The tale of Endymion is an odd one. There are so many versions of it that you can’t really tell which is the origin, and the details get changed enough that it’s difficult to know for certain what the true meaning of the story really was. Perhaps the oral tradition of the story was so vague that there are as many versions as we find now. 
 
Here are three versions and styles of my own that have three separate meanings. Enjoy and comment on which you like the best and why. 
 

The handsome king of the great city Elis gave up his kingdom to be a humble shepherd. He gave the kingdom to his son, and he left for a beautiful land of Caria. But he did not know he was being watched. For he was greatly handsome, even rivalling Narcissus and Ganymede. 

Selene, the moon, admired him and could not take her gaze from him. She favoured him so much that she had to come down from her elevation to see him, she snuck close to him one night when he was in the glade of latmus. She placed a spell upon him that Zues gave her that he would fall into a deep eternal sleep and never wake nor age. Now, every night she comes down from her lofty position in the sky to find and gaze upon her lust. She would kiss him and lay beside him. 

But she realized her mistake. Seeing him every night, even though she got to see him in all his beauty for ever and ever, now she feels her passion turning to a burden of pain. She can never see him wake, working, living with purpose, faltering, nor admiring her. But she cannot stop visiting him, she had done this to him and sought his beauty so. 

If she stopped his slumber was in vain and she found herself needing him to appease her desire. Yet she found herself longing for more, perhaps that longing was their all along and Selene misinterpreted, now to forever let Endymion tossing not nor turning. 
 
 

The king of Elis,
Ruled well and short,
left his kingdom to his kin.
 
Humble Shepherd he became,
The moon his favour that hung in the heavens,
Her image with a rhythm of fierce and tame,
Watching her wade and wallow.
 
She admired him back,
For his mortal form was that of the gods,
She desired to see him close,
But her duties prevented her so.
He continued to watch her,
Appearing in full to concealing to a sliver,
With such joy he noted her every gesticulation. 
 
One day, on her new moon
Liberated to befall her love. 
She travelled to the glade of Latmus
A cave where she hung above. 
Found him in the eternal slumber. 
Her heart ached in her chest,
She sees her love, in youth and beauty,
But fall into his embrace, she could not. 
He toss not nor turn as she lays with him,
Kissing and embracing him every night since. 
 
 
 
A king, enough with ruling had, to leave his throne to his son. He leaves for the humble lands of Caria and lowly shepherd watches. He finds his fondness in the moon, her motions and her teasing concealment. She herself notices her admirer and sees his beauty in return. 

Night after night he looked to her and she to him. She tried to go down to him but she was waylaid. As he watched her appear in full glory and concealed to a sliver, she sought to visit him with everything she had. On one full moon, she was finally able to appear before the king in her true form. She travelled down to the humble glade of Latmus, she entered his cave that he admired her from for so long, but only to find he had entered the eternal slumber. 

The time he spent watching her hide and divulge behind the earth’s shadow had been longer than she expected. It had been an entire lifetime. For at times when he gazed upon her elegance, the time of weeks only felt as one night.  

She wept and laid by his side, kissing him as he tossed not nor turned. Poor Endymion, the moon goddess, Selene would never be able to be with him. But she visits him every night still, vowing never to seek anyone else.