title: Call of Duty (video game)

text: The Soviet campaign begins during the Battle of Stalingrad in September 1942. Corporal Alexei Ivanovich Voronin and his fellow recruits are sent across the Volga River, many of whom are killed when the Luftwaffe launch an attack. Once across, they call in an artillery strike that forces the Germans back. At Red Square with Soviet officers killing soldiers who retreat, Voronin kills several German officers, disrupting the German offense long enough for Soviet artillery to destroy their tanks. Voronin links up with surviving allies in a train station and guides them to Major Zubov of the 13th Guards Rifle Division; Voronin is promoted to Junior Sergeant. In November, Voronin rendezvous with a unit led by Sergeant Pavlov, tasked with retaking an apartment building in German hands. The unit assaults and clears the building, and defends it from a German counterattack.


title: Call of Duty (video game)

text: In January 1945, Voronin, now a full Sergeant, serves with the 150th Rifle Division of the 3rd Shock Army. The unit secures a makeshift German tank repair facility in Warsaw during the Vistula–Oder Offensive, and regroup with the 4th Guards Tank Army. Due to shortages in experienced soldiers, Voronin commands a T-34-85 tank for the 2nd Guards Tank Army, and helps the Soviets capture a town near the Oder River. In April, Sergeant Voronin is returned to his old unit, the 150th Rifle Division. He and a small group of soldiers storm the Reichstag building and raise the Victory Banner atop the roof, ending the European war.


title: Call of Duty (video game)

text: "Call of Duty" was developed by Infinity Ward, a new studio formed in 2002 originally consisting of 21 employees, many of whom were project lead developers of the successful "" released the same year. Led by Chief Creative Officer Vince Zampella, development began in April 2002, and the team grew to 27 members by May 2003. Using an enhanced version of the id Tech 3 game engine developed for "Quake III Arena" and an in-house skeletal animation system called "Ares", Infinity Ward set out to develop a new World War II-era video game that, unlike many of its predecessors, placed more emphasis on squad-based play with intelligent assistance from teammates during large-scale battles. The team also extensively researched weapons, artillery, and vehicles from World War II to enhance the authenticity of animation and sounds used throughout the game. The game's budget was $4.5 million.


title: Call of Duty (video game)

text: Another area the development team focused on was their artificial intelligence (AI) pathfinding component dubbed "Conduit". The ability to suppress the enemy with cover fire and clear obstacles, such as fences and windows, was tightly integrated into the squad-based aspect of the single-player campaigns. The AI in the game was designed to flank the opponent, bank grenades, and move from one cover point to another. Lead animation director Michael Boon explained that actions which would have normally been scripted in past games were moved to a dynamic AI environment, in order to help create a different experience each time levels are replayed. While the campaigns were the primary focus, development of the multiplayer modes were tailored to please modders. Zied Rieke, a lead designer, clarified that gameplay and modes were written in script making it "extremely easy for players to make their own modifications to Call of Duty multiplayer".


title: Call of Duty (video game)

text: "Call of Duty" received "critical acclaim", according to review aggregator Metacritic. It won several "Game of the Year" awards for 2003 from several reviewers.


title: Call of Duty (video game)

text: During the 7th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards (now known as the D.I.C.E. Awards), it was honored "Game of the Year" of 2003 by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences; it also received awards for "Computer Game of the Year" and "Computer First Person Action Game of the Year", along with being nominated for "Outstanding Innovation in Computer Gaming", "Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition", and "Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design".


title: Call of Duty (video game)

text: "Computer Games Magazine" named "Call of Duty" the sixth-best computer game of 2003, and the editors wrote, "This game ups the ante in the WWII shooter arena, and makes everything that has come before it seem as outdated as France's army." The editors of "Computer Gaming World" presented "Call of Duty" with their 2003 "Shooter of the Year" award. They remarked, ""Call of Duty" won this category without a shot fired—there simply was no debate." It was also nominated for "Best Game" at the 2004 Game Developers Choice Awards. While it did not receive that award, it did win Infinity Ward the "Rookie Studio of the Year". Chuck Russom was also presented with the "Excellence in Audio" award for his work on the game.


title: Call of Duty (video game)

text: IGN rated the game 9.3/10, with reviewer Dan Adams saying "You have to love a game that glues you to your seat and keeps you interested... A thrilling piece of software that action fans should grab a hold of and love fiercely." His only negative critique was on the short length of the game, which many reviewers pointed out.


title: Call of Duty (video game)

text: The NPD Group named "Call of Duty" the eighth-best-selling computer game of 2003. It maintained this position on NPD's computer game sales rankings for the following year. In the United States alone, "Call of Duty" sold 790,000 copies and earned $29.6 million by August 2006. At the time, this led "Edge" to declare it the country's 13th-best-selling computer game released since January 2000.


title: Call of Duty (video game)

text: In the United Kingdom, "Call of Duty" sold 95,000 copies by the end of 2003, which made it 88th-biggest seller across all platforms that year. Discussing this performance, Kristan Reed of GamesIndustry.biz wrote that "Activision will be pleased that it managed to interrupt the "Sims" party" with the game's release. "Call of Duty" ultimately received a "Silver" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom.


title: Call of Duty (video game)

text: "Call of Duty" spawned numerous spin-offs and sequels, part of the "Call of Duty" series. Its expansion pack - "" was developed by Gray Matter Studios and released September 14, 2004. "Call of Duty 2" was also developed by Infinity Ward and was released in October 2005. Some "Call of Duty" spinoffs were developed for consoles, such as "" by Spark Unlimited and "" by Gray Matter Studios (merged into Treyarch). The franchise eventually had over fifteen more sequels and spin offs.


title: Call of Duty (video game)

text: "Call of Duty Classic" is a downloadable version of "Call of Duty" for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, featuring HD resolutions. Tokens to download the game ahead of its release were sold along with special "Hardened" and "Prestige" editions of "", and the game was publicly released on December 2, 2009.


title: Call of Duty (video game)

text: IGN rated this version 7.5, citing it as not well adapted to the consoles, as well as criticizing the multiplayer for only supporting up to eight players.


title: Coat of arms of Ukraine

text: The coat of arms of Ukraine is a blue shield with a gold trident. Officially referred to as the "Emblem of the Royal State of Volodymyr the Great", or, colloquially, the tryzub (), the insignia derives from the seal-trident of Volodymyr the Great, the first Grand Prince of Kyiv.


title: Coat of arms of Ukraine

text: The small coat of arms was officially adopted on 19 February 1992, while constitutional provisions exist for establishing the great coat of arms, which is not yet officially adopted. The small coat of arms was designed by Andriy Grechylo, Oleksii Kokhan, and Ivan Turetskyi. It appears on the Presidential Standard of Ukraine. Blue-coloured tridents are considered to be an irregular representation by the Ukrainian Heraldry Society. The greater coat of arms which has not been adopted consists of the small coat of arms and the coat of arms of Zaporizhian Host (Constitution of Ukraine, Article 20).


title: Coat of arms of Ukraine

text: The trident was not thought of as a national symbol until 1917, when one of the most prominent Ukrainian historians, Mykhailo Hrushevskyi, proposed to adopt it as a national symbol (alongside other variants, including an arbalest, a bow or a cossack carrying a musket, i.e. images that carried considerable historical and cultural and heraldic significance for Ukraine). On 25 February 1918, the Central Rada (parliament) adopted it as the coat of arms of the short-lived Ukrainian People's Republic.


title: Coat of arms of Ukraine

text: Of significance, the design of the ТРИЗУБ was deliberate and contains the letters В-О-Л-Я which means "WILL or DETERMINATION" (for freedom and independence, or self-determination), and is reminiscent of the Cossack spirit (ДУХ КОЗАЦТВА), as captured by the artist Ilya Repin, in his painting Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks.


title: Coat of arms of Ukraine

text: During the Soviet period of 1919–1991 and independence between 1991 and 1992, the state symbols were consistent with the Russian SFSR and the Soviet Union – a hammer and sickle over the rising sun.


title: Coat of arms of Ukraine

text: The modern "trident" symbol was adopted as the coat of arms of the Ukrainian People's Republic in February 1918, designed by Vasyl Krychevsky. The design has precedents in seals of the Kyivan Rus. The first known archaeological and historical evidence of this symbol can be found on the seals of the Rurik dynasty. However, according to Pritsak, the stylized trident tamga, or seal which was used by Rus rulers such as Sviatoslav I of Kiev and similar tamgas that were found in ruins are Khazar in origin.


title: Coat of arms of Ukraine

text: It was stamped on the gold and silver coins issued by Prince Volodymyr the Great (980–1015), who might have inherited the symbol from his ancestors (such as Svyatoslav I Igorevich) as a dynastic coat of arms, and he passed it on to his sons, Svyatopolk I (1015–19) and Yaroslav the Wise (1019–54). The symbol was also found on the bricks of the Church of the Tithes in Kyiv, the tiles of the Dormition Cathedral in Volodymyr, and the stones of other churches, castles, and palaces. There are many examples of it used on ceramics, weapons, rings, medallions, seals, and manuscripts.


title: Coat of arms of Ukraine

text: Most historians agree that the medieval symbol was not intended as depicting a trident, but rather, was a symbol of the Holy Trinity; it also was most likely a stylized falcon. Depictions of a flying falcon with a Christian cross above its head have been found in Old Ladoga, the first seat of the Kievan Rurik dynasty, of Scandinavian lineage. Such a falcon, along with a cross are also featured on the coins of Olaf Guthfrithsson, a Viking king of Dublin and Northumbria.


title: Coat of arms of Ukraine

text: Falconry has been a royal sport in Europe for centuries. The gyrfalcon (known also as "Norwegian falcon") was considered a royal bird and is mentioned ("ukr.: рарог") in one of the earliest epics of Ruthenia, the 12th century poem The Tale of Ihor's Campaign.


title: Coat of arms of Ukraine

text: Later images of the trident ("tryzub") among the Rurikids resemble more a bident or the letter "У", which also in the modern Cyrillic alphabet denotes the sound "u" as in "Ukraine" (though the Cyrillic alphabet at the time did not use this letter individually, using the digraph ОѴ/оу or its monogram Ꙋ instead).


title: Coat of arms of Ukraine

text: The Tryzub is heavily used in the military heraldry to commemorate the participation on the Eastern Front during World War II. At least 36 units of the Italian Army carry the Tryzub in their Coat of Arms, as they were awarded a Medal for Military Valor during their service on the territory of Ukraine. The Tryzyb is the Coat of arms of Zaslawye. Worth noting is that the Tryzub was also used in conjunction with the Russian tricolour, as the symbol of the anti-communist movement National Alliance of Russian Solidarists in the early 20th century.


