Artemis (Roman Diana)
The Greek goddess identified by the Romans with the Italian goddess Diana, and also called Cynthia, from her birthplace, Mount Cynthus in Delos. She was the daughter of Zeus and Leto and the twin sister of Apollo.
A virgin huntress, she was associated with uncultivated places and wild animals, and was also a primitive birth-goddess.
She was also known as the Lady of Wild Things and the Huntsman-in-chief to the gods, an odd office for a woman. Like a good huntsman, she was careful to preserve the young; she was "the protectress of dewy youth" everywhere. Nevertheless, with one of those startling contradictions so common in mythology, she kept the Greek Fleet from sailing to Troy until they sacrificed a maiden to her. In many another stories, too, she is fierce and revengeful. On the other hand, when women died a swift and painless death, they were held to have been slain by her silver arrows it was believed that she brought natural death with her arrows.
The biblical reference to the Temple of Diana of the Ephesians (Acts 19) is really to the Artemisium at Ephesus, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. A famous statue of her there was covered all over with breasts to mark her connection with childbirth. Her name has been associated with Greek artemia, 'safety', and ‘soundness’, alluding to her virginity.
See Zeus, Apollo, Hermes, Delphi, Troy, Olympians, Greeks, Hera, Hades, Bacchus, Centaurs, Cerberus, Daedalus, Dionysus, Vulcan, Mars, Oracle, Tarpeian Rock, Tartarus, Telegonus, Telemachus, Casting Black Magic Spells, Commanding Spirits, The Tarot Store, Divination & Scrying Tools and Supplies, and The Pyramid Collection.
Sources: (1) Cooper, J.C. (Editor), Brewer's Book of Myth and Legend, Cassell Academic Publishing; (2) Evans, Bergen, Dictionary of Mythology, Dell Publishing Co., Inc.; (3) Dixon-Kennedy, Mike, Encyclopedia of Greco-Roman Mythology, ABC-Clio Inc. Publishers.
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