DIANA, a Roman goddess, corresponding in most of her attributes to the Grecian Artemis. According to the myths, she was the daughter of Jupiter and Latona, and the twin-sister of Apollo. She was born, along with her brother, on Mt. Cynthus, in the isle of Delos, which till then had been a floating island, but was fixed by Neptune in its present place, that Latona might there give birth to her children in peace and safety from the persecutions of the jealous Juno. D. was worshiped by Greeks and Romans alike, as both a destroying and a preserving goddess. In the former capacity, she was represented as a full-grown virgin, armed with bow and arrows, with which she avenged herself on her enemies; as it preserving deity, she watched over the sick, and helped the unfortunate. Young girls, and women in childbirth, were the objects of her special care. She was herself beyond the allurements of love; and the ministers of her worship were vowed to lives of the strictest chastity. As sister of the sun-god Apollo,
D. was regarded as the goddess of the moon; hence her Greek immune Selene, and her Latin names Lucino and PI ache. Her worship was conducted with splendid rites in different cities. Tier temple at Ephesus was one of the seven wonders of the world. In Tauris (the Crimea), she was propitiated with sacrifices of human victims; and before her statue at Sparta. the public scourging of the Lacediemonian youth used to tal:e place. In Arcadia, she was looked upon as the special patron of hunting and all sylvan sports, and as such was represented in Greek works of art as a tall and handsome maiden, with long. hair floating down her neck, drawing an arrow from her quiver with one hand, and with the other holding in a struggling deer. As goddess of the moon, she wears a long robe reaching to her feet, and bears on her brow a crescent moon.