Diana in the Bible — Hidden Meaning & Symbolism

same as Greek Artemis; heavenly; divine; luminous; moon goddess; virgin goddess; great mother. A heathen goddess at Ephesus (Acts 9:24, 35). Meta. Describing this famous image at Ephesus, which was one of the seven wonders of the world, a writer says that she was an impersonation of the vitality and power of nature, of the reproductive power that keeps up the race of man and animals in an unbroken series of offspring, and of the nourishing power by which the earth tenders to the use of man and animals all that they require to keep them in life. The upper part of her body was covered with rows of breasts, symbolizing her as the universal mother of all life. Diana was the goddess of vitality, yet the idea of life at that time was held very low. She was worshiped with the vilest debaucheries, incorporating the lusts of the flesh in the very ritual of worship, we are told. Thus the ideal that stands back of all life activity and manifestation has been materialized and sensualized by man in his carnal, unawakened state until it has come to mean mere sex-traffic--this is Diana. (See DEMETRIUS.)