This feminine noun designates a goddess—a female deity worshiped in polytheistic religions. Classical usage applied it to figures like Athena, Artemis, Aphrodite, and the mysterious Erinyes. Luke employs it in Acts during the Ephesian riot, where devotees of Artemis fear Paul's preaching threatens their goddess's honor and their city's economic prosperity. The term appears in both singular and plural in classical texts, sometimes with descriptive adjectives like 'august' or 'terrible' to specify which goddess. In monotheistic biblical perspective, such beings are false gods rather than real deities.