Diana
The Italian goddess Diana, "the Bright One" (counterpart of the
Greco-Asian Artemis, whose
temple at
Ephesus was one of the Wonders of the Ancient World),
sister
of Apollo, was the protector of wild
and domestic animalsand forests. After contact with Greece, she became
identified with the goddess of the moon, Selene, and the chthonic goddess
Hecate. As goddess of the
hunt she
was praised for her strength, athletic grace, beauty and
archer
skills. A virgin goddess, she nevertheless was invoked by women to aid
conception and delivery.
Diana's most important temple at Rome was on the
Aventine; it housed the foundation charter of the Latin League and was said to
date back to King Servius Tullius in the 6th century BC. The statue which was
kept in this temple was a copy of the famous Artemis of
Ephesus (see coin of
Claudius
and St. Paul in
Ephesus). While she had cult centers all over Italy, the grove of Diana
Nemorensis ("Diana of the Wood") on the shores of Lake Nemi ("speculum
Dianae") at Aricia was the most famous. It was a shrine common to the
cities of the Latin League, where she was associated with Egeria, the water
nymph and midwife, and the hero Virbius, her first priest there. Her festival
at Rome and Aricia took place on the Ides (13th) of August and was a holiday
for slaves (more).
Umbricius' reference here to "your Diana" --meaning ownership by his
town or his family -- indicates that there was a known cult, temple, or statue
of the goddess at Aquinum.