In both Stregherian and Wiccan tradition, Aradia was the daughter of Diana and Lucifer. Some believe Her to have been the Roman equivalent of the Greek Hera Dea , the daughter of Artemis and Phosporus, however there is very little evidence that such a character existed in Greek mythology. Oddly, there exist Celtic inscriptions in Italy reported by Carlo Ginzburg to have been dedicated to a goddess named Hera Dea.
Another theory, popularized by Charles Godfrey Leland in his 1899 publication of Aradia: The Gospel of the Witches, is that the name "Aradia" is a corruption of "Herodias". In Greek, herodias is the word for "heron", the bird; in Latin the same bird is ardea.
Aradia is believed by most Streghe to have been incarnated into a woman named Aradia de Toscano in the early 1300's.
