Diana (mythology)

The Diana of Versailles

In Roman mythology, Diana was the goddess of the hunt, in literature the equivalent of the Greek goddess Artemis, though her cult was Italic in origin. The daughter of Zeus and Latona, Diana was born with her twin brother Apollo on the island of Delos.

Goddess of the hunt

Diana was the virgin hunting goddess, associated with wild animals and woodlands. She also later became a moon goddess, supplanting Luna, and was an emblem of chastity. Oak groves were especially sacred to her. She was praised in poetry for her strength, athletic grace, purity, distinct beauty, and hunting skill.

Etymologically, "Diana" means simply "the Goddess," parallel to the name of Greek goddess Dione at Dodona, although the two are not related either mythologically of in terms of cult practice. She was goddess of fertility worshiped especially by women seeking seeking conception and healthy delivery. Diana was regarded with great reverence by lower-class citizens and slaves, and runaway slaves could receive asylum in her temples.

Diana was also a goddess of domestic animals. As the goddess of the hunt, she may have evolved from an earlier forest deity. Diana also made up a trinity with two other Roman deities: Egeria the water nymph, who was her servant and assistant midwife; and Virbius, the woodland god.

Diana was worshiped at a festival on August 13, the date upon which King Servius Tullius dedicated her shrine on the Aventine Hill in Rome in the mid-sixth century B.C.E. Being placed on the Aventine, and thus outside the of Rome's sacred boundaries, meant that Diana's cult essentially remained a "foreign" one at this time, like that of Bacchus (Dionysus). Diana remained in this position and was never officially transferred to Rome as was the case with some other deities. It seems that her cult originated in town of Aricia near Rome, where her priest, the Rex Nemorensis ("the king of the grove") remained, by the shores of Lake Nemi. There the simple open-air temple was held in common by the Latin tribes, and legend holds that a new priest replace his predecessor only by slaying him.

Diana huntress, by Houdon. Louvre

Diana is sometimes portrayed as accompanied by a deer, as in the Diana of Versailles, as the patroness of hunting. The deer may also be a reference to the myth of Acteon (or Actaeon), who saw Diana bathing naked, whereupon Diana transformed him into a stag and set his own hunting dogs to kill him. Some Roman patrons ordered marble replicas of the Anatolian version of "Diana of Ephesus," as the goddess of domestic animals. However, Diana was usually depicted by the Romans in her Greek guise.

Worship of Diana is also mentioned in the Bible. In Acts of the Apostles, Ephesian metalsmiths who felt threatened by Saint Paul’s preaching of Christianity, jealously rioted in Diana's defense, shouting “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!” (Acts 19:28, New English Bible).

Legacy

Diana (1892 - 93), Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Bronze, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

Diana's worship may be related in Early Modern Europe to the cult of the Scottish goddessNicevenn (aka Dame Habond, Perchta, Herodiana). She has also been connected to myths of a female Wild Hunt. Female members of the sect known as the Benandanti ("Good Walkers"), in their struggles against evil witches during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, believed that they left their bodies during the night and communed with Diana or a similar goddess in defeating witchcraft.

Both the Romanian word for "fairy," zânǎ and the Asturian word for "water nymph," xana, may be related to the name of Diana.

Since the Renaissance the mythic Diana has often been expressed in the visual and dramatic arts, including the opera L'arbore di Diana. In the sixteenth century, Diana's image figured prominently at the Château de Fontainebleau, in deference to Diane de Poitiers, mistress of two French kings. At Versailles she was incorporated into the Olympian iconography with which Louis XIV, the Apollo-like "Sun King" liked to surround himself.

There are also references to Diana in popular literature. In Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet, with its theme of the tension between chastity and romance, contains many references to Diana. Diana is also a character in the 1876 Leo Delibe ballet Sylvia. The plot deals one of Diana's nymphs who is sworn to chastity, featuring Diana's assault on Sylvia's affections for the shepherd Amyntas.

In Jean Cocteau's 1946 film La Belle et la Bête it is Diana's power which has transformed and imprisoned the beast.

File:DianaAndPomona.jpg

Pomona (left, symbolizing agriculture), and Diana (symbolizing commerce) as building decoration

Modern day

Diana remains an important figure in some modern mythologies.. Those who believe that prehistoric peoples lived in matriarchal societies consider Diana to have originated in a mother goddess worshipped at that time.

Today there is a branch of Wicca named for her, which is characterized by an exclusive focus on the feminine aspect of the Divine.

In comic book lore, the character of Wonder Woman who hails from Paradise Island which is rich in Greek mythology is written to be a descendant of the Gods, and named after the moon goddess, Diana

In the funeral oration of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997, her brother drew an ironic analogy between the ancient goddess of hunting and his sister - 'the most hunted person of the modern age'.

Diana, like many aspects of mythology, is depicted in the comic books Asterix. In the Roman temples, many times can be seen in the background a statue of Diana, depicted as a well rounded lady, usually sitting on a stag, who appears to be suffering.

In Italy the old religion of Stregheria embraced goddess Diana as Queen of the Witches. Witches being the wise women healers of the time. Goddess Diana created the world of her own being having in herself the seeds of all creation yet to come. It is said that out of herself she divided into the darkness and the light, keeping for herself the darkness of creation and creating her brother Apollo, the light. Goddess Diana loved and ruled with her brother Apollo, the god of the Sun. As time went on, the Earth was created and Diana descended to Earth, as did her brother Apollo. Diana taught magick and witches were born. One night using witchcraft in the form of a cat, His most beloved animal, Diana tricked Apollo. She gained entrance to His chamber where She seduced Him. From this union a daughter was born, goddess Aradia. Some people see Diana Nemorensis as a separate person or goddess, but she is the same Roman goddess, with different stories from different points of view, the strega and the Romans had different stories.

See also

• Diana Nemorensis
• Wild Hunt

External links

• Landscape with Diana and Callisto painting
• Diana and her Nymphs painting

See also

• Diana Nemorensis
• Wild Hunt

External links

• Landscape with Diana and Callisto painting
• Diana and her Nymphs painting

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