Diana

Diana is a Roman and Hellenistic goddess associated with nature, childbirth, and the moon. She is often compared to the Greek goddess Artemis and is believed to have a birth on the island of Delos. Diana is a virgin goddess and protector of childbirth, often forming a triad with Egeria and Virbius. She is also revered in modern neopagan religions like Roman neopaganism, Stregheria, and Wicca. In ancient, medieval, and modern times, Diana has been considered a triple deity, merging with a goddess of the moon and the underworld.
Diana, an ancient goddess common to all Latin tribes, was worshiped in numerous sanctuaries across Latin lands. Her primary sanctuary was a woodland grove overlooking Lake Nemi, also known as "Diana's Mirror". In Rome, Diana's cult may have been almost as old as the city itself, with Varro mentions her in the list of deities to whom King Titus Tatius promised to build a shrine. The lex regia of King Tullus Hostilius condemns those guilty of incest to the sacratio to Diana.
In Rome, Diana had a temple on the Aventine Hill, dedicated by King Servius Tullius. This location outside the pomerium, which is the original territory of the city, allowed her cult to remain a foreign one, like that of Bacchus. Other known sanctuaries and temples to Diana include Colle di Corne near Tusculum, Évora, Mount Algidus, Lavinium, Tibur (Tivoli), a sacred wood mentioned by Livy, and Mount Tifata in Campania.
Plutarch reported that men and women were worshipers of Diana and were welcomed into all of her temples. However, a temple on the Vicus Patricius was not open to men due to tradition or superstition. A feature common to Diana's temples and shrines by the second century AD was the hanging up of stag antlers, except for the temple on the Aventine Hill, where bull horns were hung up instead.
== Background ==
=== As a goddess of the countryside ===
Dīāna is believed to have originated from Latin dīus, meaning 'godly', and Proto-Italic *dīwī, meaning 'divine, heavenly'. Its etymology is connected to the shine of the Moon, with Diana Lucifera being one of her titles. People regard Diana and the moon as one and the same, with the moon being called from the verb to shine (lucere). Diana is also known as Omnivaga, meaning "wandering everywhere," and is numbered as one of the seven planets. Her name Diana derives from turning darkness into daylight (dies), and is invoked at childbirth because children are born occasionally after seven or nine lunar revolutions. The Greeks call Diana the Light-bearer, and the Greeks invoke Juno Lucina in childbirth. The name Dīāna is also associated with the moon's shine, as children are born after seven or nine lunar revolutions.
=== As a triple goddess ===
Diana, a complex figure with archaic features, was initially a goddess of the wilderness and hunting, a central sport in Roman and Greek culture. Later, in the Hellenistic period, Diana was revered as a goddess of the "tame" countryside, or villa rustica, which was idealized in Greek thought and poetry. This dual role as goddess of both civilization and the wild was first applied to the Greek goddess Artemis. By the 3rd century CE, Diana had been almost fully combined with Artemis and took on many of her attributes, both in her spiritual domains and in her appearance. Roman poet Nemesianus described Diana as carrying a bow, quiver full of golden arrows, wearing a golden cloak, purple half-boots, a jeweled belt, and gathered hair. By the 5th century CE, philosopher Proclus could still characterize Diana as "the inspective guardian of every thing rural, [who] represses every thing rustic and uncultivated."
Diana, a triple goddess, was venerated as a triple goddess at her sacred grove on Lake Nemi in the late 6th century BCE. Her image on a late Republican coin, minted by P. Accoleius Lariscolus in 43 BCE, represents Artemis with a bow at one extremity, Luna-Selene with flowers at the other, and a central deity not immediately identifiable, united by a horizontal bar. This coin, dating back to the 6th century, is supported by iconographical analysis and the fact that the triple goddess cult image still stood in the lucus of Nemi in 43 BCE. Lake Nemi was also called Triviae lacus by Virgil and Diana montium custos nemoremque virgo by Horace. Two heads found in the sanctuary and Roman theatre at Nemi, which have a hollow on their back, lend support to this interpretation of an archaic triple Diana.
=== As goddess of crossroads and the underworld ===
Diana, the goddess of the underworld, was initially referred to as Trivia, derived from the Latin word trivium, meaning "triple way." This title symbolized Diana's guardianship over roadways, particularly Y-junctions or three-way crossroads, which led to a dark and dangerous connotation. In the 1st-century CE play Medea, the titular sorceress invokes Diana, Selene, and Hecate, requiring their powers. The symbol of the crossroads is relevant to Diana's domain, as it symbolizes the paths hunters may encounter in the forest, lit only by the full moon, symbolizing making choices "in the dark" without guidance. Diana's role as a goddess of the underworld, or ushering people between life and death, initially led to her being conflated with Hecate and occasionally with Proserpina. However, her role as an underworld goddess predates strong Greek influence, as evidenced by a theater in her sanctuary at Lake Nemi featuring a pit and tunnel, indicating a connection between the phases of the moon and a descent by the moon goddess into the underworld. Diana's underworld aspect in her original Latin worship was likely not given a distinct name due to a perceived taboo by early Latins to name underworld deities.