title: Coat of arms of Ukraine

text: A three-fingered hand salute is sometimes used to mimic the Tryzub; as for example in pro-independence demonstrations in the late 1980s and in the logo of the (Ukrainian) Svoboda party.


title: Coat of arms of Ukraine

text: The coat of arms for the Kingdom of Ruthenia () and Duchy of Galicia–Volhynia has existed since the 12th century. It consisted of a lion on an azure heater shield. The Ruthenian lion first appears in the seal of the Ruthenian king Yurii I, dated to the beginning of the XIV century. There is an image of a monarch on a throne, and on the reverse, an armed horseman holding a shield with a lion on his hind leg, an example of equestrian seals common in Europe at the time. On the seal, there is an inscription in Latin: "Sigillum Domini Georgi Regis Rusie" (Seal of the owner of George-Yuri, King of Ruthenia), on the back: "Sigillum Domini Georgi Ducis Ladimerie" (seal of the owner of George-Yuri, prince of Lodomeria).


title: Coat of arms of Ukraine

text: On the seal of his son Lev II, only a lion without a rider is depicted. The animal stands on its hind legs and reverses to the left.


title: Coat of arms of Ukraine

text: Figures of lions as symbols of Ruthenia are found on the silver coins of the Lithuanian prince Lubart, the last ruler of the Kingdom of Ruthenia (1340–1383), and his son Fedor (1384–1387). We see the same motive on Ruthenian money, the issue of which continued during the reign in Ruthenia of the Polish king Casimir III (1349–1370), the Hungarian king Louis (1370–1372, 1378–1382) and his governor, Prince of Opolsk Vladislav (1372–1378).


title: Coat of arms of Ukraine

text: After the occupation of Eastern Galicia by the Kingdom of Poland as a result of the Galicia–Volhynia Wars, the coat of arms with many changes was adopted as part of the Ruthenian Voivodeship (, Ruthenian Palatine). It was abandoned with partition of Poland and annexation of territory by the Austrian Empire. At the end of World War I and dissolution of Austria-Hungary, the Western Ukrainian People's Republic revived the coat of arms. With the annexation of the West Ukraine by Poland again in 1918 and later the Soviet Union, the gold lion symbol became the coat of arms for the city of Lviv.


title: Coat of arms of Ukraine

text: A Cossack with a musket was an emblem of the Zaporizhian Host and later the state emblem of the Hetmanate and the Ukrainian State. The origin of the emblem is uncertain, while its first records date back to 1592. On the initiative of Pyotr Rumyantsev, the emblem was phased out and replaced by the Russian double-headed eagle in 1767.


title: Coat of arms of Ukraine

text: A Cossack with a rifle was restored by the Hetman of Ukraine Pavlo Skoropadsky in 1918. The emblem disappeared until in 2005, when it reappeared on the proposed Great Seal of Ukraine.


title: Coat of arms of Ukraine

text: The importance of the Kyiv region coat of arms with Archangel Michael known as Archistrategos Mykhaïl arose during discussion of the so-called 1658 Hadiach Treaty between the delegation of the Cossack Hetmanate and the Crown of Poland, that foresaw the transformation of the Commonwealth into the Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth.


title: Coat of arms of Ukraine

text: The coat of arms was created after the end of the First World War, when Carpathian Ruthenia (then called Subcarpathian Rus') was transferred from Hungary to the newly created state of Czechoslovakia. It was designed in 1920 by Czech historian . The Ruthenians had been promised autonomy within the new country, and therefore a coat of arms was created for their land.


title: Coat of arms of Ukraine

text: The coat of arms shows the Ukrainian tinctures (heraldic colours) of blue and gold in its first (dexter) field and a red bear on silver in its second field. The bear is perhaps a symbol of Carpathian wildlife. The horizontal lines (in heraldry called bars) could perhaps have been inspired by the partitions per fess in the coat of arms of Hungary, to which the territory had belonged.


title: Coat of arms of Ukraine

text: The arms were also used by the short-lived state of Carpatho-Ukraine in 1939, but with the addition of the Ukrainian Tryzub in the uppermost blue field, used previously by the Ukrainian People's Republic. Since the territory is the same for the current Zakarpattia Oblast, the oblast uses the arms as its own minus the trident.


title: Coat of arms of Ukraine

text: The coat of arms of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was adopted on 14 March 1919, by the government of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and subsequently modified on 7 November 1928, 30 January 1937, and 21 November 1949. The coat of arms of 1949 is based on the coat of arms of the Soviet Union and features the hammer and sickle, the red star, a sunrise and ears of wheat on its outer rims. The rising sun stands for the future of the Soviet Ukrainian nation, the star as well as the hammer and sickle for the victory of communism and the "worldwide socialist community of states".


title: Coat of arms of Ukraine

text: The banner bears the Soviet Union state motto ("Workers of the world, unite!") in both the Ukrainian and Russian languages. The name of the Ukrainian SSR is shown only in Ukrainian.


title: Coat of arms of Ukraine

text: After independence on 24 August 1991, Ukraine retained the Soviet emblem. The next year, in 1992, the emblem was changed to the present coat of arms of Ukraine, the tryzub (trident) coat of arms.


title: Coat of arms of Ukraine

text: Among other notable features are Archistratege Michael the Archangel, Pohoń Ruśka (Ruthenian Pursuer), Three crowns (representing three kings Daniel, Leo and George), Galician jackdaw, Volhynian silver cross pattée at the red field, Podolian gold sun, Chernihiv black eagle, Kharkiv crossed cornucopia and caduceus at the green field.


title: Coat of arms of Ukraine

text: In 1917, President of the Central Rada Mykhailo Hrushevsky proposed the Great Coat of Arms in the form of a single shield topped by a dove with olive branch. The shield was split five ways. At its center there was a smaller shield depicting a plough as a symbol of productive peaceful work surrounded by ancient state symbols of Ukraine: the princely arms of Volodymyr the Great (tryzub), Litvin Pogon with a golden lion, cossack with musket, the crossbow of Kyiv and the lion of Lviv.


title: Coat of arms of Ukraine

text: In the current Constitution of Ukraine there is a constitutional provisions for the establishment of a Great Coat of Arms of Ukraine, although it was never officially adopted and was published in various heraldic sources. In this variant, the shield is supported by a lion from the Galician Coat of Arms on the left and a cossack in traditional dress, wielding a musket, the symbol of the Cossack Hetmanate on the right. The Coat of Arms is crowned with the crown of Volodymyr the Great, symbolizing Ukrainian sovereignty and decorated with viburnum and wheat at the bottom. The official adoption of the Great Coat of Arms has to be endorsed by a two-thirds majority vote (300 votes) in the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament.


title: Coat of arms of Ukraine

text: Since Ukrainian independence in 1991 four attempts by the Ukrainian government to create an official Great Coat of Arms have failed. On 25 August 2020 the Verkhovna Rada instructed the Shmyhal Government to get an official Great Coat of Arms of Ukraine adopted in time for the 30th Independence Day of Ukraine celebrations on 24 August 2021.


title: Caliber

text: In guns, particularly firearms, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the finished bore matches that specification. It is measured in inches or in millimeters. In the United States it is expressed in hundredths of an inch; in the United Kingdom in thousandths; and elsewhere in millimeters. For example, a "45 caliber" firearm has a barrel diameter of roughly . Barrel diameters can also be expressed using metric dimensions. For example, a "9 mm pistol" has a barrel diameter of about 9 millimeters. Since metric and US customary units do not convert evenly at this scale, metric conversions of caliber measured in decimal inches are typically approximations of the precise specifications in non-metric units, and vice versa.


title: Caliber

text: In a rifled barrel, the distance is measured between opposing lands or between opposing grooves; groove measurements are common in cartridge designations originating in the United States, while land measurements are more common elsewhere in the world. Measurements "across the grooves" are used for maximum precision because rifling and the specific caliber so-measured is the result of final machining process which cuts grooves into the rough bore, leaving the "lands" behind.


title: Caliber

text: Good performance requires a concentric, straight bore that accurately centers the projectile within the barrel, in preference to a "tight" fit which can be achieved even with off-center, crooked bores that cause excessive friction, fouling and an out-of-balance, wobbling projectile in flight.


title: Caliber

text: There is much variance in the use of the term "small-bore", which over the years has changed considerably, with anything under .577 caliber considered "small-bore" prior to the mid-19th century.


title: Caliber

text: While modern firearms are generally referred to by the name of the cartridge the gun is chambered for, they are still categorized together based on bore diameter. For example, a firearm might be described as a "30 caliber rifle", which could accommodate any of a wide range of cartridges using a roughly projectile; or as a "22 rimfire", referring to any rimfire firearms firing cartridges with a 22 caliber projectile. However, there can be significant differences in nominal bullet and bore dimensions, and all cartridges so "categorized" are not automatically identical in actual caliber.


title: Caliber

text: For example, 303 British firearms and projectiles are often "categorized" as ".30-caliber" alongside several dozen U.S. "30-caliber" cartridges despite using bullets of .310–.312″ diameter while all U.S "30-caliber" centerfire rifle cartridges use a common, standard .308″ bullet outside diameter. Using bullets larger than design specifications causes excessive pressures, while undersize bullets cause low pressures, insufficient muzzle velocities and fouling that will eventually lead to excessive pressures.


title: Caliber

text: Makers of early cartridge arms had to invent methods of naming cartridges since no established convention existed then. One of the early established cartridge arms was the Spencer repeating rifle, which Union forces used in the American Civil War. It was named based on the chamber dimensions, rather than the bore diameter, with the earliest cartridge called the "No. 56 cartridge", indicating a chamber diameter of .56 in; the bore diameter varied considerably, from .52 to .54 in. Later various derivatives were created using the same basic cartridge, but with smaller-diameter bullets; these were named by the cartridge diameter at the base and mouth. The original No. 56 became the .56-56, and the smaller versions, .56-52, .56-50, and .56-46. The 56-52, the most common of the new calibers, used a 50-cal bullet.


