The Roman Diana and Apollo

NOTE THE HIGH DEGREE OF NASTY, VINDICTIVE MURDEROUS BRUTALITY AND ENVY RELATIVE TO HELENIC DIANA/ARTEMIS

Diana

Moon goddess. Roman. Living in the forests, She is A Huntress and Protector of Animals, also The Guardian of Virginity. Generally modeled on the Greek goddess ARTEMIS, She had a sanctuary on the Aventine Hill in Rome and, under Roman rule, took over The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus.

Arduinna

Goddess of forests and hunting. Romano-Celtic(Continental European). Known only from inscriptions and figurines in the Ardennes region. Depicted riding on the back of a wild boar and presumed to be a guardian deity of boars. Identified by the Romans with the goddess DIANA .

The sixth king, Servius Tullius (578–534 B . C .), organized Roman society by rank and divided the population into classes. Men who owned property had political power and could join the military. He also established the earliest and most important shrine of the Latin deity Diana on the Aventine Hill. Diana was concerned with the affairs of women and later became associated with the Greek goddess Artemis, who was the goddess of the moon and hunting.

Apollo

Apollo was a god of many things and was one of the most worshipped of the Greek and Roman gods. He was god of the shepherds, god of light and truth, god of healing, god of prophecy, god of music, and god of archery. His most important daily task was to harness his four horses to his chariot and drive the sun across the sky.

Apollo was the son of Jupiter and the goddess Latona, known as the “hidden one.” Apollo’s twin sister was the goddess Diana. Apollo and Diana were very protective of their mother and quick to defend her.

One day, Queen Niobe of Thebes, the principal city in Boeotia, an early Greek territory, bragged to Latona that she was a superior woman because she had given birth to fourteen children and Latona had only given birth to twins.

Angered by The Queen’s smugness, Apollo and Diana decided to make The Queen childless so that their own mother would be the better woman. The Queen had seven boys and seven girls — so Apollo killed the boys, and Diana killed the girls.

Although Apollo was known to have had many romances, some legends say that he never married. He was, however, one of the first gods to fall in love with a member of the same sex — a handsome Spartan prince named Hyacinthus, who was also loved by Favonius, god of the west wind. Hyacinthus returned Apollo’s love, but he would not return the affection of Favonius. So one day when Apollo and Hyacinthus were out in a field throwing the discus, Favonius blew the discus toward Hyacinthus’ head. It struck the young prince in the skull and killed him. 

In the pool of blood that formed beside his head, Apollo made a flower spring forth from the earth: a hyacinth.

Other legends claimed that Apollo loved a beautiful young woman named Daphne, who would not return his love. Daphne, in fact, became irritated by the god’s persistent attentions. When Apollo refused to leave her alone, she asked her father, the river god Peneus, for help.

Because water gods always had the power of transformation, Peneus transformed his daughter into a beautiful laurel tree. Apollo then claimed the laurel tree as his own, and laurel leaves became his symbol.

According to another legend, Apollo eventually married a nymph named Larissa. The couple was very happy, and Apollo believed that, at last, he had found true love. But one day his favorite bird, the crow (who, at that time, had pure white feathers), came to him and told him that his beautiful wife had been unfaithful to him. Apollo flew into a rage and shot Larissa with one of his sharp arrows. Although he had not intended to kill her, Larissa was fatally injured and Apollo could not make her return to life. Angry that he had lost the woman he loved, Apollo turned on the crow that had delivered the news and changed his white feathers into black. Then, he forbade the crow to ever fly among other birds.

Apollo’s symbols are a lyre, which represents harmony, and a bow, which represents his power to destroy. Apollo was known to be kind and forgiving, but mean and vicious, as well.