Diana - The "bright one" who never really went away

Diana was a Roman goddess worshipped by the plebeians, the so-called lower classes of ancient Rome. Her Greek equivalent was Artemis.

Artemis with a hind, better known as "Diana of Versailles."
Marble, Roman artwork, Imperial Era (1st-2nd centuries CE).
 Found in Italy. Photo: Wikipedia.

G. Parrinder says Diana's name may have meant "bright one" like the Indic Dyaus and Greek Zeus. Possibly revered as a lunar deity, Diana was primarily a goddess of women, the wood, wilderness and the hunt. 

Widely worshipped in the ancient world, her primary centers of worship were:

• King Servius Tullius (578-535 BCE) dedicated a temple to her on the Aventine Hill at Rome
• She was also worshipped at Aricia (in the crater of a dead volcano about 10 miles from Rome)
• At the mountainous Tifata
• The Romans converted a Greek temple at the Asian port of Ephesus, formerly dedicated to Artemis, for Diana's worship

That Diana was favored by women is evidenced by the fact that religious processions of women bore torches in her honour at Aricia¹ and votive offerings were made for successful childbirth. She was also favored by slaves, making her a patroness of many marginalized peoples. 

The Roman Emperor Augustus decided that he'd make Diana the patroness of his wife Livia and his daughter Julia to counterbalance his own egotistical identification with the god Apollo.² 

A Roman fresco depicting the goddess Diana hunting, 4th century AD,
from the Via Livenza hypogeum in Rome (circa 359)

Associated with the woodlands as well as the moon, the celebrated mythographer, Sir J. G. Frazer, writes in the multi-volume classic The Golden Bough that Diana had a sacred grove of oak trees at Lake Nemi, just outside of Rome at Aricia. The resident priest of the grove usually was an escaped slave who served as Diana's consort. Priestly succession was determined by the outcome of a deadly challenge made by another escaped slave; these new rivals generally came from the city.

In order to obtain the right of combat the challenger first had to break off a bough of mistletoe from within the grove. If the challenger obtained the mistletoe without being killed by the residing priest, ritual combat would ensue. If the challenger won this "religious" fight to the death, he replaced the slain priest and found himself in the same uneasy spot as his predecessor.

Temple of Artemis, Ephesus, Turkey - Wikipedia

Diana's renown is recorded in Acts 19: 23-41, in which the King James version of the Bible calls the Greek goddess Artemis "Diana." In this story, St. Paul turns many away from Artemis by preaching about Jesus at Ephesus. As a result, the converts stopped buying small terra cotta and silver images of Artemis. In turn, some of the townsfolk become angry and denounce Paul.

A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in a lot of business for the craftsmen there. ²⁵ He called them together, along with the workers in related trades, and said: “You know, my friends, that we receive a good income from this business. ²⁶ And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that gods made by human hands are no gods at all. ²⁷ There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited; and the goddess herself, who is worshiped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty.”³

The writer on women's myth, Barbara Walker, says Diana was declared evil and denounced by 14th-century Christian Inquisitors. However, like many mythic and religious figures born of the creative imagination, Diana's enduring popularity in art and literature continues through the centuries.

Roman Temple of Artemis in Jerash, Jordan, was built around the middle of the
2nd century A.D. during the reign of Antonine the Pius. - Wikipedia

—

¹ The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 1999, p. 463. 

² (a) C. M. C. Green "Diana" The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome. Ed. Michael Gagarin. © Oxford University Press 2010. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome: (e-reference edition). Oxford University Press. Toronto Public Library. 3 August 2012 http://www.oxford-greecerome.com/entry?entry=t294.e369 

(b) C. G. Jung and Joseph Campbell address this dynamic,  generally regarded in depth psychology as "inflation." Campbell, however, adds a few interesting nuances to the idea or, at least, renders some of the complexities of Jung's depth psychology into easily understandable terms. 

³ http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+19%3A23-41&version=NIV  See also, The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary, 1996, p. 88.

Artemis (seated and wearing a radiate crown), the beautiful nymph Callisto
(left), Eros and other nymphs. Antique fresco from Pompeii.
National Archaeological Museum, Naples.