Diana of Versailles Diana of Versailles The Diana of Versailles is a slightly over lifesize marble statue of the Roman goddess Diana (Greek: Artemis), with a deer, located in the Musée du Louvre, Paris. It is a Roman copy (1st or 2nd century AD) of a lost Greek bronze original attributed to Leochares, c. 325 BC. The statue is also known as "Diana à la Biche", "Diane Chasseresse" ("Diana Huntress"), "Artemis of the Chase", and "Artemis with the Hind". The statue was discovered in Italy: the Louvre website suggests Nemi, where there was an ancient sanctuary; other sources posit Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli;
Artemis of Persian origin from *"arta", *"art", *"arte", all meaning "great, excellent, holy," thus Artemis "becomes identical with the great mother of Nature, even as she was worshipped at Ephesus". Anton Goebel "suggests the root στρατ or ῥατ, "to shake," and makes Artemis mean the thrower of the dart or the shooter". The name may be possibly related to Greek "árktos" "bear" (from PIE *"h₂ŕ̥tḱos"), supported by the bear cult the goddess had in Attica (Brauronia) and the Neolithic remains at the Arkoudiotissa Cave, as well as the story of Callisto, which was originally about Artemis (Arcadian epithet "kallisto"); this cult