| Diana | |
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Other Names |
Artemis |
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First Appearance |
Roman Myth |
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Created by |
Unknown |
Origin[]
Diana is a goddess in Roman and Hellenistic religion, primarily considered a patroness of the countryside and nature, hunters, wildlife, childbirth, crossroads, the night, and the Moon. She is equated with the Greek goddess Artemis, and absorbed much of Artemis' mythology early in Roman history, including a birth on the island of Delos to parents Jupiter and Latona, and a twin brother, Apollo, though she had an independent origin in Italy.
Diana is considered a virgin goddess and protector of childbirth. Historically, Diana made up a triad with two other Roman deities: Egeria the water nymph, her servant and assistant midwife; and Virbius, the woodland god.
Diana is revered in modern neopagan religions including Roman neopaganism, Stregheria, and Wicca. In the ancient, medieval, and modern periods, Diana has been considered a triple deity, merged with a goddess of the moon (Luna/Selene) and the underworld (usually Hecate).
Unlike the Greek gods, Roman gods were originally considered to be numina: divine powers of presence and will that did not necessarily have physical form. At the time Rome was founded, Diana and the other major Roman gods probably did not have much mythology per se, or any depictions in human form. The idea of gods as having anthropomorphic qualities and human-like personalities and actions developed later, under the influence of Greek and Etruscan religion.
By the 3rd century BC, Diana is found listed among the twelve major gods of the Roman pantheon by the poet Ennius. Though the Capitoline Triad were the primary state gods of Rome, early Roman myth did not assign a strict hierarchy to the gods the way Greek mythology did, though the Greek hierarchy would eventually be adopted by Roman religion as well.
Once Greek influence had caused Diana to be considered identical to the Greek goddess Artemis, Diana acquired Artemis's physical description, attributes, and variants of her myths as well. Like Artemis, Diana is usually depicted in art wearing a women's chiton, shortened in the kolpos style to facilitate mobility during hunting, with a hunting bow and quiver, and often accompanied by hunting dogs. A 1st-century BCE Roman coin depicted her with a unique, short hairstyle, and in triple form, with one form holding a bow and another holding a poppy.
When worship of Apollo was first introduced to Rome, Diana became conflated with Apollo's sister Artemis as in the earlier Greek myths, and as such she became identified as the daughter of Apollo's parents Latona and Jupiter. Though Diana was usually considered to be a virgin goddess like Artemis, later authors sometimes attributed consorts and children to her. According to Cicero and Ennius, Trivia (an epithet of Diana) and Caelus were the parents of Janus, as well as of Saturn and Ops.
According to Macrobius (who cited Nigidius Figulus and Cicero), Janus and Jana (Diana) are a pair of divinities, worshiped as the sun and moon. Janus was said to receive sacrifices before all the others because, through him, the way of access to the desired deity is made apparent.
Diana's mythology incorporated stories which were variants of earlier stories about Artemis. Possibly the most well-known of these is the myth of Actaeon. In Ovid's version of this myth, part of his poem Metamorphoses, he tells of a pool or grotto hidden in the wooded valley of Gargaphie. There, Diana, the goddess of the woods, would bathe and rest after a hunt. Actaeon, a young hunter, stumbled across the grotto and accidentally witnessed the goddess bathing without invitation. In retaliation, Diana splashed him with water from the pool, cursing him, and he transformed into a deer. His own hunting dogs caught his scent, and tore him apart.
Ovid's version of the myth of Actaeon differs from most earlier sources. Unlike earlier myths about Artemis, Actaeon is killed for an innocent mistake, glimpsing Diana bathing. An earlier variant of this myth, known as the Bath of Pallas, had the hunter intentionally spy on the bathing goddess Pallas (Athena), and earlier versions of the myth involving Artemis did not involve the bath at all.
Frank Communale[]
Diana, traveled from her home on Mount Olympus under orders from her father, Zeus, to protect Greece from the Nazis.
America's Best Comics[]
Diana, was discovered by American pilot Nick Dimetrios living all alone on a remote island. She falls in love with the pilot and asks him to stay with her on her island. Nick turns her down even though he also has feelings for because his responsibilities as an Air Force pilot.
She later saved Nick after his plane is shot down during a battle and again tried to convince him to stay with her, but he turns her down once again.
Afterward Nick is discharged and emitted to a hospital for claimed he was saved by a Greek goddess. Diana along with her father Jupiter, disguise themselves as mortals and find Nick who agrees to be with Diana. Her father offers to make Nick an immortal, but instead Diana choses to become mortal to be with her beloved.
The couple marry and have at least three children together. Diana also becomes a world champion archer.
Public Domain Appearances[]
All published appearances of Diana from before January 1, 1930 are public domain in the US.
Some notable appearances are listed below:
Public Domain Literary Appearances[]
- Metamorphoses by Ovid
- Aeneid by Virgil
- The Golden Bough by James George Frazer
- Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches
- Historia Regum Britanniae by Geoffrey of Monmouth
- Divine Comedy
Public Domain Theatrical and Musical Appearances[]
- L'arbore di Diana
- Sylvia, ou La nymphe de Diane
- Pericles, Prince of Tyre by William Shakespeare
- All's Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare
- Hippolyte et Aricie by Jean-Philippe Rameau
Public Domain Comic Appearances[]
- Forbidden Worlds #55
- Humdinger vol. 1 #4
Public Domain Comic Appearances of Diana the Huntress[]
- Yellowjacket #1-10
- Thrilling Comics #37
Notes[]
- William Moulton Marston drew from the Diana archetype as an allegorical basis for Wonder Woman's proper name, Princess Diana for DC Comics. Most versions of Wonder Woman's origin story state that she is given the name Diana because her mother Hippolyta was inspired by the goddess of the moon that Diana was born under.
- The Digimon Dianamon was named after the Roman goddess Diana.
- The Pokémon franchise character Diana was named after the Roman goddess.
Gallery[]
