DIANA, a celebrated Goddess of the Heathens, who was honoured principally at Ephesus. She was of the number of the twelve superior Gods; she was called likewise by the several names of Hebe, Trivia, Hecate. In the Heavens she was the Moon, upon Earth she was called Diana, and in Hell Hecate. In the time of women’s lying in she was invoked under the name of Lucina. She was painted with a crescent upon her head, and a bow in her hand, in a hunting habit. She passed for a Virgin, for which reason Bees were consecrated to her. The Diana adored at Ephesus was represented after another manner. Her statue was covered with breasts, sometimes from head to foot, and sometimes her bosom only and her belly were covered with them, and all besides was a kind of pedestal adorned at particular distances with stags heads, with the heads of dogs and oxen, described with half their bodies. The breasts were an emblem of her fertility, and shewed that she was a nurse to men and beasts. The heads of Dogs and Stags denoted her to be the Goddess of hunting.
Vide Hieronym. Prolog. in Epist. ad Ephes.Diana was said to be the daughter of Jupiter and Latona, and born at the same birth with Apollo. She was worshipped in Palestine in the times of Isaiah and Jeremiah under the name of Meni, that is to say, the Goddess of months, or the Moon. Bread and liquors were offered to her upon altars, at the corners of the streets, in the beginning Isai. lxviii.of every month. She was acknowledged to be the Goddess of the streets, together with her brother Apollo, who was looked upon as the God of good fortune. She was adored Aristophan. in Pluto, & in Thesmophorias.likewise under the name of the Queen of Heaven, and cakes were offered to her upon plat-forms on the tops of houses, at the corners of the streets, or doors of houses. The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough to make cakes to the Queen of Heaven, says Jeremiah.
We have seen above in the article Demetrius, what happened at Ephesus upon the occasion of St. Paul’s preaching, who Jerem. vii. 18. See likewise Jerem. xi. 13. xliv. 17, 18. Ezek. xvi. 25.proved there the vanity of Idols, and was destroying the worship of Diana, and other false Gods. Demetrius who got his livelihood by making little silver chapels, or niches, or even medals, upon which Diana of Ephesus was represented with her famous Temple, raised a tumult there, which had almost produced a sedition in the city. See Acts xix. 24. and the following verses.