does anyone know what origin the goddess Aradia is and if she had a lover?
I’m working on a book for my nanowrimo and I would like to use some real mythology. I know that Her mother was Diana and her father was Lucifer and that they were siblings which is kind of creepy, but i can’t seem to find much about Aradia.
- Megan A
Tags: Diana, Goddess Aradia, Lucifer, Mythology, Nanowrimo
September 23rd, 2009 at 2:07 pm
That’s because it’s not based in classical mythology. It’s based on Charles Leland. He’s the only source.
September 26th, 2009 at 11:42 am
Well, I don’t where you get your information, but Diana and Lucifer can’t have gotten together in any mythology I know about because they come from two entirely separate traditions. Diana was a Roman goddess, associated with hunting and virginity and the moon, as well as Lake Nemi. The Romans thought she was an incarnation of the Greek Artemis, altho’ I tend to think they were mistaken and she was really an avatar of Demeter — but we shan’t get into that debate! But now, Lucifer comes out of the Bible, as the representation of the Morning Star or Satan to be exact, a fallen angel who quarreled with God, so he’s Hebrew. They can’t have been siblings, although among ancient folk such as Romans and Greeks there was often sibling marriage among deities because they were supposed to have paired off quite early, when there wasn’t much choice. Zeus and Hera, for example, were spouses but also siblings.
But now I’ve never heard of any Aradia and neither has Pierre Grimal, author of The Penguin Dictionary of Classical Mythology which was published in 1990. Are you sure you aren’t thinking of Arcadia, with a “c” in the middle? That was the central portion of southern Greece, where Demeter hung out as a horse, in one version of her story, when she was mourning the loss of her daughter Persephone after Hades carried her away to the underworld. But Arcadia wasn’t anybody’s daughter, since Arcadia was a place.
September 28th, 2009 at 11:14 am
Aradia originated in the very tail end of the 1800’s AD. She did not exist prior. The Lucifer the book (Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches) mentions appears to be a mix between the obvious Lucifer of the Bible and perhaps Apollo as the sun god (instead of Helios). As is said in De Natura Deorum “Sol the Sun and Luna the Moon are deities, and the Greeks identify the former with Apollo and the latter with Diana [Artemis].” In a few stories Artemis is identified rather closely with Hekate (the Greek goddess of witchcraft and crossroads). However, Artemis/Diana has one very important characteristic which makes Aradia’s birth inherently suspect. The Huntress is a virgin. That was the one boon she asked for from Zeus, and it was sworn upon Styx (the unbreakable oath).
Therefor, you are not likely to find any historical reference to Aradia prior to the late 1800’s because she simply did not fit nor exist in the classical Greco-Roman Pantheon.
Best of luck to you.