[1384] She appears to have been a Greek deity adopted by the Romans.
[1385] See above, § 43.
[1386] Compare the Greek Hestia and the Hindu house-goddess (Hopkins, Religions of India, pp. 374, 530).
[1387] On the Arician Diana see Frazer, Golden Bough, 2d ed., i, 230 f.
[1388] Or, better, from deiā.
[1389] The prevailing view is that the grove is an opened place into which light enters, and it is thus distinguished from the dark and gloomy forest. The verbs nitere, nitescere, virere, are used by Ovid and other writers to describe this gleaming of leaves, plants, trees, groves, and of the earth.
[1390] An early divine name expressive of intellectual power is not probable.
[1391] On her origin cf. Wissowa, Religion der Römer, p. 203 ff.
[1392] Varro, De Re Rustica, i, 1.
[1393] See above, § 803.