In Roman religion, goddess of wild animals and the hunt, identified with the Greek goddess Artemis. Her name is akin to the Latin words dium (“sky”) and dius (“daylight”). Like her Greek counterpart, she was also a goddess of domestic animals. As a fertility deity she was invoked by women to aid conception and delivery. Though perhaps originally an indigenous woodland goddess, Diana early became identified with Artemis. There was probably no original connection between Diana and the moon, but she later absorbed Artemis’ identification