title: Caliber

text: Other black powder-era cartridges used naming schemes that appeared similar, but measured entirely different characteristics; 45-70, 44-40, and 32-20 were designated by bullet diameter to hundredths of an inch and standard black powder charge in grains. Optionally, the bullet weight in grains was designated, e.g. 45-70-405. This scheme was far more popular and was carried over after the advent of early smokeless powder cartridges such as the 30-30 Winchester and 22 Long. Later developments used terms to indicate relative power, such as .44 Special and .44 Magnum. Variations on these methods persist today, with new cartridges such as the 204 Ruger and 17 HMR (Hornady Magnum Rimfire).


title: Caliber

text: Metric diameters for small arms refer to cartridge dimensions and are expressed with an "×" between the bore diameter and the length of the cartridge case; for example, the 6.5×55mm Swedish cartridge has a bore diameter of 6.5 mm and a case length of 55 mm.


title: Caliber

text: The means of measuring a rifled bore varies, and may refer to the diameter of the lands or the grooves of the rifling. For example, the 257 Roberts and 250 Savage both use a .257 inch projectile; both 250 Savage and 257 Roberts rifle bores have a .250 inch land diameter and .257 inch groove diameter. The .308 Winchester is measured across the grooves and uses a .308-in diameter (7.82-mm) bullet; the military-specification version is known as 7.62 × 51 mm NATO, so called because the bore diameter measured between the lands is 7.62 mm, and the cartridge has a case 51 mm long.


title: Caliber

text: Converting a rifle to fire a different cartridge in the same bore diameter, often involves merely re-chambering the barrel to the new cartridge dimensions, if the rim diameter of the new cartridge matches that of the old cartridge. Converting a rifle to fire a different cartridge in a different caliber and bore as what it initially was, means that the barrel of the rifle will also need to be changed. Because many competitive precision rifle shooters often shoot thousands of rounds per year both for practice and competitions, and they more often reach the end of their barrel life, whereby the rifling is worn down to a point where a rifle loses some of its accuracy, the choice to make a caliber or cartridge change is often done at the same time as when a new rifle barrel is fitted to the rifle by a gunsmith. There are a few important factors to consider when converting a rifle to a different caliber or cartridge. The action of the rifle should be long enough to contain the new cartridge, the magazine should also be able to hold the new cartridge, the bolt face should be the correct diameter and the extractor the correct size to hold the head of the new cartridge. The most common of these caliber conversions on rifles, are usually done to change from a parent cartridge to a new cartridge based on it, like when converting a rifle to a 6.5 mm Creedmoor from a 308 Winchester on which it is based.


title: Caliber

text: The following table lists some of the commonly used calibers where both metric and US customary units are used as equivalents. Due to variations in naming conventions, and the whims of the cartridge manufacturers, bullet diameters can vary widely from the diameter implied by the name. For example, a difference of 0.045 in (1.15 mm) occurs between the smallest and largest of the several cartridges designated as ".38 caliber".


title: Caliber

text: Shotguns are classed according to gauge, a related expression. The gauge of a shotgun refers to how many lead spheres, each with a diameter equal to that of the bore, amount to one pound (approximately 454 grams) in weight. In the case of a 12-gauge shotgun, it would take 12 spheres the size of the shotgun's bore to equal a pound. A numerically larger gauge indicates a smaller barrel: a 20-gauge shotgun requires more spheres to equal a pound; therefore, its barrel is smaller than the 12-gauge. This metric is used in Russia as "caliber number": e.g., "shotgun of the 12 caliber." The 16th caliber is known as "lordly" (). While shotgun bores can be expressed in calibers (the .410 bore shotgun is in fact a caliber measure of .41 caliber [10.4 mm]), unlike with rifles the actual bore diameter of a smoothbore shotgun varies significantly down the length of the barrel due to various chokes (and sometimes back-boring).


title: Caliber

text: In the United Kingdom, "gauge" is referred to as "bore" and in the United States "bore" is referred to as "gauge", e.g. a "12-bore or gauge shotgun" has a bore or gauge that can accommodate a lead sphere weighing 1/12th of a pound.


title: Caliber

text: The length of artillery barrels (muzzle to breech) has often been described in terms of multiples of the bore diameter e.g. a 4-inch gun of 50 calibers (written 4" L/50 or 4"/50) would have a barrel 4 in × 50 = 200 in long. A 16-inch gun of 50 calibers (16" L/50) has a barrel length of 50 × 16 = 800 in (66 ft 8 in).


title: Caliber

text: Both 14-in and 16-in navy guns were common in World War II. The British Royal Navy insisted on 50-cal guns on ships as it would allow shells to travel at an initial velocity of up to 1,800 mph (2,897 km/h) to a distance of 26 mi (42 km).


title: Caliber

text: Smoothbore cannon and carronade bores are designated by the weight in imperial pounds of spherical solid iron shot of diameter to fit the bore. Standard sizes are 6, 12, 18, 24, 32, and 42 pounds, with some 68-pound weapons, and other nonstandard weapons using the same scheme. See Carronade#Ordnance.


title: Caliber

text: From about the middle of the 17th century until the middle of the 19th century, measurement of the bore of large gunpowder weapons was usually expressed as the weight of its iron shot in pounds. Iron shot was used as the standard reference because iron was the most common material used for artillery ammunition during that period, and solid spherical shot the most common form encountered. Artillery was classified thereby into standard categories, with 3-pdr., 4-pdr., 6-pdr., 8-pdr., 9-pdr., 12-pdr., 18-pdr., 24-pdr., and 32-pdr. being the most common sizes encountered, although larger, smaller and intermediate sizes existed.


title: Caliber

text: In practice, though, significant variation occurred in the actual mass of the projectile for a given nominal shot weight. The country of manufacture is a significant consideration when determining bore diameters. For example, the French livre, until 1812, had a mass of 489.5 g whilst the contemporary English (avoirdupois) pound massed approximately 454 g. Thus, a French 32-pdr at the Battle of Trafalgar threw a shot with more mass than an English 32-pdr.


title: Caliber

text: Complicating matters further, muzzle-loaded weapons require a significant gap between the sides of the tube bore and the surface of the shot. This is necessary so the projectile may be inserted from the mouth to the base of the tube and seated securely adjacent the propellant charge with relative ease. The gap, called windage, increases the size of the bore with respect to the diameter of the shot somewhere between 10% and 20% depending upon the year the tube was cast and the foundry responsible.


title: Caliber

text: The relationship between bore diameter and projectile weight was severed following the widespread adoption of rifled weapons during the latter part of the 19th century. Guns continued to be classed by projectile weight into the mid-20th century, particularly in British service with guns such as the 2, 6 and 17 pounder anti-tank weapons. However, this value no longer definitively related to bore diameter, since projectiles were no longer simple spheres—and in any case were more often hollow shells filled with explosives rather than solid iron shot.


title: Erika (song)

text: "Erika" is a marching song used by the German military. The song was composed by Herms Niel in the 1930s, and it soon came into usage by the Wehrmacht, especially the Heer. No other marching song during World War II reached the popularity of Erika.


title: Erika (song)

text: "Erika" is both a common German female name and the German word for heather. The lyrics and melody of the song were written by Herms Niel, a German composer of marches. The exact year of the song's origin is not known; often the date is given as "about 1930", a date that, however, has not been substantiated. The song was originally published in 1938 by the publishing firm Louis Oertel in Großburgwedel. It had been popular prior to the start of World War II. The song encourages hard work, and according to Michael Tillotson, no other marching song during World War II reached the popularity of Erika. It was extensively played at large political events.


title: Erika (song)

text: The song begins with the line "Auf der Heide blüht ein kleines Blümelein" (On the Heath a Little Flower Blooms), the theme of a flower (Erika) bearing a soldier's sweetheart's name. After each line, and after each time the name "Erika" is sung, there is a three beat pause, which is filled by the kettledrum or stomping feet (e.g. of marching soldiers), shown as (xxx) in the text below.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Diana is a goddess in Roman and Hellenistic religion, primarily considered a patroness of the countryside, hunters, crossroads, and the Moon. She is equated with the Greek goddess Artemis, and absorbed much of Artemis' mythology early in Roman history, including a birth on the island of Delos to parents Jupiter and Latona, and a twin brother, Apollo, though she had an independent origin in Italy.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Diana is considered a virgin goddess and protector of childbirth. Historically, Diana made up a triad with two other Roman deities: Egeria the water nymph, her servant and assistant midwife; and Virbius, the woodland god.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Diana is revered in modern neopagan religions including Roman neopaganism, Stregheria, and Wicca. In the ancient, medieval, and modern periods, Diana has been considered a triple deity, merged with a goddess of the moon (Luna/Selene) and the underworld (usually Hecate).


title: Diana (mythology)

text: The name "Dīāna" probably derives from Latin "dīus" ('godly'), ultimately from Proto-Italic *"divios" (/"diwios"/), meaning 'divine, heavenly'. It stems from Proto-Indo-European "*diwyós" ('divine, heavenly'), formed with the stem "*dyew-" ('daylight sky') attached the thematic suffix -"yós". Cognates appear in Myceanean Greek "di-wi-ja", in Ancient Greek "dîos" (δῖος; 'belonging to heaven, godlike'), and in Sanskrit "divyá" ('heavenly' or 'celestial').


title: Diana (mythology)

text: The ancient Latin writers Varro and Cicero considered the etymology of Dīāna as allied to that of "dies" and connected to the shine of the Moon, noting that one of her titles is Diana Lucifera ("light-bearer").


title: Diana (mythology)

text: ... people regard Diana and the moon as one and the same. ... the moon "(luna)" is so called from the verb to shine "(lucere)". Lucina is identified with it, which is why in our country they invoke Juno Lucina in childbirth, just as the Greeks call on Diana the Light-bearer. Diana also has the name "Omnivaga" ("wandering everywhere"), not because of her hunting but because she is numbered as one of the seven planets; her name Diana derives from the fact that she turns darkness into daylight "(dies)". She is invoked at childbirth because children are born occasionally after seven, or usually after nine, lunar revolutions ...


title: Diana (mythology)

text: The persona of Diana is complex, and contains a number of archaic features. Diana was originally considered to be a goddess of the wilderness and of the hunt, a central sport in both Roman and Greek culture. Early Roman inscriptions to Diana celebrated her primarily as a huntress and patron of hunters. Later, in the Hellenistic period, Diana came to be equally or more revered as a goddess not of the wild woodland but of the "tame" countryside, or "villa rustica", the idealization of which was common in Greek thought and poetry. This dual role as goddess of both civilization and the wild, and therefore the civilized countryside, first applied to the Greek goddess Artemis (for example, in the 3rd century BCE poetry of Anacreon). By the 3rd century CE, after Greek influence had a profound impact on Roman religion, Diana had been almost fully combined with Artemis and took on many of her attributes, both in her spiritual domains and in the description of her appearance. The Roman poet Nemesianus wrote a typical description of Diana: She carried a bow and a quiver full of golden arrows, wore a golden cloak, purple half-boots, and a belt with a jeweled buckle to hold her tunic together, and wore her hair gathered in a ribbon. By the 5th century CE, almost a millennia after her cult's entry into Rome, the philosopher Proclus could still characterize Diana as "the inspective guardian of every thing rural, [who] represses every thing rustic and uncultivated."


