hard) the sun is feminine (shams) and the moon is masculine (qamar).
Very strange.

As I said:

berndf said:

I am sceptical.

Click to expand...

In Semitic languages the genders of sun and moon are sometimes variable within a language.

In the Romance languages, it's pretty clear that the Sun is male and the Moon is female. Spanish even has got a name for them: the Sun's name is Lorenzo and the Moon's is Catalina.

In the Germanic ones, as far as I know, it is the other way round. One can see it in German (die Sonne, feminine; der Mond, masculine) but it was also like this in such languages as English or Swedish that do not make the difference nowadays (Old English: seo sunne, feminine; se mōna, masculine | Old Norse: sólin, feminine; máninn, masculine). So, while in modern English influences from Latin and French might have changed the perception, tradition should have yielded a female Sun and a male Moon. As it has been said, the Man in the Moon could be related to this, as it might have come from a male personification of the moon god.

If we look at the ancient mythologies :

Greek or Roman
Arthemis / Diana - goddess of the Moon
Helios / Apollo - god of the Sun

Egyptian
Isis - goddess of the Moon
Horus / Ra - god of the Sun

Phoenician / Punic
Ishtar / Astaroth / Tanith - goddess of the Moon
Baal - god of the Sun

Sardokan1.0 said:

Phoenician / Punic
Ishtar / Astaroth / Tanith - goddess of the Moon
Baal - god of the Sun

Click to expand...

Ba`al simply means Lord. It was used as an honorific title for a variety of deities. Identifying Ba`al as "the" sun God is an old die-hard myth. The Semitic pantheon had both, male and female sun dieties.

In Canaanite, Šemeš/Šapaš was female. In Hebrew, šemeš is also a common noun for sun (cognate of Arabic šams) and can be both masculine and feminine but is mostly feminine.

audiolaik said:

Hello,

Which pronoun can be used when talking about the Moon and the Sun?

I think I have read somewhere or other that the Moon is she and the Sun is he. The trouble is I cannot find the source to confirm or refute that claim.

Thank you!

Click to expand...

Sometimes if you are using a particular culture's mythology then you would have to go by whether a god or goddess is associated with the sun or moon.