Luna or Diana

[kneasy]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, sean dwyer <ewe2 at a...> wrote:
> So, my favourite new character. Who is she really, and what is she doing?
> 
> Now I had always thought of Diana as a seperate hunting goddess, but Luna,
> goddess of the moon, was "borrowed" from Artemis, or Selene of the Greeks,
> twin sister of Apollo (who is a sun-god). If you think of Greek mythology as a
> way to describe aspects of reality, then the profusion of gods/goddesses for
> the same thing like the moon is more understandable. My sources are all
> confused on the matter - some say Selene represents the full moon, Diana/Luna
> the crescent moon. Robert Graves in his amazing book 'The White Goddess'
> believes that Diana and Luna are two faces of the Triple Goddess: Diana, the
> Earth, Luna the Sky (moon in all phases), and Persephone the Underworld. Each
> have three phases. Another source says Diana was of the heavens, Luna the
> earth, and Hecate/Persephone the underworld.
> 
> All a bit confusing. The important thing to understand is, whatever order they
> seem to be in, they relate to the three Fates (eg the three witches of
> Macbeth), the Girl, the Woman, the Hag, and all the variants. Luna is always
> the central one, so it is in that capacity as the Moon we should view
> her. In that she also represents the qualities of the astrological sign Cancer
> (or vice versa if you wish), so she represents all phases too.
> 
> Hence her apparent qualities and no little mystery. If JKR sees her as twin
> sister of Apollo (and astrologically Harry is a dark Leo), that is intriguing.
> The family he never knew he had? His true complement? If he projects as
> Apollo, what is it in him that she reflects as Luna? As a Leo, Harry is a
> king, is Luna therefore a queen? Is that to do with the hidden royalty
> suggested by HBP? Does Luna represent maturity in some way for Harry? Or is
> she a mirror in which he sees something he hadn't recognised before?
> 
> What are your thoughts?

As usual, it all depends.
'Cos if you look at other mythologies you get a very different picture.
Among the Teutonic nations, the Arabians, the Mexicans and the Hindus
the moon is male and the sun female. (In modern German it's Mr Moon
and Mrs Sun.)

In classical mythology the moon was Hecate before rising and after setting,
Astarte  when crescent and Diana (Cynthia) when riding the heavens.
As such, the omens are not auspicious:

Hecate -belligerent; goddess of war and sexual love; human sacrifices
were probably made to her among the Phoenicians.
Astarte (Asteroth) - goddess of lower world, witchcraft and ghosts; triple
bodied (horse/dog/boar); sacrifices to  her (made at places where roads
meet) were usually black dogs, honey, black lambs.
Diana (Artemis) - notorious for her anger; goddess of the hunt, of chastity
and childbirth/fertility (some confusion there, I think).

All of  which presents an interesting insight into Luna - a chaste, sexually
predatory, gender ambiguous witch who gets easily pissed off and demands
black dogs be sacrificed to placate her. 
(So that's why Sirius got the chop!. Dear, oh dear.)

Of course you can turn to traditional associations with the moon, but they're
not particularly encouraging  either - moon-kissed (stupid), moon-struck
(mentally distracted) and of course lunatic. Interestingly JKR (in FBaWTFT)
has changed Moon-calf from it's original meaning of 'a shapeless abortion'
to some sort of shy, nocturnal, terpsichorean source of fertiliser and linking 
it perhaps to moon-drops which were supposed be a foam produced by the
moon that fell on certain herbs when the right incantation was used.

Astrology I won't go into; as a Piscean and therefore gifted with mystical 
insight, I  believe it's a load of old cobblers.

As you've probably guessed, I'm not a fan of Luna Lovegood. I think there's
a good chance that her vapid maunderings, though made with the best of
intentions, will get Harry into a situation he'd rather not be in. She'll offer
advice based on her alternative (i.e. detached from reality) view of the
world and it'll be tears before bedtime.
You mark my words.

Kneasy