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Diana was often considered an aspect of a triple goddess, known as "Diana triformis": Diana, Luna, and Hecate. According to historian C.M. Green, "these were neither different goddesses nor an amalgamation of different goddesses. They were Diana...Diana as huntress, Diana as the moon, Diana of the underworld." At her sacred grove on the shores of Lake Nemi, Diana was venerated as a triple goddess beginning in the late 6th century BCE.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Andreas Alföldi interpreted an image on a late Republican coin as the Latin Diana "conceived as a threefold unity of the divine huntress, the Moon goddess and the goddess of the nether world, Hekate". This coin, minted by P. Accoleius Lariscolus in 43 BCE, has been acknowledged as representing an archaic statue of Diana Nemorensis. It represents Artemis with the bow at one extremity, Luna-Selene with flowers at the other and a central deity not immediately identifiable, all united by a horizontal bar. The iconographical analysis allows the dating of this image to the 6th century at which time there are Etruscan models. The coin shows that the triple goddess cult image still stood in the "lucus" of Nemi in 43 BCE. Lake Nemi was called "Triviae lacus" by Virgil ("Aeneid" 7.516), while Horace called Diana "montium custos nemoremque virgo" ("keeper of the mountains and virgin of Nemi") and "diva triformis" ("three-form goddess").


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Two heads found in the sanctuary and the Roman theatre at Nemi, which have a hollow on their back, lend support to this interpretation of an archaic triple Diana.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: The earliest epithet of Diana was "Trivia", and she was addressed with that title by Virgil, Catullus, and many others. "Trivia" comes from the Latin "trivium", "triple way", and refers to Diana's guardianship over roadways, particularly Y-junctions or three-way crossroads. This role carried a somewhat dark and dangerous connotation, as it metaphorically pointed the way to the underworld. In the 1st-century CE play "Medea", Seneca's titular sorceress calls on Trivia to cast a magic spell. She evokes the triple goddess of Diana, Selene, and Hecate, and specifies that she requires the powers of the latter. The 1st century poet Horace similarly wrote of a magic incantation invoking the power of both Diana and Proserpina. The symbol of the crossroads is relevant to several aspects of Diana's domain. It can symbolize the paths hunters may encounter in the forest, lit only by the full moon; this symbolizes making choices "in the dark" without the light of guidance.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Diana's role as a goddess of the underworld, or at least of ushering people between life and death, caused her early on to be conflated with Hecate (and occasionally also with Proserpina). However, her role as an underworld goddess appears to pre-date strong Greek influence (though the early Greek colony of Cumae had a cult of Hekate and certainly had contacts with the Latins). A theater in her sanctuary at Lake Nemi included a pit and tunnel that would have allowed actors to easily descend on one side of the stage and ascend on the other, indicating a connection between the phases of the moon and a descent by the moon goddess into the underworld. It is likely that her underworld aspect in her original Latin worship did not have a distinct name, like Luna was for her moon aspect. This is due to a seeming reluctance or taboo by the early Latins to name underworld deities, and the fact that they believed the underworld to be silent, precluding naming. Hekate, a Greek goddess also associated with the boundary between the earth and the underworld, became attached to Diana as a name for her underworld aspect following Greek influence.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Diana was often considered to be a goddess associated with fertility and childbirth, and the protection of women during labor. This probably arose as an extension of her association with the moon, whose cycles were believed to parallel the menstrual cycle, and which was used to track the months during pregnancy. At her shrine in Aricia, worshipers left votive terracotta offerings for the goddess in the shapes of babies and wombs, and the temple there also offered care of pups and pregnant dogs. This care of infants also extended to the training of both young people and dogs, especially for hunting. In her role as a protector of childbirth, Diana was called "Diana Lucina", "Diana Lucifera" or even "Juno Lucina", because her domain overlapped with that of the goddess Juno. The title of Juno may also have had an independent origin as it applied to Diana, with the literal meaning of "helper" - Diana as "Juno Lucina" would be the "helper of childbirth".


title: Diana (mythology)

text: According to a theory proposed by Georges Dumézil, Diana falls into a particular subset of celestial gods, referred to in histories of religion as "frame gods". Such gods, while keeping the original features of celestial divinities (i.e. transcendent heavenly power and abstention from direct rule in worldly matters), did not share the fate of other celestial gods in Indoeuropean religions - that of becoming "dei otiosi", or gods without practical purpose, since they did retain a particular sort of influence over the world and mankind. The celestial character of Diana is reflected in her connection with inaccessibility, virginity, light, and her preference for dwelling on high mountains and in sacred woods. Diana, therefore, reflects the heavenly world in its sovereignty, supremacy, impassibility, and indifference towards such secular matters as the fates of mortals and states. At the same time, however, she is seen as active in ensuring the succession of kings and in the preservation of humankind through the protection of childbirth. These functions are apparent in the traditional institutions and cults related to the goddess:


title: Diana (mythology)

text: According to Dumezil, the forerunner of all "frame gods" is an Indian epic hero who was the image (avatar) of the Vedic god Dyaus. Having renounced the world, in his roles of father and king, he attained the status of an immortal being while retaining the duty of ensuring that his dynasty is preserved and that there is always a new king for each generation. The Scandinavian god Heimdallr performs an analogous function: he is born first and will die last. He too gives origin to kingship and the first king, bestowing on him regal prerogatives.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Diana, although a female deity, has exactly the same functions, preserving mankind through childbirth and royal succession.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Unlike the Greek gods, Roman gods were originally considered to be numina: divine powers of presence and will that did not necessarily have physical form. At the time Rome was founded, Diana and the other major Roman gods probably did not have much mythology per se, or any depictions in human form. The idea of gods as having anthropomorphic qualities and human-like personalities and actions developed later, under the influence of Greek and Etruscan religion.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: By the 3rd century BCE, Diana is found listed among the twelve major gods of the Roman pantheon by the poet Ennius. Though the Capitoline Triad were the primary state gods of Rome, early Roman myth did not assign a strict hierarchy to the gods the way Greek mythology did, though the Greek hierarchy would eventually be adopted by Roman religion as well.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Once Greek influence had caused Diana to be considered identical to the Greek goddess Artemis, Diana acquired Artemis's physical description, attributes, and variants of her myths as well. Like Artemis, Diana is usually depicted in art wearing a women’s chiton, shortened in the kolpos style to facilitate mobility during hunting, with a hunting bow and quiver, and often accompanied by hunting dogs. A 1st-century BCE Roman coin (see above) depicted her with a unique, short hairstyle, and in triple form, with one form holding a bow and another holding a poppy.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: When worship of Apollo was first introduced to Rome, Diana became conflated with Apollo's sister Artemis as in the earlier Greek myths, and as such she became identified as the daughter of Apollo's parents Latona and Jupiter. Though Diana was usually considered to be a virgin goddess like Artemis, later authors sometimes attributed consorts and children to her. According to Cicero and Ennius, Trivia (an epithet of Diana) and Caelus were the parents of Janus, as well as of Saturn and Ops.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: According to Macrobius (who cited Nigidius Figulus and Cicero), Janus and Jana (Diana) are a pair of divinities, worshiped as the sun and moon. Janus was said to receive sacrifices before all the others because, through him, the way of access to the desired deity is made apparent.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Diana's mythology incorporated stories which were variants of earlier stories about Artemis. Possibly the most well-known of these is the myth of Actaeon. In Ovid's version of this myth, part of his poem "Metamorphoses", he tells of a pool or grotto hidden in the wooded valley of Gargaphie. There, Diana, the goddess of the woods, would bathe and rest after a hunt. Actaeon, a young hunter, stumbled across the grotto and accidentally witnessed the goddess bathing without invitation. In retaliation, Diana splashed him with water from the pool, cursing him, and he transformed into a deer. His own hunting dogs caught his scent, and tore him apart.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Ovid's version of the myth of Actaeon differs from most earlier sources. Unlike earlier myths about Artemis, Actaeon is killed for an innocent mistake, glimpsing Diana bathing. An earlier variant of this myth, known as the Bath of Pallas, had the hunter intentionally spy on the bathing goddess Pallas (Athena), and earlier versions of the myth involving Artemis did not involve the bath at all.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Diana was an ancient goddess common to all Latin tribes. Therefore, many sanctuaries were dedicated to her in the lands inhabited by Latins. Her primary sanctuary was a woodland grove overlooking Lake Nemi, a body of water also known as "Diana's Mirror", where she was worshiped as Diana Nemorensis, or "Diana of the Wood". In Rome, the cult of Diana may have been almost as old as the city itself. Varro mentions her in the list of deities to whom king Titus Tatius promised to build a shrine. His list included Luna and Diana Lucina as separate entities. Another testimony to the antiquity of her cult is to be found in the "lex regia" of King Tullus Hostilius that condemns those guilty of incest to the "sacratio" to Diana. She had a temple in Rome on the Aventine Hill, according to tradition dedicated by king Servius Tullius. Its location is remarkable as the Aventine is situated outside the pomerium, i.e. original territory of the city, in order to comply with the tradition that Diana was a goddess common to all Latins and not exclusively of the Romans. Being placed on the Aventine, and thus outside the "pomerium", meant that Diana's cult essentially remained a "foreign" one, like that of Bacchus; she was never officially "transferred" to Rome as Juno was after the sack of Veii.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Other known sanctuaries and temples to Diana include Colle di Corne near Tusculum, where she is referred to with the archaic Latin name of "deva Cornisca" and where existed a collegium of worshippers; at Évora, Portugal; Mount Algidus, also near Tusculum; at Lavinium; and at Tibur (Tivoli), where she is referred to as "Diana Opifera Nemorensis". Diana was also worshiped at a sacred wood mentioned by Livy - "ad compitum Anagninum" (near Anagni), and on Mount Tifata in Campania.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: According to Plutarch, men and women alike were worshipers of Diana and were welcomed into all of her temples. The one exception seems to have been a temple on the Vicus Patricius, which men either did not enter due to tradition, or were not allowed to enter. Plutarch related a legend that a man had attempted to assault a woman worshiping in this temple and was killed by a pack of dogs (echoing the myth of Diana and Actaeon), which resulted in a superstition against men entering the temple.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: A feature common to nearly all of Diana's temples and shrines by the second century AD was the hanging up of stag antlers. Plutarch noted that the only exception to this was the temple on the Aventine Hill, in which bull horns had been hung up instead. Plutarch explains this by way of reference to a legend surrounding the sacrifice of an impressive Sabine bull by King Servius at the founding of the Aventine temple.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Diana's worship may have originated at an open-air sanctuary overlooking Lake Nemi in the Alban Hills near Aricia, where she was worshiped as Diana Nemorensis, or ("Diana of the Sylvan Glade"). According to legendary accounts, the sanctuary was founded by Orestes and Iphigenia after they fled from the Tauri. In this tradition, the Nemi sanctuary was supposedly built on the pattern of an earlier Temple of Artemis Tauropolos, and the first cult statue at Nemi was said to have been stolen from the Tauri and brought to Nemi by Orestes. Historical evidence suggests that worship of Diana at Nemi flourished from at least the 6th century BCE until the 2nd century CE. Her cult there was first attested in Latin literature by Cato the Elder, in a surviving quote by the late grammarian Priscian. By the 4th century BCE, the simple shrine at Nemi had been joined by a temple complex. The sanctuary served an important political role as it was held in common by the Latin League.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: A festival to Diana, the Nemoralia, was held yearly at Nemi on the Ides of August (August 13–15). Worshipers traveled to Nemi carrying torches and garlands, and once at the lake, they left pieces of thread tied to fences and tablets inscribed with prayers. Diana's festival eventually became widely celebrated throughout Italy, which was unusual given the provincial nature of Diana's cult. The poet Statius wrote of the festival:


