The evil eye. An account of this ancient and wide spread superstition

194 THE EVIL EYE '
chap.
Domestic cattle were supposed to be under the
special protection of Diana, hence we may well trace
the extreme prevalence of amulets, symbolic of her
attributes, upon horses. Diana was also identified
through Artemis with the Greek "Ilithya, the servant
of Hera, and goddess of birth. She also was
originally a moon-goddess, and the moon was always
believed to exercise great influence on growth in
general, but especially of children ; so the attributes
of Ilithya were passed on along with her moon-
symbol, and consequently all those deities, ancient
or modern, whose principal sign is the crescent, are
looked upon as the special protectors of women and
children against malign influence. The wearing of
the crescent is a visible worship of the powerful being
whose symbol it is, whether known as I sis, Parvati,
Devaki, Kali,^'^ Bhavani, Artemis, Athena, Minerva,
Diana or Madonna, who are all, as shown before,
tinam eandemque.
Seeing how every phase or attribute of nature had
its special divinity, we are not surprised to learn that,
in Imperial times, according to Varro, there were
in Rome three temples on the Esquiline dedicated
to the goddess of fever, and one to Mephitis.
Readers of Tacitus will remember that a temple of
breast of the Ephesian Artemis (Fig. 69). She was the sovereign of
humidity, her nymphs or subordinate personifications came to her from the
ocean. She was the protectress of women, the patroness and regulator of
nutrition, and of passive generation both in man and beast. As among the
ancients " the moon's orbit was held to be the boundary between the celestial
and terrestrial world, so Diana was held to be the mediatrix between
the two."
321 " Kali, one character of Bhavani, appears in sculpture as a terminal
figure, the exact counterpart of the Ephesian Diana. Even the stags, those
singular adjuncts to the shoulders of the latter, are seen in a similar position
springing from Kali's hands. The numerous breasts of the Ephesian statue
were also peculiar to Isis, who is allowed to be the Indian goddess in her
form Parvati."— King, Gnostics, p. 171.