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| Diana of Versailles (Photo by Sting) |
Long before there was a Princess Diana, there was a goddess Diana.
She was not only the goddess of the moon, but also the
goddess of the hunt and birthing.
With stellar genealogy (her twin was the sun god Apollo), Diana was positioned to rise from the get-go. Her very name is rooted in holy (“divios”) incandescence (“dies”).
Tending to gravitate towards secluded places such as forests and mountains, Diana doesn’t often fully reveal herself. Nevertheless, she sometimes looms large over the planet, checking in on childbirths and the succession of royalty.
This past weekend was one of those times. NBC News reports
that Diana hogged the Sunday spotlight, shoving aside even the
Perseid meteors. In fact,
she’s been quite the flirt all summer long, with “three full moons in a row” that have looked “bigger and brighter than normal.”
In scientific terms, what makes Diana lately appear so pleasingly plump is that “this month’s lunar perigee [when the moon is closest to the earth]… occurs at around the same time as the official moment of the moon’s full phase.”
Resources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana_%28mythology%29
http://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/supermoon-hogs-spotlight-sunday-sorry-perseid-meteors-n176291
Copyright August 11, 2014 by Linda Van Slyke All Rights Reserved
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