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Statius describes the triple nature of the goddess by invoking heavenly (the stars), earthly (the grove itself) and underworld (Hecate) imagery. He also suggests by the garlanding of the dogs and polishing of the spears that no hunting was allowed during the festival.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Legend has it that Diana's high priest at Nemi, known as the Rex Nemorensis, was always an escaped slave who could only obtain the position by defeating his predecessor in a fight to the death. Sir James George Frazer wrote of this sacred grove in "The Golden Bough", basing his interpretation on brief remarks in Strabo (5.3.12), Pausanias (2,27.24) and Servius' commentary on the "Aeneid" (6.136). The legend tells of a tree that stood in the center of the grove and was heavily guarded. No one was allowed to break off its limbs, with the exception of a runaway slave, who was allowed, if he could, to break off one of the boughs. He was then in turn granted the privilege to engage the Rex Nemorensis, the current king and priest of Diana, in a fight to the death. If the slave prevailed, he became the next king for as long as he could defeat his challengers. However, Joseph Fontenrose criticised Frazer's assumption that a rite of this sort actually occurred at the sanctuary, and no contemporary records exist that support the historical existence of the "Rex Nemorensis".


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Rome hoped to unify into and control the Latin tribes around Nemi, so Diana's worship was imported to Rome as a show of political solidarity. Diana soon afterwards became Hellenized, and combined with the Greek goddess Artemis, "a process which culminated with the appearance of Diana beside Apollo [the brother of Artemis] in the first "lectisternium" at Rome" in 399 BCE. The process of identification between the two goddesses probably began when artists who were commissioned to create new cult statues for Diana's temples outside Nemi were struck by the similar attributes between Diana and the more familiar Artemis, and sculpted Diana in a manner inspired by previous depictions of Artemis. Sibyllene influence and trade with Massilia, where similar cult statues of Artemis existed, would have completed the process.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: According to Françoise Hélène Pairault's study, historical and archaeological evidence point to the fact that the characteristics given to both Diana of the Aventine Hill and Diana Nemorensis were the product of the direct or indirect influence of the cult of Artemis, which was spread by the Phoceans among the Greek towns of Campania Cuma and Capua, who in turn had passed it over to the Etruscans and the Latins by the 6th and 5th centuries BCE.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Evidence suggests that a confrontation occurred between two groups of Etruscans who fought for supremacy, those from Tarquinia, Vulci and Caere (allied with the Greeks of Capua) and those of Clusium. This is reflected in the legend of the coming of Orestes to Nemi and of the inhumation of his bones in the Roman Forum near the temple of Saturn. The cult introduced by Orestes at Nemi is apparently that of the Artemis Tauropolos. The literary amplification reveals a confused religious background: different versions of Artemis were conflated under the epithet. As far as Nemi's Diana is concerned there are two different versions, by Strabo and Servius Honoratus. Strabo's version looks to be the most authoritative as he had access to first-hand primary sources on the sanctuaries of Artemis, i.e. the priest of Artemis Artemidoros of Ephesus. The meaning of "Tauropolos" denotes an Asiatic goddess with lunar attributes, lady of the herds. The only possible "interpretatio graeca" of high antiquity concerning "Diana Nemorensis" could have been the one based on this ancient aspect of a deity of light, master of wildlife. "Tauropolos" is an ancient epithet attached to Artemis, Hecate, and even Athena. According to the legend Orestes founded Nemi together with Iphigenia. At Cuma the Sybil is the priestess of both Phoibos and Trivia. Hesiod and Stesichorus tell the story according to which after her death Iphigenia was divinised under the name of Hecate, a fact which would support the assumption that Artemis Tauropolos had a real ancient alliance with the heroine, who was her priestess in Taurid and her human paragon. This religious complex is in turn supported by the triple statue of Artemis-Hecate.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: In Rome, Diana was regarded with great reverence and was a patroness of lower-class citizens, called plebeians, as well as slaves, who could receive asylum in her temples. Georg Wissowa proposed that this might be because the first slaves of the Romans were Latins of the neighboring tribes. However, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus had the same custom of the asylum.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Worship of Diana probably spread into the city of Rome beginning around 550 BCE, during her Hellenization and combination with the Greek goddess Artemis. Diana was first worshiped along with her brother and mother, Apollo and Latona, in their temple in the Campus Martius, and later in the Temple of Apollo Palatinus.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: The first major temple dedicated primarily to Diana in the vicinity of Rome was the Temple of Diana Aventina (Diana of the Aventine Hill). According to the Roman historian Livy, the construction of this temple began in the 6th century BCE and was inspired by stories of the massive Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, which was said to have been built through the combined efforts of all the cities of Asia Minor. Legend has it that Servius Tullius was impressed with this act of massive political and economic cooperation, and convinced the cities of the Latin League to work with the Romans to build their own temple to the goddess. However, there is no compelling evidence for such an early construction of the temple, and it is more likely that it was built in the 3rd century BCE, following the influence of the temple at Nemi, and probably about the same time the first temples to Vertumnus (who was associated with Diana) were built in Rome (264 BCE). The misconception that the Aventine Temple was inspired by the Ephesian Temple might originate in the fact that the cult images and statues used at the former were based heavily on those found in the latter. Whatever its initial construction date, records show that the Avantine Temple was rebuilt by Lucius Cornificius in 32 BCE. If it was still in use by the 4th century CE, the Aventine temple would have been permanently closed during the persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire. Today, a short street named the "Via del Tempio di Diana" and an associated plaza, "Piazza del Tempio di Diana", commemorates the site of the temple. Part of its wall is located within one of the halls of the Apuleius restaurant.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Later temple dedications often were based on the model for ritual formulas and regulations of the Temple of Diana. Roman politicians built several minor temples to Diana elsewhere in Rome to secure public support. One of these was built in the Campus Martius in 187 BCE; no Imperial period records of this temple have been found, and it is possible it was one of the temples demolished around 55 BCE in order to build a theater. Diana also had a public temple on the Quirinal Hill, the sanctuary of Diana Planciana. It was dedicated by Plancius in 55 BCE, though it is unclear which Plancius.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: In their worship of Artemis, Greeks filled their temples with sculptures of the goddess created by well-known sculptors, and many were adapted for use in the worship of Diana by the Romans, beginning around the 2nd century BCE (the beginning of a period of strong Hellenistic influence on Roman religion). The earliest depictions of the Artemis of Ephesus are found on Ephesian coins from this period. By the Imperial period, small marble statues of the Ephesian Artemis were being produced in the Western region of the Mediterranean and were often bought by Roman patrons. The Romans obtained a large copy of an Ephesian Artemis statue for their temple on the Aventine Hill. Diana was usually depicted for educated Romans in her Greek guise. If she was shown accompanied by a deer, as in the "Diana of Versailles", this is because Diana was the patroness of hunting. The deer may also offer a covert reference to the myth of Acteon (or Actaeon), who saw her bathing naked. Diana transformed Acteon into a stag and set his own hunting dogs to kill him.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: In Campania, Diana had a major temple at Mount Tifata, near Capua. She was worshiped there as "Diana Tifatina". This was one of the oldest sanctuaries in Campania. As a rural sanctuary, it included lands and estates that would have been worked by slaves following the Roman conquest of Campania, and records show that expansion and renovation projects at her temple were funded in part by other conquests by Roman military campaigns. The modern Christian church of Sant'Angelo in Formis was built on the ruins of the Tifata temple.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: In the Roman provinces, Diana was widely worshiped alongside local deities. Over 100 inscriptions to Diana have been cataloged in the provinces, mainly from Gaul, Upper Germania, and Britannia. Diana was commonly invoked alongside another forest god, Silvanus, as well as other "mountain gods". In the provinces, she was occasionally conflated with local goddesses such as Abnoba, and was given high status, with "Augusta" and "regina" ("queen") being common epithets.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Diana was not only regarded as a goddess of the wilderness and the hunt, but was often worshiped as a patroness of families. She served a similar function to the hearth goddess Vesta, and was sometimes considered to be a member of the Penates, the deities most often invoked in household rituals. In this role, she was often given a name reflecting the tribe of family who worshiped her and asked for her protection. For example, in what is now Wiesbaden, Diana was worshiped as "Diana Mattiaca" by the Mattiaci tribe. Other family-derived named attested in the ancient literature include "Diana Cariciana", "Diana Valeriana", and "Diana Plancia". As a house goddess, Diana often became reduced in stature compared to her official worship by the Roman state religion. In personal or family worship, Diana was brought to the level of other household spirits, and was believed to have a vested interest in the prosperity of the household and the continuation of the family. The Roman poet Horace regarded Diana as a household goddess in his "Odes", and had an altar dedicated to her in his villa where household worship could be conducted. In his poetry, Horace deliberately contrasted the kinds of grand, elevated hymns to Diana on behalf of the entire Roman state, the kind of worship that would have been typical at her Aventine temple, with a more personal form of devotion.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Images of Diana and her associated myths have been found on sarcophagi of wealthy Romans. They often included scenes depicting sacrifices to the goddess, and on at least one example, the deceased man is shown joining Diana's hunt.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Since ancient times, philosophers and theologians have examined the nature of Diana in light of her worship traditions, attributes, mythology, and identification with other gods.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Diana was initially a hunting goddess and goddess of the local woodland at Nemi, but as her worship spread, she acquired attributes of other similar goddesses. As she became conflated with Artemis, she became a moon goddess, identified with the other lunar goddesses goddess Luna and Hekate. She also became the goddess of childbirth and ruled over the countryside. Catullus wrote a poem to Diana in which she has more than one alias: Latonia, Lucina, Juno, Trivia, Luna.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Along with Mars, Diana was often venerated at games held in Roman amphitheaters, and some inscriptions from the Danubian provinces show that she was conflated with Nemesis in this role, as "Diana Nemesis".


