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Goddess Diana/Artemis
For the Greeks, Dianas sacred animal was deer and her
followers would sacrifice the deer or make deer-shaped caked and offer
it to her during the festivals. For the help of Diana that brought victory
to the Greeks, she was given loaves of bread or cakes that showed her
luminosity (since she was also revered as the goddess of the moon)
during the full moon in April-May. The Romans were also influenced by
Diana. Before the Romans went to war, they swore that they would
sacrifice as many goats as they killed enemies during the war. The
Romans couldnt keep the promise so they decided to sacrifice 500
goats each year on the anniversary of their victory.
The head of her cult was the chief priest, and priests
under him were known as Essenes. The Essenes duty was to offer the
sacrifices to the goddess on behalf of the city. Subordinate classes of
priests were called Kuoretes, Krobatai and Hilroi. They used to perform
jobs that are now unknown. The Melissai, or bees, were the large
number of priestesses who worshipped Diana. In the early times, the
Melissai were divided into three classes and their jobs are no longer
known. The rituals performed in the temples were made of sacrifices
and of ceremonial prostitution.
One of the greatest rituals by the Cult of Artemis is the
Procession of statues. This procession was not meant for Artemis, since
a march this big was meant for emperors and people who came
victorious. In order to show this, no meat was sacrificed to the
Goddess, making it non sacramental. The procession contained thirty-
one statues, in which nine of them were of the goddess Artemis. One of
Artemis statues was gold and it led the procession. The rest of the
statues either represented past emperors or other gods associated
with Artemis cult. The procession has also helped with promoting
Artemis cult. The procession would begin in front of Artemis temple,
where the statues would be removed, and would be carried throughout
the city by the priests and temple guards, later being brought back to
the temple.
Sacrifices were made to Diana because a Sabine man
would have to sacrifice a heifer to Diana in order to get the seat to be
the ruler of the Roman Empire. Women would also worship her because
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they wanted to get fertile and have a safe delivery once they were
pregnant.