154 MYTHOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS RITES. 
as among the Greeks, being regarded as the ancestress of Romulus, the 
founder of Rome. She had seventeen temples in the city alone. The 
festival of Venus Verticordia (who turned the heart to love) was celebrated 
on the Ist of April, and on the 19th of August the gardeners solemnized 
the rural Vinalza, in which they Peotone from the fructifying Leong 
blessings for their crops of fruit. 
ae the varied representations at Rome the Venus Capitolina (pl. 
27, jig. 23) is remarkable. She has just risen from the bath, and is accord- 
ingly nude; her hair is tastefully arranged on the top of her head, a few 
locks only falling down on her neck. A large vessel stands near her, 
over which hangs a cloth edged with fringes. As goddess of love, which 
conquers gods and men, she was represented as Venus Vectriz. Ona coin 
( jig. 30) she appears leaning against a pillar, and holds in her right hand 
the helmet of Mars, while his shield stands at the foot of the pillar. On 
another coin (pl. 28, jig. 18) the shield marks her as Venus Victria. 
9. Diana (Artemis) had the same significance in Rome and Greece ; but 
she was worshipped with far more splendor in the former, as goddess of the 
chase, of magic, and of the moon. A temple was erected to her on the 
Arata Hill oe Servius Tullius, and the 6th of April was annually cele- 
brated as her birth-day. An Nee custom obtained in conducting her 
worship in the Italian town Aricia. Her priest here was always a runaway 
slave, who could obtain his office only by killing his predecessor. The very 
same fate awaited himself, for there would always be slaves who would 
covet his place in order to escape the pursuit of their masters. In the yard 
or court of the temple there stood a tree, and it was a regulation that any 
one who broke off a twig was compelled to engage in mortal combat with 
the priest of Diana, who in addition to this was bound to fight a duel for 
life or death once each year. 
In her representations, Diana was made more or less conspicuous accor- 
ding to the sphere she was supposed to fill; hence the variety in her pictures 
and statues. In pl. 15, fig. 10, we see but few of her peculiarities. The 
short tunic, with the still shorter cloak, serves to suggest the goddess of the 
chase, but she wants the buskins, the bow and the quiver. The veil which 
descends from her head over her back belongs to her as goddess of the 
moon, though generally the veil floats over her like a sail, and in that case 
she carries a torch or a figure of the moon. The figure may have been 
intended to represent her as the goddess of magic, or as Lucia (presiding 
over births), in which characters she had no special attributes. Sometimes 
she is represented with the insignia of various offices at once. Thus pl. 20, 
jig. 10, exhibits her as goddess of the chase, with the short tunic, bow, 
quiver, and buskins, and also with the inverted torch, which she rests on a 
stone, while she leans against another. The presence of the torch caused 
this statue to be designated as Diana Lucifera, and the other insignia as mere 
allusions to her other functions. A figure on a medal of the emperor Antoninus 
Pius (pl. 16, jig. 26) is by some taken for Diana Lucifera; but others 
interpret it as the portrait of the empress /austina on horseback, adorned 
with the attributes of Diana Lucifera, the moon on the head and the torch. 
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