3/27/2023 0 Comments Diana lights out![]() Interestingly, while Diana was a symbol of purity, she was also prayed to by women who wanted to conceive and by mothers who wanted an easy childbirth. Sometimes referred to as Lucina, Diana’s reputation of protecting mothers and children earned her a place of honor among women.įurther, Diana was praised for her intelligence. Diana was said to have displaced Luna as a moon goddess, and Diana is represented as directing the movements of the moon from her chariot and was frequently thought of as the goddess of light.Īlthough considered smart, pure, and talented, as a moon goddess, Diana was said to have an unpredictable nature, and was, at times, vengeful. One myth tells the story that the hunter, Actaeon, stumbled upon Diana while she was bathing in a river. Upset that Actaeon had seen her undressed, she turned him into a stag and set his hounds after him. In another myth, it is said that Orion, the giant huntsman, won her heart. However, Diana’s brother, Apollo, grew alarmed that a love affair might develop between his sister and this giant, and Apollo tricked Diana into a shooting contest the far-off target turned out to be Orion’s head. Grieving the fact she had killed Orion, she turned him into a constellation. She placed his beloved hunting dogs, Canis Major and Canis Minor, close by.ĭuring the twelve labors Diana appeared to Hercules and told him to free the Ceryneian Hind, a mythical deer like creature.īecause of Diana’s strong connections to woodland creatures, hunting, and the moon, she is sometimes referred to as the Triple Goddess. Roman sculptors created statues depicting her with three heads, those of a dog, a boar, and a horse, and those statues were erected in places where roads met.ĭiana was also part of another trinity. She lived with the nymph Egeria and her servant and assistant midwife, Virbuis. They lived in the Woods of Nemi near the town of Aricia just south of Rome in a sacred grove of oak trees. In Rome, Diana was considered a protector of the lower class (plebeians) and slaves, and many slaves received sanctuary in her temples. Thus, her temple in the ancient Greek city of Ephesus had to be presided over by a high priest who had once been a runaway slave. A slave would be elevated to the position of high priest only if he broke off a branch from one of her sacred oaks and then fought the current high priest to the death.ĭiana was worshiped at a festival called Nemoralia, or the Festival of Torches, beginning on August 13 each year. After washing their hair and dressing it with flowers, Diana’s followers would proceed around the sacred Lake Nemi-also referred to as Diana’s Mirror-bearing torches. The worshippers would allow their torchlight to join with the moonlight on the water’s surface.
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