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Outside of Italy, Diana had important centers of worship where she was syncretised with similar local deities in Gaul, Upper Germania, and Britannia. Diana was particularly important in the region in and around the Black Forest, where she was conflated with the local goddess Abnoba and worshiped as "Diana Abnoba".


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Some late antique sources went even further, syncretizing many local "great goddesses" into a single "Queen of Heaven". The Platonist philosopher Apuleius, writing in the late 2nd century, depicted the goddess declaring:


title: Diana (mythology)

text: "I come, Lucius, moved by your entreaties: I, mother of the universe, mistress of all the elements, first-born of the ages, highest of the gods, queen of the shades, first of those who dwell in heaven, representing in one shape all gods and goddesses. My will controls the shining heights of heaven, the health-giving sea-winds, and the mournful silences of hell; the entire world worships my single godhead in a thousand shapes, with divers rites, and under many a different name. The Phrygians, first-born of mankind, call me the Pessinuntian Mother of the gods; the native Athenians the Cecropian Minerva; the island-dwelling Cypriots Paphian Venus; the archer Cretans Dictynnan Diana; the triple-tongued Sicilians Stygian Proserpine; the ancient Eleusinians Actaean Ceres; some call me Juno, some Bellona, others Hecate, others Rhamnusia; but both races of Ethiopians, those on whom the rising and those on whom the setting sun shines, and the Egyptians who excel in ancient learning, honour me with the worship which is truly mine and call me by my true name: Queen Isis."


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Later poets and historians looked to Diana's identity as a triple goddess to merge her with triads heavenly, earthly, and underworld (cthonic) goddesses. Maurus Servius Honoratus said that the same goddess was called Luna in heaven, Diana on earth, and Proserpina in hell.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Michael Drayton praises the Triple Diana in poem "The Man in the Moone" (1606): "So these great three most powerful of the rest, Phoebe, Diana, Hecate, do tell. Her sovereignty in Heaven, in Earth and Hell".


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Based on the earlier writings of Plato, the Neoplatonist philosophers of late antiquity united the various major gods of Hellenic tradition into a series of monads containing within them triads, with some creating the world, some animating it or bringing it to life, and others harmonizing it. Within this system, Proclus considered Diana to be one of the primary animating, or life-giving, deities. Proclus, citing Orphic tradition, concludes that Diana "presides over all the generation in nature, and is the midwife of physical productive principles" and that she "extends these genitals, distributing as far as to subterranean natures the prolific power of [Bacchus]." Specifically, Proclus considered the life-generating principle of the highest order, within the Intellectual realm, to be Rhea, whom he identified with Ceres. Within her divinity was produced the cause of the basic principle of life. Projecting this principle into the lower, Hypercosmic realm of reality generated a lower monad, Kore, who could therefore be understood as Ceres' "daughter". Kore embodied the "maidenly" principle of generation that, more importantly, included a principle of division - where Demeter generates life indiscriminately, Kore distributes it individually. This division results in another triad or trinity, known as the Maidenly trinity, within the monad of Kore: namely, Diana, Proserpine, and Minerva, through whom individual living beings are given life and perfected. Specifically, according to a commentary by scholar Spyridon Rangos, Diana (equated with Hecate) gives existence, Proserpine (equated with "Soul") gives form, and Minerva (equated with "Virtue") gives intellect.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: In his commentary on Proclus, the 19th century Platonist scholar Thomas Taylor expanded upon the theology of the classical philosophers, further interpreting the nature and roles of the gods in light of the whole body of Neoplatonist philosophy. He cites Plato in giving a three-form aspect to her central characteristic of virginity: the undefiled, the mundane, and the anagogic. Through the first form, Diana is regarded as a "lover of virginity". Through the second, she is the guardian of virtue. Through the third, she is considered to "hate the impulses arising from generation." Through the principle of the undefiled, Taylor suggests that she is given supremacy in Proclus' triad of life-giving or animating deities, and in this role the theurgists called her Hekate. In this role, Diana is granted undefiled power ("Amilieti") from the other gods. This generative power does not proceed forth from the goddess (according to a statement by the Oracle of Delphi) but rather resides with her, giving her unparalleled virtue, and in this way she can be said to embody virginity. Later commentators on Proclus have clarified that the virginity of Diana is not an absence of sexual drive, but a renunciation of sexuality. Diana embodies virginity because she generates but precedes active fertility (within Neoplatonism, an important maxim is that "every productive cause is superior to the nature of the produced effect").


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Using the ancient Neoplatonists as a basis, Taylor also commented on the triadic nature of Diana and related goddesses, and the ways in which they subsist within one another, partaking unevenly in each other's powers and attributes. For example, Kore is said to embody both Diana/Hecate and Minerva, who create the virtuous or virgin power within her, but also Proserpine (her sole traditional identification), through whom the generative power of the Kore as a whole is able to proceed forth into the world, where it joins with the demiurge to produce further deities, including Bacchus and "nine azure-eyed, flower-producing daughters".


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Proclus also included Artemis/Diana in a second triad of deities, along with Ceres and Juno. According to Proclus:


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Proclus pointed to the conflict between Hera and Artemis in the "Illiad" as a representation of the two kinds of human souls. Where Hera creates the higher, more cultured, or "worthy" souls, Artemis brings light to and perfects the "less worthy" or less rational. As explained by Ragnos (2000), "The aspect of reality which Artemis and Hera share, and because of which they engage in a symbolic conflict, is the engendering of life." Hera elevates rational living beings up to intellectual rational existence, whereas Artemis's power pertains to human life as far as its physical existence as a living thing. "Artemis deals with the most elementary forms of life or the most elementary part of all life, whereas Hera operates in the most elevated forms of life or the most elevated part of all life.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Sermons and other religious documents have provided evidence for the worship of Diana during the Middle Ages. Though few details have been recorded, enough references to Diana worship during the early Christian period exist to give some indication that it may have been relatively widespread among remote and rural communities throughout Europe, and that such beliefs persisted into the Merovingian period. References to contemporary Diana worship exist from the 6th century on the Iberian peninsula and what is now southern France, though more detailed accounts of Dianic cults were given for the Low Countries, and southern Belgium in particular. Many of these were probably local goddesses, and wood nymphs or dryads, which had been conflated with Diana by Christian writers Latinizing local names and traditions.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: The 6th century bishop Gregory of Tours reported meeting with a deacon named Vulfilaic (also known as Saint Wulflaicus or Walfroy the Stylite), who founded a hermitage on a hill in what is now Margut, France. On the same hill, he found "an image of Diana which the unbelieving people worshiped as a god." According to Gregory's report, worshipers would also sing chants in Diana's honor as they drank and feasted. Vulfilaic destroyed a number of smaller pagan statues in the area, but the statue of Diana was too large. After converting some of the local population to Christianity, Vulfilaic and a group of local residents attempted to pull the large statue down the mountain in order to destroy it, but failed, as it was too large to be moved. In Vulfilaic's account, after praying for a miracle, he was then able to single-handedly pull down the statue, at which point he and his group smashed it to dust with their hammers. According to Vulfilaic, this incident was quickly followed by an outbreak of pimples or sores that covered his entire body, which he attributed to demonic activity and similarly cured via what he described as a miracle. Vulfilaic would later found a church on the site, which is today known as Mont Saint-Walfroy.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Additional evidence for surviving pagan practices in the Low Countries region comes from the "Vita Eligii", or "Life of Saint Eligius", written by Audoin in the 7th century. Audoin drew together the familiar admonitions of Eligius to the people of Flanders. In his sermons, he denounced "pagan customs" that the people continued to follow. In particular, he denounced several Roman gods and goddesses alongside Druidic mythological beliefs and objects:


title: Diana (mythology)

text: "I denounce and contest, that you shall observe no sacrilegious pagan customs. For no cause or infirmity should you consult magicians, diviners, sorcerers or incantators. ..Do not observe auguries ... No influence attaches to the first work of the day or the [phase of the] moon. ... [Do not] make vetulas, little deer or iotticos or set tables at night or exchange New Year gifts or supply superfluous drinks... No Christian... performs solestitia or dancing or leaping or diabolical chants. No Christian should presume to invoke the name of a demon, not Neptune or Orcus or Diana or Minerva or Geniscus... No one should observe Jove's day in idleness. ... No Christian should make or render any devotion to the gods of the trivium, where three roads meet, to the fanes or the rocks, or springs or groves or corners. None should presume to hang any phylacteries from the neck of man nor beast. ..None should presume to make lustrations or incantations with herbs, or to pass cattle through a hollow tree or ditch ... No woman should presume to hang amber from her neck or call upon Minerva or other ill-starred beings in their weaving or dyeing. .. None should call the sun or moon lord or swear by them. .. No one should tell fate or fortune or horoscopes by them as those do who believe that a person must be what he was born to be."


