The main purpose of this book is to provide an explanation for the remarkable regulation that governed the succession in the priesthood of Diana in Aricia.

When I first set out to solve this problem over thirty years ago, I believed that the solution could be presented very soon, but I quickly discovered that in order to deliver it as likely and understandable as possible, it was necessary to study certain more general themes, some of which had previously been approached only with difficulty.

(. . .) [Excerpt from the text of the preface]