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Bible Dictionaries
Diana
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or The use of the name ‘Diana’ in Acts 19 (Authorized Version and Revised Version ) to indicate the Ephesian goddess is probably due to the influence of the Latin Vulgate. From a very early time the Romans used the Italian names of their own divinities to indicate also Greek divinities whose characteristics were analogous to those of their own. It was thus that the Greek maiden huntress-goddess Artemis was early equated with the Latin goddess Diana, maiden and huntress. (In the earliest Roman period Diana and Ianus [= Dianus] are male and female divinities corresponding to one another.) But the Artemis of Ephesus is a divinity entirely different in character from the ordinary Greek Artemis; and that such a goddess should come to be represented in English by the name Diana is almost ridiculous.
The goddess of Ephesus, called Artemis by the Greeks, was a divinity of a type wide-spread throughout Anatolia and the East generally (cf., for instance, ch. iii in Ramsay’s Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, Oxford, 1895). She represented the reproductive power of the human race. The Oriental mind was from early ages powerfully impressed by this, the greatest of all human faculties, and worshipped it, now under the male form, now under the female. There are still in India, for instance, survivals of phallic worship. The Artemis of Ephesus was represented in art as multimammia, covered with breasts. The worship of such divine reproductive power naturally lent itself in practice to disgusting excesses. Instead of being kept on a spiritual level, it was continually made the excuse for brutalizing and enervating practices-prostitution, incest, etc.
The origin of the name ‘Artemis’ is veiled in obscurity, and the attempts of both ancients and moderns to derive the word have been unsuccessful; the best suggestion is that of Ed. Meyer, that the word is Cognate with ἀρταμεύς, ἄρταμος, ἀρταμεῖν, and means ‘the female butcher.’ This would suit certain early aspects of the cult very well. But it is as a Nature-goddess that we find the most wide-spread worship of Artemis in the earliest days of which we have any knowledge. She was worshipped on mountains and in valleys, in woods and by streams. Her working and her power were recognized in all life, plant and animal, as beneficent in their birth and growth, as signs of wrath in their destruction and death. With her is sometimes united a male counterpart. She is in any case wife and mother; she nourishes the young, aids women in childbirth, and sets bounds to their life. Afterwards various developments in this original conception take place. The wife and mother element, with the growth of the Apollo legend, both Apollo and Artemis being children of Leto, retires into the background, and Artemis becomes a maiden goddess. She also becomes the goddess of seafaring men, and is patroness of all places and things connected with them. In Homer she appears mainly as the goddess of death of the old Nature religion. From the 5th cent. onwards we meet her as goddess of the moon, while Apollo is god of the sun. On the boundaries of the Greek world her cult is associated with the barbarous ceremonies of other divinities recognized as related.
The most important aspects of the Artemis cult for the NT are naturally those connected with the life of Nature, but the whole idea of Artemis must be sketched as briefly as possible. Various trees are sacred to her. Moisture as fertilizing them is sacred to her-lakes, marshes, and rivers. She is thus also a goddess of agriculture. Her beneficence causes the crops to grow, and she destroys opposing forces; whence offerings of crops are made to her. Of all seasons she loves spring best. She is mistress of the world of wild animals, such as bears, lions, wolves, and panthers, and also of birds and fish. Out of this conception the huntress idea would naturally develop. And it seems that it was in connexion with this that the idea of the goddess as a virgin arose. She was also the protectress of cattle. Further, she was reverenced as the guardian of young people, and to her maidens made offering of the toys, etc., of their childhood. Among her other attributes was that of goddess of childbirth, goddess of women in general, especially goddess of death (particularly for women), and as such she demanded human sacrifice. She was a goddess of war, of the sea, of roads, of markets and trade, of government, of healing, protectress from danger, guardian of oaths (by her women were accustomed to swear), goddess of maidenhood, of beauty, of dancing and music. Finally she was a moon-goddess.
The Ephesian cult was in its origin non-Greek. The application of the name Artemis to a goddess of the characteristics of the Ephesian divinity shows that this identification must have been made in very early times, before any idea of virginity attached to the goddess among the Greeks. The cult of the Ephesian goddess remained Oriental, and she was never regarded as virgin. Her temple was a vast institution, with countless priests, priestesses, and temple-servants. The priests were eunuchs, and were called μεγάβυζοι; there was one high priest. The goddess was also served by three grades of priestesses, called μελλιέραι, ἱεραί, and παριέραι; at the head of these was a high priestess. Under the dominion of these priests and priestesses there was a large number of temple-slaves of both sexes. The cult was wild and orgiastic in its character. As a result of partial hellenization two developments took place. First, the worship of Apollo was sometimes associated with that of his Greek sister. Second, games were established on the Greek model, called Ἀρτεμίσια or Οἰκουμενικά, and were held annually in the month Artemision (=April).
The Ephesian cult of Artemis was by no means confined to Ephesus. The statement of Acts (Acts 19:27), ‘whom all Asia and the Roman world worship,’ was no exaggeration. Evidence of this cult has been found in numerous cities of Asia Minor as well as in the following places further afield: Autun, Marseilles, Rhone Mouth (France), Emporiae, Hemeroscopeum, Rhode (Spain), Epidaurus, Megalopolis, Corinth, Scillus (Greece), Neapolis (Samaria), Panticapaeum (Crimea), Rome, and Syria. The Ephesians were proud of the goddess not only because she was theirs, but because her worship brought countless visitors from every part of the Empire. This of course was also good for trade, so that religion and self-interest went hand in hand. The account in Acts (Acts 19:23 ff.) illustrates most vividly the enthusiasm which can be aroused when religious fanaticism and commercial greed are in tune. The manufacture of offerings to the goddess brought in extensive profit to the makers. St. Paul’s preaching, which appealed to the better educated classes, drew many away from the coarse and barbarous cult of Artemis. The demand for offerings decreased; hence the meeting and the riot. The air rang with shouts of ‘Great Ephesian Artemis!’
Ephesians prized very greatly the honorary title of νεωκόρος, temple-keeper (lit. [Note: literally, literature.] ‘temple-sweeper’) of the great Artemis and of her image which fell down from the sky (Acts 19:35). This image was doubtless a meteoric stone of crude shape like the Palladium preserved at Rome.
It was in Ephesus (q.v. [Note: quod vide, which see.] ) that the Artemis worship was at length Christianized in the middle of the 5th cent. by the substitution of the Mother of God (θεοτόκος). This was the beginning of Mariolatry.
Literature.-On Anatolian religion, see W. M. Ramsay’s article ‘Religion of Greece and Asia Minor’ in Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols) , vol. v., and ch. iii. of his Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, Oxford, 1895; on Artemis, see L. R. Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, vol. ii., Oxford, 1896, pp. 425-486; Schreiber, ‘Artemis,’ in Roscher’s Lexikon der Mythologie; and Wernicke in Pauly-Wissowa [Note: auly-Wissowa Pauly-Wissowa’s Realencyklopädie.] , to the last of which the present writer is particularly indebted.
A. Souter.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Diana'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/d/diana.html. 1906-1918.
