Diana

Diana is the Roman goddess of hunting, the moon, wild nature and childbirth. In her origin she was an ancient Italic divinity of the forests and uncultivated spaces, venerated especially in the **sacred grove of Aricia**, next to Lake Nemi, where she was known as *Diana Nemorensis*, «Diana of the grove». By effect of the *interpretatio romana* she was fully identified with the Greek **Artemis**, assuming her mythology: daughter of **Jupiter** and **Latona**, and twin sister of **Apollo**, born according to the myth on the island of Delos, at the foot of Mount Cynthus. Like her Greek equivalent, she is a virgin goddess who rejected marriage to preserve her independence, and traverses the mountains accompanied by a retinue of nymphs.

Diana is above all the huntress: she is represented as an agile young woman dressed in a short tunic, carrying **bow and quiver** and accompanied by dogs or a deer. Lady of animals and forests, she protects wildlife but also hunting. As a lunar goddess she is associated with the **crescent moon** that crowns her forehead. Tradition attributes to her a **triple aspect**, expressed in the formula *diva triformis*: Diana huntress on earth, **Luna** in the sky and **Trivia** («the one of the three paths») in the underworld and at crossroads, a facet that brings her closer to Hecate and links her to nocturnal magic. Despite her virginity, she was also invoked as protector of childbirth and women, under the advocation of *Diana Lucina*.

The most famous myth of Diana is that of the hunter **Acteón**, who surprised her bathing naked; offended, the goddess transformed him into a deer and his own dogs tore him to pieces. As the twin sister born before Apollo, tradition has it that she helped her mother Latona in the birth of her brother, which is why she is invoked in childbirths. Her most singular cult was that of Aricia, presided over by the *rex nemorensis*, a fugitive slave-priest who obtained the position by killing his predecessor and who had to defend it from the next aspirant, a rite that fascinated James Frazer and opens *La rama dorada*. In Rome she had a temple on the Aventino, and her festival, the *Nemoralia*, was celebrated in August with torch processions. Her figure survived in European folklore, associated with the wild hunt and witchcraft, and continues to be an emblem of untamed nature and female independence.