Diana

Ephesus was a city proud of its goddess. When Paul’s preaching began to cost the silversmiths their trade, a man named Demetrius gathered the craftsmen and warned that “the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised.” The crowd answered with one voice, shouting “Great is Diana of the Ephesians” for about two hours. Only the town clerk could quiet them, reminding the people that their city was the “worshipper of the great goddess Diana.” It is a vivid picture of money, pride and religion tangled together. The whole scene fills Acts 19:23-41.

4 verses

Acts

Acts 19:24

For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto the craftsmen;

Acts 19:27

So that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at nought; but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth.

Acts 19:28

And when they heard these sayings, they were full of wrath, and cried out, saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.

Acts 19:35

And when the townclerk had appeased the people, he said, Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter?

From Easton's Bible Dictionary

Matthew George Easton, 1897

So called by the Romans; called Artemis by the Greeks, the “great” goddess worshipped among heathen nations under various modifications. Her most noted temple was that at Ephesus. It was built outside the city walls, and was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. “First and last it was the work of 220 years; built of shining marble; 342 feet long by 164 feet broad; supported by a forest of columns, each 56 feet high; a sacred museum of masterpieces of sculpture and painting. At the centre, hidden by curtains, within a gorgeous shrine, stood the very ancient image of the goddess, on wood or ebony reputed to have fallen from the sky. Behind the shrine was a treasury, where, as in ‘the safest bank in Asia,’ nations and kings stored their most precious things. The temple as St. Paul saw it subsisted till A.D. 262, when it was ruined by the Goths” (Acts 19:23-41)., Moule on Ephesians: Introd.

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From Smith's Bible Dictionary

William Smith, 1884

This Latin word, properly denoting a Roman divinity, is the representative of the Greek Artemus , the tutelary goddess of the Ephesians, who plays so important a part in the narrative of Acts 19. The Ephesian Diana was, however, regarded as invested with very different attributes, and is rather to be identified with Astarte and other female divinities of the East. The head wore a mural crown, each hand held a bar of metal, and the lower part ended in a rude block covered with figures of animals and mystic inscriptions. This idol was regarded as an object of peculiar sanctity, and was believed to have fallen down from heaven. (Acts 19:35)