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Legends from medieval Belgium concern a natural spring which came to be known as the "Fons Remacli", a location which may have been home to late-surviving worship of Diana. Remacle was a monk appointed by Eligius to head a monastery at Solignac, and he is reported to have encountered Diana worship in the area around the river Warche. The population in this region was said to have been involved in the worship of "Diana of the Ardennes" (a syncretism of Diana and the Celtic goddess Arduinna), with effigies and "stones of Diana" used as evidence of pagan practices. Remacle believed that demonic entities were present in the spring, and had caused it to run dry. He performed and exorcism of the water source, and installed a lead pipe, which allowed the water to flow again.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Diana is the only pagan goddess mentioned by name in the New Testament (only in some Bible versions of Acts 19; many other Bibles refer to her as Artemis instead). As a result, she became associated with many folk beliefs involving goddess-like supernatural figures that Catholic clergy wished to demonize. In the Middle Ages, legends of night-time processions of spirits led by a female figure are recorded in the church records of Northern Italy, western Germany, and southern France. The spirits were said to enter houses and consume food which then miraculously re-appeared. They would sing and dance, and dispense advice regarding healing herbs and the whereabouts of lost objects. If the house was in good order, they would bring fertility and plenty. If not, they would bring curses to the family. Some women reported participating in these processions while their bodies still lay in bed. Historian Carlo Ginzburg has referred to these legendary spirit gatherings as "The Society of Diana".


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Local clergy complained that women believed they were following Diana or Herodias, riding out on appointed nights to join the processions or carry out instructions from the goddess. The earliest reports of these legends appear in the writings of Regino of Prüm in the year 899, followed by many additional reports and variants of the legend in documents by Ratherius and others. By 1310, the names of the goddess figures attached to the legend were sometimes combined as Herodiana. It is likely that the clergy of this time used the identification of the procession's leader as Diana or Herodias in order to fit an older folk belief into a Biblical framework, as both are featured and demonized in the New Testament. Herodias was often conflated with her daughter Salome in legend, which also holds that, upon being presented with the severed head of John the Baptist, she was blown into the air by wind from the saint's mouth, through which she continued to wander for eternity. Diana was often conflated with Hecate, a goddess associated with the spirits of the dead and with witchcraft. These associations, and the fact that both figures are attested to in the Bible, made them a natural fit for the leader of the ghostly procession. Clergy used this identification to assert that the spirits were evil, and that the women who followed them were inspired by demons. As was typical of this time period, though pagan beliefs and practices were near totally eliminated from Europe, the clergy and other authorities still treated paganism as a real threat, in part thanks to biblical influence; much of the Bible had been written when various forms of paganism were still active if not dominant, so medieval clergy applied the same kinds of warnings and admonitions for any non-standard folk beliefs and practices they encountered. Based on analysis of church documents and parishioner confessions, it is likely that the spirit identified by the Church as Diana or Herodias was called by names of pre-Christian figures like Holda (a Germanic goddess of the winter solstice), or with names referencing her bringing of prosperity, like the Latin Abundia (meaning "plenty"), Satia (meaning "full" or "plentiful") and the Italian Richella (meaning "rich"). Some of the local titles for her, such as "bonae res" (meaning "good things"), are similar to late classical titles for Hecate, like "bona dea". This might indicate a cultural mixture of medieval folk ideas with holdovers from earlier pagan belief systems. Whatever her true origin, by the 13th century, the leader of the legendary spirit procession had come to be firmly identified with Diana and Herodias through the influence of the Church.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: In his wide-ranging, comparative study of mythology and religion, "The Golden Bough", anthropologist James George Frazer drew on various lines of evidence to re-interpret the legendary rituals associated with Diana at Nemi, particularly that of the "rex Nemorensis". Frazer developed his ideas in relation to J. M. W. Turner's painting, also titled "The Golden Bough", depicting a dream-like vision of the woodland lake of Nemi. According to Frazer, the "rex Nemorensis" or king at Nemi was the incarnation of a dying and reviving god, a solar deity who participated in a mystical marriage to a goddess. He died at the harvest and was reincarnated in the spring. Frazer claimed that this motif of death and rebirth is central to nearly all of the world's religions and mythologies. In Frazer's theory, Diana functioned as a goddess of fertility and childbirth, who, assisted by the sacred king, ritually returned life to the land in spring. The king in this scheme served not only as a high priest but as a god of the grove. Frazer identifies this figure with Virbius, of which little is known, but also with Jupiter via an association with sacred oak trees. Frazer argued furthermore that Jupiter and Juno were simply duplicate names of Jana and Janus; that is, Diana and Dianus, all of whom had identical functions and origins.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Frazer's speculatively reconstructed folklore of Diana's origins and the nature of her cult at Nemi were not well received even by his contemporaries. Godfrey Lienhardt noted that even during Frazer's lifetime, other anthropologists had "for the most part distanced themselves from his theories and opinions", and that the lasting influence of "The Golden Bough" and Frazer's wider body of work "has been in the literary rather than the academic world." Robert Ackerman wrote that, for anthropologists, Frazer is "an embarrassment" for being "the most famous of them all" and that most distance themselves from his work. While "The Golden Bough" achieved wide "popular appeal" and exerted a "disproportionate" influence "on so many [20th century] creative writers", Frazer's ideas played "a much smaller part" in the history of academic social anthropology.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Folk legends like the Society of Diana, which linked the goddess to forbidden gatherings of women with spirits, may have influenced later works of folklore. One of these is Charles Godfrey Leland's "Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches", which prominently featured Diana at the center of an Italian witch-cult. In Leland's interpretation of supposed Italian folk witchcraft, Diana is considered Queen of the Witches. In this belief system, Diana is said to have created the world of her own being having in herself the seeds of all creation yet to come. It was said that out of herself she divided the darkness and the light, keeping for herself the darkness of creation and creating her brother Lucifer. Diana was believed to have loved and ruled with her brother, and with him bore a daughter, Aradia (a name likely derived from Herodias), who leads and teaches the witches on earth.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Leland's claim that "Aradia" represented an authentic tradition from an underground witch-cult, which had secretly worshiped Diana since ancient times has been dismissed by most scholars of folklore, religion, and medieval history. After the 1921 publication of Margaret Murray's "The Witch-cult in Western Europe", which hypothesized that the European witch trials were actually a persecution of a pagan religious survival, American sensationalist author Theda Kenyon's 1929 book "Witches Still Live" connected Murray's thesis with the witchcraft religion in "Aradia". Arguments against Murray's thesis would eventually include arguments against Leland. Witchcraft scholar Jeffrey Russell devoted some of his 1980 book "A History of Witchcraft: Sorcerers, Heretics and Pagans" to arguing against the claims Leland presented in "Aradia". Historian Elliot Rose's "A Razor for a Goat" dismissed "Aradia" as a collection of incantations unsuccessfully attempting to portray a religion. In his book "Triumph of the Moon", historian Ronald Hutton doubted not only of the existence of the religion that "Aradia" claimed to represent, and that the traditions Leland presented were unlike anything found in actual medieval literature, but also of the existence of Leland's sources, arguing that it is more likely that Leland created the entire story than that Leland could be so easily "duped". Religious scholar Chas S. Clifton took exception to Hutton's position, writing that it amounted to an accusation of "serious literary fraud" made by an "argument from absence".


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Building on the work of Frazer, Murray, and others, some 20th and 21st century authors have attempted to identify links between Diana and more localized deities. R. Lowe Thompson, for example, in his 2013 book "The History of the Devil", speculated that Diana may have been linked as an occasional "spouse" to the Gaulish horned god Cernunnos. Thompson suggested that Diana in her role as wild goddess of the hunt would have made a fitting consort for Cernunnos in Western Europe, and further noted the link between Diana as Proserpina with Pluto, the Greek god associated with the riches of the earth who served a similar role to the Gaulish Cernunnos.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Because Leland's claims about an Italian witch-cult are questionable, the first verifiable worship of Diana in the modern age was probably begun by Wicca. The earliest known practitioners of Neopagan witchcraft were members of a tradition begun by Gerald Gardner. Published versions of the devotional materials used by Gardner's group, dated to 1949, are heavily focused on the worship of Aradia, the daughter of Diana in Leland's folklore. Diana herself was recognized as an aspect of a single "great goddess" in the tradition of Apuleius, as described in the Wiccan Charge of the Goddess (itself adapted from Leland's text). Some later Wiccans, such as Scott Cunningham, would replace Aradia with Diana as the central focus of worship.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: In the early 1960s, Victor Henry Anderson founded the Feri Tradition, a form of Wicca that draws from both Charles Leland's folklore and the Gardnerian tradition. Anderson claimed that he had first been initiated into a witchcraft tradition as a child in 1926, and that he had been told the name of the goddess worshiped by witches was Tana. The name Tana originated in Leland's "Aradia", where he claimed it was an old Etruscan name for Diana. The Feri Tradition founded by Anderson continues to recognize Tana/Diana as an aspect of the Star Goddess related to the element of fire, and representing "the fiery womb that gives birth to and transforms all matter." (In "Aradia", Diana is also credited as the creatrix of the material world and Queen of Faeries).


title: Diana (mythology)

text: A few Wiccan traditions would elevate Diana to a more prominent position of worship, and there are two distinct modern branches of Wicca focused primarily on Diana. The first, founded during the early 1970s in the United States by Morgan McFarland and Mark Roberts, has a feminist theology and only occasionally accepts male participants, and leadership is limited to female priestesses. McFarland Dianic Wiccans base their tradition primarily on the work of Robert Graves and his book "The White Goddess", and were inspired by references to the existence of medieval European "Dianic cults" in Margaret Murray's book "The Witch-Cult in Western Europe". The second Dianic tradition, founded by Zsuzsanna Budapest in the mid 1970s, is characterized by an exclusive focus on the feminine aspect of the divine, and as a result is exclusively female. This tradition combines elements from British Traditional Wicca, Italian folk-magic based on the work of Charles Leland, feminist values, and healing practices drawn from a variety of different cultures.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: A third Neopagan tradition heavily inspired by the worship of Diana through the lens of Italian folklore is Stregheria, founded in the 1980s. It centers around a pair of deities regarded as divine lovers, who are known by several variant names including Diana and Dianus, alternately given as Tana and Tanus or Jana and Janus (the later two deity names were mentioned by James Frazer in "The Golden Bough" as later corruptions of Diana and Dianus, which themselves were alternate and possibly older names for Juno and Jupiter). The tradition was founded by author Raven Grimassi, and influenced by Italian folktales he was told by his mother. One such folktale describes the moon being impregnated by her lover the morning star, a parallel to Leland's mythology of Diana and her lover Lucifer.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Diana was also a subject of worship in certain Feraferian rites, particularly those surrounding the autumnal equinox, beginning in 1967.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Both the Romanian words for "fairy" "Zână" and Sânziană, the Leonese and Portuguese word for "water nymph" "xana", and the Spanish word for "shooting target" and "morning call" ("diana") seem to come from the name of Diana.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Since the Renaissance, Diana's myths have often been represented in the visual and dramatic arts, including the opera "L'arbore di Diana". In the 16th century, Diana's image figured prominently at the châteaus of Fontainebleau, Chenonceau, & at Anet, in deference to Diane de Poitiers, mistress of Henri of France. At Versailles she was incorporated into the Olympian iconography with which Louis XIV, the Apollo-like "Sun King" liked to surround himself. Diana is also a character in the 1876 Léo Delibes ballet "Sylvia". The plot deals with Sylvia, one of Diana's nymphs and sworn to chastity, and Diana's assault on Sylvia's affections for the shepherd Amyntas.


