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Home » Bible Encyclopedias » Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature » Letter D

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Diana

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

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The Artemis of the Greeks (῎Αρτεμις Acts 19:24), and Diana of the Romans, is a goddess known under various modifications and with almost incompatible attributes. According to the Homeric accounts and Hesiod, she was the daughter of Jupiter and Latona, born at the same time with Apollo at Delos. As the tutelary divinity of Ephesus, in which character alone she concerns us here, she was undoubtedly a representative of the same power presiding over conception and birth which was adored in Palestine under the name of ASHTORETH. She is therefore related to all the cognate deities of that Asiatic Juno-Venus, and partakes, at least, of their connection with the moon. Creuzer has combined a number of testimonies in order to show how her worship was introduced into Ephesus from the coasts of the Black Sea, and endeavors to point out the several Medo- Persian, Egyptian, Libyan, Scythian, and Cretan elements of which she is compounded (Symbolik, 2:115 sq.). The Arabic version of the Acts renders Artemis, in the chapter cited, by Az-Zuharat, which is the Arabic name for the planet Venus. From certain Ephesian coins which represent her seated upon her favorite deer, and in other rustic positions, it appears that she was identical with the virgin huntress of the earlier mythology, the grosser feature of her worship being apparently borrowed from association with the voluptuous religions of the East. Guhl, indeed (Ephesiaca, p. 78-86), endeavors in almost all points to identify her with the true Greek goddess. In some respects there was doubtless a fusion of the two. Diana was the goddess of rivers, of pools, and of harbors, and these conditions are satisfied by the situation of the sanctuary at Ephesus. Coressus, one of the hills on which the city stood, is connected by Stephanus Byzantius with κόρη, "maid." We may also refer to the popular notion that, when the temple was burnt on the night of Alexander's birth, the calamity occurred because the goddess was absent in the character of Lucina. But the true Ephesian Diana is represented in a form entirely alien from Greek art (see Jerome, Praefat. ad Ephes. p. 539, ed. Ver.). Guhl indeed supposes this mode of representation to have reference simply to the fountains over which the goddess presided, conceiving the multiplication of breasts to be similar to the multiplication of eyes in Argus or of heads in Typhoeus. But the correct view is undoubtedly that which treats this peculiar form as a symbol of the productive and nutritive powers of nature. This is the form under which the Ephesian Diana, so called for distinction, was always represented, wherever worshipped; and the worship extended to many places, such as Samos, Mitylene, Perga, Hierapolis, and Gortyna, to mention those only which occur in the N.T. or the Apocrypha. Josephus mentions a very rich fane of hers at Elymais in Persia (Ant. 12:9, 1). Her most noted temple was at Ephesus. Here also, as in the temple of Apollo at Daphne, were the privileges of asylum. This is indicated on some of the coins of Ephesus (Akcrman, in Trans. of the Nusmismatic Soc. 1841); and we find an interesting proof of the continuance of these privileges in imperial times in Tacit. Ann. 3, 61 (Srabo, 14:641; Pausan. 7:2; Cicero, Verr. 2:33). The temple had a large revenue from endowments of various kinds. It was also the public treasury of the city, and was regarded as the safest bank for private individuals. (See EPHESUS).

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McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Diana'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/​encyclopedias/​eng/​tce/​d/diana.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
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