=== As goddess of childbirth ===
Diana was a goddess associated with fertility, childbirth, and women's protection during labor. Her association with the moon, believed to parallel the menstrual cycle, was used to track pregnancy months. At her shrine in Aricia, worshipers left terracotta offerings in the shapes of babies and wombs, and the temple offered care for pups and pregnant dogs. Diana was also known as Diana Lucina, Diana Lucifera, or Juno Lucina, as her domain overlapped with that of the goddess Juno. The title Juno may have had an independent origin, meaning "helper," as Diana was considered the "helper of childbirth."
=== As a frame god ===
Georges Dumézil's theory suggests that Diana belongs to a subset of celestial gods known as frame gods. These gods retain their original features of transcendent heavenly power and abstention from direct rule in worldly matters, but do not become dei otiosi or gods without practical purpose. Diana's celestial character is reflected in her connection with inaccessibility, virginity, light, and preference for dwelling on high mountains and sacred woods. She reflects the heavenly world's sovereignty, supremacy, impassibility, and indifference towards secular matters like mortals and states.
Diana is seen as active in ensuring the succession of kings and in the preservation of humankind through the protection of childbirth. Her functions are evident in traditional institutions and cults related to the goddess, such as the legend of the rex Nemorensis, Diana's sacerdos (priest) in the Arician wood, and the story of Livy, where a Sabine man who sacrifices a heifer to Diana wins for his country the seat of the Roman empire.
Diana was also worshiped by women who wanted to be pregnant or prayed for an easy delivery. Dumezil suggests that the forerunner of all frame gods is an Indian epic hero who was the image of the Vedic god Dyaus, who attained immortality while preserving his dynasty. The Scandinavian god Heimdallr performs an analogous function, being born first and dying last, giving birth to kingship and the first king, bestowing regal prerogatives.
=== Mythology ===
Roman gods were initially considered numina, meaning divine powers without physical form. Diana and other major Roman gods likely had little mythology or depictions in human form at the time of Rome's founding. The idea of gods having anthropomorphic qualities and human-like personalities developed later, influenced by Greek and Etruscan religion. By the 3rd century BCE, Diana was listed among the twelve major gods of the Roman pantheon by Ennius. Early Roman myth did not assign a strict hierarchy to gods like Greek mythology, but the Greek hierarchy would eventually be adopted by Roman religion. After Greek influence, Diana was considered identical to the Greek goddess Artemis, acquiring Artemis's physical description, attributes, and variants of her myths. Diana is typically depicted wearing a women's chiton, shortened in the kolpos style, with a hunting bow and quiver, and often accompanied by hunting dogs.
=== Platonism ===
The Neoplatonist philosophers of late antiquity united the major gods of Hellenic tradition into a series of monads containing triads, with some creating the world, some animating it, and others harmonizing it. Diana was considered one of the primary animating deities, presiding over all generation in nature and being the midwife of physical productive principles. She extended these genitals, distributing the prolific power of Bacchus to subterranean natures.
Proclus identified Rhea, the life-generating principle of the highest order, within the Intellectual realm, as Ceres. Within her divinity, the cause of the basic principle of life was produced within her divinity. This principle was projected into the lower, Hypercosmic realm of reality, resulting in a lower monad, Kore, which embodied the "maidenly" principle of generation. This division resulted in another triad or trinity, known as the Maidenly trinity, within the monad of Kore: Diana, Proserpine, and Minerva, through whom individual living beings were given life and perfected.
In his commentary on Proclus, 19th-century Platonist scholar Thomas Taylor expanded upon the theology of the classical philosophers, further interpreting the nature and roles of the gods in light of the whole body of Neoplatonist philosophy. Taylor cited Plato in giving a three-form aspect to her central characteristic of virginity: the undefiled, the mundane, and the anagogic. Through the principle of the undefiled, Diana is given supremacy in Proclus' triad of life-giving or animating deities, Hekate, and is granted undefiled power (Amilieti) from the other gods.
Taylor also commented on the triadic nature of Diana and related goddesses, noting how they subsist within one another, partaking unevenly in each other's powers and attributes. For example, Kore is said to embody both Diana/Hecate and Minerva, who create the virtuous or virgin power within her, but also Proserpine, through whom the generative power of the Kore as a whole can proceed forth into the world.
Category:Roman Pantheon
Category:Religion
Category:Goddess
Category:Female Characters
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