title: Diana (mythology)

text: Diana has been one of the most popular themes in art. Painters like Titian, Peter Paul Rubens, François Boucher, Nicolas Poussin and made use of her myth as a major theme. Most depictions of Diana in art featured the stories of Diana and Actaeon, or Callisto, or depicted her resting after hunting. Some famous work of arts with a Diana theme are:


title: Duke Blue Devils men's basketball

text: The Duke Blue Devils men's basketball team represents Duke University in NCAA Division I college basketball and competes in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). The team is fourth all-time in wins of any NCAA men's basketball program, and is currently coached by Jon Scheyer.


title: Duke Blue Devils men's basketball

text: Duke has won 5 NCAA Championships (tied with Indiana for fourth all-time behind UCLA, Kentucky, and North Carolina) and appeared in 11 Championship Games (third all-time) and 17 Final Fours (Tied for third all-time with Kentucky and only behind North Carolina and UCLA). Additionally, all of Duke’s championships were won after the NCAA instituted a shot clock. Duke has an NCAA-best .755 NCAA tournament winning percentage. Eleven Duke players have been named the National Player of the Year, and 71 players have been selected in the NBA draft. Additionally, Duke has had 36 players named All-Americans (chosen 60 times) and 14 players named Academic All-Americans. Duke has been the Atlantic Coast Conference Champions a record 21 times, and also lays claim to 19 ACC regular season titles. Prior to joining the ACC, Duke won the Southern Conference championships five times. Duke has also finished the season ranked No. 1 in the AP poll seven times and is the all-time leader in total weeks ranked as the number one team in the nation by the AP with 135 weeks. Additionally, the Blue Devils have the third longest streak in the AP Top 25 in history with 200 consecutive appearances from 1996 to 2007, trailing only Kansas’s 231 consecutive polls from 2009 to 2021, and UCLA's 221 consecutive polls from 1966 to 1980.


title: Duke Blue Devils men's basketball

text: In 1906, Wilbur Wade Card, Trinity College's Athletic Director and a member of the Class of 1900, introduced the game of basketball to Trinity. The January 30 issue of The Trinity Chronicle headlined the new sport on its front page. Trinity's first game ended in a loss to Wake Forest, 24–10. The game was played in the Angier B. Duke Gymnasium, later known as The Ark. The Trinity team won its first title in 1920, the state championship, by beating the North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering (now NC State) 25 to 24. Earlier in the season they had beaten the University of North Carolina 19–18 in the first match-up between the two schools. Trinity college then became Duke University.


title: Duke Blue Devils men's basketball

text: Billy Werber, Class of 1930, became Duke's first All-American in basketball. The Gothic-style West Campus opened that year, with a new gym, later to be named for Coach Card. The Indoor Stadium opened in 1940. Initially it was referred to as an "Addition" to the gymnasium. Part of its cost was paid for with the proceeds from the Duke football team's appearance in the 1938 Rose Bowl. In 1972 it would be named for Eddie Cameron, head coach from 1929 to 1942.


title: Duke Blue Devils men's basketball

text: In 1952, Dick Groat became the first Duke player to be named National Player of the Year. Duke left the Southern Conference to become a charter member of the Atlantic Coast Conference in 1953. The Duke team under Vic Bubas made its first appearance in the Final Four in 1963, losing 94–75 to Loyola in the semifinal. The next year, Bubas' team reached the national title game, losing to the Bruins of UCLA, who claimed 10 titles in the next 12 years. Bob Verga was Duke's star player in 1967.


title: Duke Blue Devils men's basketball

text: The basketball program won its 1000th game in 1974, making Duke only the eighth school in NCAA history to reach that figure. In a turnaround, Coach Bill Foster's 1978 Blue Devils, who had gone 2–10 in the ACC the previous year, won the conference tournament and went on to the NCAA championship game, where they fell to Kentucky. Gene Banks, Mike Gminski ('80) and Jim Spanarkel ('79) ran the floor.


title: Duke Blue Devils men's basketball

text: Krzyzewski's teams made the Final Four in 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2010, 2015 and 2022.


title: Duke Blue Devils men's basketball

text: In Krzyzewski's first season, the Blue Devils would finish the season with a 17–13 overall record and 6–8 record in ACC play. The team would later play in the NIT tournament advancing to the quarterfinals. Despite having a good record the previous season, the Blue Devils would struggle during the next two seasons finishing with 10 wins in 1982 and 11 wins in 1983. The 1984 team, led by Tommy Amaker & Johnny Dawkins, would bounce back in strong fashion finishing 24–10 and was ranked the No.14 in the AP and Coaches poll, but lost in the second round of the NCAA tournament to the Washington Huskies (having earned a first-round bye).


title: Duke Blue Devils men's basketball

text: In 1985 Duke defeated Pepperdine in the first round of the NCAA tournament, for Krzyzewski's first tounrament win, but lost to Boston College in the second round 74–73.


title: Duke Blue Devils men's basketball

text: Duke upset the heavily favored UNLV Runnin' Rebels 79–77 in the Final Four in 1991, a rematch of the 1990 final in which Duke lost by 30 points. The team, led by Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley, Grant Hill, and Thomas Hill, went on to defeat Kansas 72–65 to win the university's first NCAA Championship. Ranked #1 all season and favored to repeat as national champions in 1992, Duke took part in a game "acclaimed by many [as] the greatest college basketball game ever played," according to ESPN. In the Elite Eight, Duke met the Rick Pitino-led Kentucky Wildcats. It appeared Kentucky had sealed the win in overtime when guard Sean Woods hit a running shot off the glass in the lane to put Kentucky up by one with 2.1 seconds left on the clock. After a timeout, Duke's Grant Hill threw a full-court pass to Christian Laettner. Laettner took one dribble and nailed a turn-around jumper at the buzzer to send Duke into the Final Four with a 104–103 victory (The Shot). Duke went on to defeat sixth-seeded Michigan, led by the Fab Five as freshmen starters including Chris Webber, Jalen Rose and Juwan Howard, 71–51 to repeat as national champions. Following the successful repeat, Laettner was the only collegiate player to be chosen for the Dream Team that won Olympic gold in Barcelona, while Krzyzewski was an assistant coach under Chuck Daly of the Detroit Pistons in a precursor to his becoming Team USA coach in 2006 and coaching them to two gold medals.


title: Duke Blue Devils men's basketball

text: They would later meet Kentucky for another classic regional final game, but blow a 17-point second half lead in losing to the Wildcats. The Blue Devils would lose the 1994 title game to Arkansas and their "Forty Minutes of Hell" defense. The next two seasons would see them fall to just 31–31, though they made the 1996 tournament with an 18–12 record, 8–8 in conference play. They would also fall in the 1999 title game, this time to Jim Calhoun and the UCONN Huskies. Duke defeated Arizona 82–72 to win its third NCAA Championship in 2001, becoming one of a handful of teams in NCAA Tournament history to defeat all of their tournament opponents by double digits. Krzyzewski was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame later that year. On April 5, 2010 Duke Men's Basketball won their fourth NCAA Championship by defeating Butler 61–59. On April 6, 2015 Duke's Men's Basketball won their fifth NCAA Championship by defeating Wisconsin 68–63.


title: Duke Blue Devils men's basketball

text: Coach K announced that the 2021–22 season would be his last coaching for Duke. Making it to the Final Four one last time, Duke fell just short of the championship game losing to the North Carolina Tar Heels 81–77 in the first ever meeting between the rivals in the NCAA Tournament.


title: Duke Blue Devils men's basketball

text: Former Duke stars such as Jim Spanarkel, Gene Banks, Alaa Abdelnaby, Johnny Dawkins, Cherokee Parks, Bobby Hurley, Antonio Lang, Roshown McLeod, William Avery, Trajan Langdon, Grant Hill, Danny Ferry, Christian Laettner, Kenny Dennard, Brian Davis, Elton Brand, Shane Battier, Carlos Boozer, Chris Duhon, Mike Dunleavy, Dahntay Jones, Daniel Ewing, JJ Redick, Shavlik Randolph, Shelden Williams, Corey Maggette, Luol Deng, Josh McRoberts, Gerald Henderson, Andre Dawkins, Austin Rivers, Lance Thomas, Kyle Singler, Miles Plumlee, Mason Plumlee, Marshall Plumlee, Bob Verga, Quinn Cook, Nolan Smith, Jason Williams, Jabari Parker, Rodney Hood, Seth Curry, Kyrie Irving, Matt Jones, Amile Jefferson, Jahlil Okafor, Tyus Jones, Justise Winslow, Grayson Allen, Brandon Ingram, Luke Kennard, Jayson Tatum, Harry Giles, Frank Jackson, Gary Trent Jr., Trevon Duval, Marvin Bagley III, Wendell Carter Jr., RJ Barrett, Marques Bolden, Cam Reddish, Zion Williamson, Tre Jones, Vernon Carey Jr., Cassius Stanley, and AJ Griffin have gone on to play in the NBA.


title: Duke Blue Devils men's basketball

text: Many of Krzyzewski's assistants and former players, such as Tommy Amaker (Seton Hall, University of Michigan and Harvard), Bob Bender (Illinois State University and University of Washington), Chuck Swenson at William & Mary, Mike Brey (Delaware and Notre Dame), Jeff Capel (VCU, Oklahoma and Pittsburgh), Chris Collins (Northwestern), Johnny Dawkins (Stanford, UCF), Quin Snyder (Missouri, Utah Jazz), and Steve Wojciechowski (Marquette) have become head basketball coaches at major universities and the NBA, while Pete Gaudet is now the head coach of the India women's national basketball team.


title: Duke Blue Devils men's basketball

text: The Blue Devils have appeared in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) five times. Their combined record is 5–6.