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Diana/Artemis

 

Diana and Artemis are often worshiped as one. In essence they are very similar, but are in actuality two individual goddesses.

 

Artemis:

Being associated with chastity, Artemis at an early age (in one legend she was three years old) asked her father, the great god Zeus, to grant her eternal virginity. Also, all her companions were virgins. Artemis was very protective of her purity, and gave grave punishment to any man who attempted to dishonour her in any form. Actaeon, while out hunting, accidentally came upon Artemis and her nymphs, who bathing naked in a secluded pool. Seeing them in all their naked beauty, the stunned Actaeon stopped and gazed at them, but when Artemis saw him ogling them, she transformed him into a stag. Then, incensed with disgust, she set his own hounds upon him. They chased and killed what they thought was another stag, but it was their master. As with Orion, a giant and a great hunter, there are several legends which tell of his death, one involving Artemis. It is said that he tried to rape the virgin goddess, so killed him with her bow and arrows. Another says she conjured up a scorpion which killed Orion and his dog. Orion became a constellation in the night sky, and his dog became Sirius, the dog star. Yet another version says it was the scorpion which stung him and was transformed into the constellation with Orion, the later being Scorpio. Artemis was enraged when one of her nymphs, Callisto, allowed Zeus to seduce her, but the great god approached her in one of his guises; he came in the form of Artemis. The young nymph was unwittingly tricked, and she gave birth to Arcas, the ancestor of the Arcadians, but Artemis showed no mercy and changed her into a bear. She then shot and killed her. As Orion, she was sent up to the heavens, and became the constellation of the Great Bear (which is also known as the Plough).

     Artemis was very possessive. She would show her wrath on anyone who disobeyed her wishes, especially against her sacred animals. Even the great hero Agamemnon came upon the wrath of Artemis, when he killed a stag in her sacred grove. His punishment came when his ships were becalmed, while he made his way to besiege Troy. With no winds to sail his ships he was told by the seer Calchas that the only way Artemis would bring back the winds was for him to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia. Some versions say he did sacrifice Iphigenia, others that Artemis exchanged a deer in her place, and took Iphigenia to the land of the Tauri (the Crimea) as a priestess, to prepare strangers for sacrifice to Artemis. Artemis is Apollo's sister, and Queen of the witches. She is the goddess of the moon, the herbalist, the midwife, the birthing woman, and the hunter. Artemis is an untamed wild woman who runs free with the deer and the hounds. She is the woman who runs with the wolves. She is "Mother of all Creatures." She is owned by no man, and thus she is "Forever Virgin."

 

 

 

Diana:
Diana, Roman Goddess of the Hunt, her Greek counterpart is virgin goddess Artemis (daughter of the god Zeus and Leto, daughter of a Titan, and also known as
Limnatis, "Lady of the Lake"), from whom she acquires some of her aspects. As a moon (lunar) goddess, Diana/Artemis  is sometimes identified with the goddess Selene (Moon) and Hecate.
On the northern shores of Lake Nemi, Diana's Mirror, in Italy, stood the sacred grove and sanctuary of the Goddess Diana. 
     The Goddess Diana, is the Huntress and Goddess or fertility, childbirth (She was especially revered by women, and was believed to grant an easy childbirth to her favourites), the wild woodlands, and associated with the constellation of Ursa Major. She is also associated with fire festivals, her title Vesta, indicates a perpetual holy fire in her sanctuary. Her annual festival, held on August 13th, where she is invoked to protect the harvest from autumn storms, is the middle of summer, when the sun is at its hottest. Diana is often depicted holding a torch, a symbolic reminder of the fiery nature of the Goddess. 
     Several other deities are associated with Diana at Lake Nemi, Egeria, the Nymph of the Lake and Virbius, who, legend states, was the Greek hero Hippolytus. Diana also had in attendance, The Sacrificial King or King of the Sacred Rites. He was required to pluck a branch of a certain tree, often identified as Virgil's 'Golden Bough', and slay his predecessor before taking up his office. Whereupon he becomes the High Priest/Husband/Lover of the Goddess. He holds this office until he himself is slain by a more craftier or stronger challenger, a remainder of the Birth, Death, Rebirth cycle of nature. 

     In Roman mythology Diana, goddess of the moon and hunt, and twin sister of Apollo, was essentially a goddess of the woodlands, her sanctuaries were commonly in groves, indeed every grove was sacred to her. She was chief hunter to the gods also the goddess of nature, and of the harvest. the guardian of springs and streams and the protector of wild animals

     In art she is typically shown as a young hunter, usually carrying a bow and arrows, like her brother Apollo. She would use her bow and arrows to punish  mortals who angered her.

     In the Romanian language, the Latin name of the Roman goddess Diana became the word “zana”, which means “fairy”. In folk tales, the fairies would usually wander through the woods, in large groups. In many tales, a young man sees the fairies bathing and steals some clothes. When they discover someone is watching, they get out of the water, get dressed and fly away. The fairy whose clothes were stolen can’t go away, so she hides behind a bush, promising to marry him if he gives her back her clothes (which have magical powers). The young man refuses and gives her other clothes, they marry and they live happily for a while, until, one day, she manages to find her fairy clothes. When she does, she can fly back to her sisters, leaving her son and her husband, who will be forever sad. Because, when someone was married to a fairy, the other women mean nothing to him any more. Not exactly Actaeon's story, but anyway, the man who saw the fairies naked is punished for this, with an eternal sadness.

 

 

Correspondences:

 

Symbols: bow and arrow (representing the rays of the moon), Moon, Water, Forest Items, Sun, Hounds, Stag

 

Colours: silver, white, indigo & Black

 

Planet: Moon

 

Food: Honey, Blueberry; Butter; Broccoli; Coconut; Cucumber; Eggs; Grapes; Lemons; Milk; Potatoes; Pumpkins; White Wine

 

Plants/herbs: almond, amaranth, cedar, cypress, daisy, date palm, hazel, mugwort, myrtle, ox-eye daisy, willow, laurel , fir trees (especially silver fir)

 

Incense: Sandalwood; Lemon; Rose

 

Metal: silver - Artemis may be thought of as the “silver goddess.” She wore silver sandals, rode a silver chariot in the silver moonlight, and kills with silver arrows shot from a silver bow. In fact, many dying women, as well as women in childbirth, went to Artemis to ask for a quick, painless death from Her silver arrows.

 

Animals - (She is the protector of animals, all animals can be considered sacred to her): deer/stags, geese, wild dogs, fish, goats, bees, bears, fox, leopard or lion.

 

Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius

 

Dates: the 13th, the 15th, the 27th

 

Day of the Week: Friday

 

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon; maiden phase

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

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