Roman Goddess Diana

Diana, in Roman religion, goddess of wild animals and the hunt, identified with the Greek goddess Artemis. Her name is akin to the Latin words dium (“sky”) and dius (“daylight”). As a fertility deity she was invoked by women to aid conception and delivery. She was also a goddess of domestic animals. Though perhaps originally an indigenous woodland goddess, Diana early became identified with Artemis. There was probably no original connection between Diana and the moon, but she later absorbed Artemis’s identification with both Selene (Luna) and Hecate, a chthonic (underworld) deity.

The most famous place of worship for the Italian goddess was the grove of Diana Nemorensis (“Diana of the Wood”) on the shores of Lake Nemi at Aricia (modern Ariccia), near Rome. Associated with Diana at Aricia were Egeria, the spirit of a nearby stream who shared with Diana the guardianship of childbirth, and the hero Virbius (the Italian counterpart of Hippolytus), who was said to have been the first priest of Diana’s cult at Aricia.

At Rome the most important temple of Diana was on the Aventine. In her cult there Diana was also considered the protector of the lower classes, especially slaves. Another important center for the worship of Diana was at Ephesus, where the Temple of Artemis (or Diana) was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. In Roman art Diana usually appears as a huntress with bow and quiver, accompanied by a hound or deer.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica

Dianic Wicca, also known as Dianic Witchcraft, named after the Roman goddess Diana, is a neopagan religion female-centered goddess ritual and tradition. While some adherents identify as Wiccan, it differs from most traditions of Wicca in that only goddesses are honored (whereas most Wiccan traditions honor both female and male deities).

While there is more than one tradition that calls itself Dianic, the best known is the female-only variety, founded by Zsuzsanna Budapest in the United States in the 1970s. It is notable for its worship of a single Goddess and focus on egalitarian matriarchy. It is named after the Roman goddess Diana, but Dianics worship goddesses from many cultures, seeing them as “aspects” of a monotheistic goddess. Dianic Wicca is an eclectic combination of elements from British Traditional Wicca, Italian folk-magic as recorded by Charles Leland in Aradia, the importance of womanhood, folk magic and healing practices from a variety of different cultures.

Source: Wikipedia