The Goddess Diana is alive, said Princess Haiku

I took a trip across the Bay yesterday to search for a statue of the Goddess Diana, that I heard was located in Sutro Park. This is the first image I captured of the statue after discovering it near the entrance. That very moment sunlight broke through morning fog and she appeared to be reaching for an arrow of light.

This is an excerpt of an interesting article about the Diana Statue and if you follow the link you can read the whole thing and see some other photos. I particularly enjoyed the one of the Morris Dancers, dancing in the park in front of the statue.  It sits on a pedestal over five feet high.


http://www.sfcityguides.org/public_guidelines.html?article=470&submitted=TRUE&srch_text=&submitted2=&topic=Early%20San%20Francisco

Diana the Huntress…Artemis. If you have been on our Lands End: Sutro Highs and Lows tour, you have seen this statue at Sutro Heights, the park located in the northwest corner of San Francisco near Ocean Beach. It was once the home of Adolph Sutro, Comstock Silver Baron, San Francisco mayor, land developer, and builder of Sutro Baths and the second, most grandiose Cliff House. Sutro loved statues, and at one time had 200 surrounding the grounds and niches on the cliffs above Ocean Beach. Only two original statues remain--the Stag and Diana the Huntress. In addition, gracing the entrance gates are copies of the original Lions that were replaced after they deteriorated.

Sutro collected these statues after traveling to Europe. He did not buy and ship home works of art from other countries, like many other wealthy people such as William Randolph Hearst. When he saw something he liked, he would have a statue maker in Antwerp, Belgium make copies. The Lions are copies of those in London’s Trafalgar Square—making the two currently at the gate copies of copies. The original of Diana at the Louvre in Paris is also a copy—the Louvre’s huntress is believed to be a Roman copy of a Greek statue created circa 330 BC.

This is the statue of the Goddess Diana that stands in the Louvre.  As beautiful as it is, it does not have the power of the living statue that belongs to the people as does the Goddess Diana of Sutro Park. The statue standing in her grove of trees is a Goddess site in the USA.