Endymion on Sunday

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The Endymion Parade where Anderson was to be one of the Grand Marshals got suspended on Saturday because of heavy rain. It almost got canceled on Sunday too for the same reason. Alas! It didn't, and, according to this article by none other than Fox News, the Parade went on under sunny skies. Good for Anderson, and New Orleans.

I can't wait to see the pictures!

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Carnival in New Orleans Warms Up Under Sunny Skies

Published March 06, 2011 | Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS – With ideal weather as a backdrop, crowds poured onto the streets in the traditional warm-up for Carnival's big show on Mardi Gras.

Sunday featured celebrity-laden parades -- including CNN's Anderson Cooper, TV host Kelly Ripa, the rock band Train and actor Andy Garcia. Also, of course, was the typical drunken revelry of the French Quarter where tourists, locals and swarms of spring breakers rubbed shoulders.

The pre-Lenten festivities on Saturday were washed out by heavy downpours that canceled parades and forced the superkrewe of Endymion, a crowd favorite, to be pushed back until Sunday.

The line of thunderstorms that crossed Louisiana spawned a tornado that killed a mother shielding her child from the fierce winds.

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The Krewe of Endymion
The Krewe of Endymion is one of only three Super Krewes, defined by spectacular floats and celebrity Grand Marshals, and is the largest of the 80 or so parades participating in New Orleans Mardi Gras. It was founded in 1966 and named after Endymion {en-dim'-ee-uhn}, from Greek mythology.

Its motto, "Throw Until it Hurts", defines a tradition of being extremely generous with its throws, tossing millions of beads, cups, doubloons and trinkets during its annual parade, held the Saturday before Fat Tuesday. The parade is immediately followed with a spectacular party called the 'Endymion Extravaganza'.

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Two of the many tales about Endymion [aka Andersonius]
The stories resemble Anderson's story... minus the sleeping part...
or the fifty daughters... or the moon goddess...
Apollonius of Rhodes is one of the many poets who tell how Selene, the Titan goddess of the moon, loved the mortal. She believed him to be so beautiful that she asked Endymion's father, Zeus, to grant him eternal youth so that he would never leave her. Alternatively, Selene so loved how Endymion looked when he was asleep in the cave on Mount Latmus, near Miletus in Caria, that she entreated Zeus that he might remain that way. In either case, Zeus granted her wish and put him into an eternal sleep. Every night, Selene visited him where he slept. Selene and Endymion had fifty daughters called the Menae.

According to a passage in Deipnosophistae, the sophist and dithyrambic poet Licymnius of Chios tells a different tale, in which Hypnos, the god of sleep, in awe of his beauty, causes him to sleep with his eyes open, so he can fully admire his face.

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