Roman Goddess Diana & Asteroid 78 Diana - Malmo, Sweden
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 55° 36.261 E 012° 59.566
33U E 373547 N 6163874
This unusual modern representation of the Roman Goddess Diana was installed in Kungsparken (King’s Park) in 2009 as part of a major redevelopment of the park.
Waymark Code: WMHJME
Location: Skåne, Sweden
Date Posted: 07/16/2013
Views: 13
Diana and The Statue.
Diana was the goddess of the hunt, the moon and birthing but was also associated with wild animals and woodland and had the power to talk to and control animals. Ernst Billgren’s design has concentrated on her association with wild animals, rather than as her role as huntress, indeed she has left her quiver lying on the ground with no arrows in it.
The statue shows a rather abstract figure of Diana, surrounded by 15 running and leaping deer. The sculpture covers an area of 9 metres by 3 metres. The effect of movement of the deer has been cleverly achieved by having them all at different heights, just as a real crowd of running deer would be. In some cases the deer are partly buried, which would be impossible in reality, but still somehow manages to convey the idea of movement.
The body of Diana is made up of a number of wild animals. On the top of her head is a swan with its neck hanging down her back representing a pony tail. The intention is that the form of Diana will be more obvious in darkness especially as the statue will be lit from the bottom of the statue.
Overall it’s a very unusual, but effective design.
The Asteroid
“78 Diana (dye-an'-a) is a large and dark main-belt asteroid. Its composition is carbonaceous and primitive. It was discovered by Robert Lutheron March 15, 1863, and named after Diana, Roman goddess of the hunt. 78 Diana occulted a star on September 4, 1980. A diameter of 116 km was measured, closely matching the value given by the IRAS satellite.” -
Wikipedia
According to this
list of the 500 largest asteroids, ‘78 Diana’ is the136th largest known asteroid.