Belphoebe

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A feminine first name of Greek origin ; the chaste huntress figure in Edmund Spenser's epic poem The Faerie Queene
2. A woman's given name ; a virgin huntress character from Edmund Spenser's sixteenth-century epic poem The Faerie Queene
3. A personal name for a woman ; a fictional chaste forest huntress who appears in Spenser's allegorical epic The Faerie Queene

Etymology: Belphoebe is not a common English word but a name Edmund Spenser invented for "The Faerie Queene." He built it from two parts: "bel," from French "belle," meaning beautiful, and "Phoebe," a classical epithet of the moon goddess Artemis, from Greek "Phoibos," meaning bright. Together the name suggests a beautiful, moonlike figure. Spenser's Belphoebe is a huntress raised in the forest, a chaste maiden who scorns love. Readers have long taken her as a portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen. The name thus fuses courtly flattery with classical myth, giving the figure both the chastity of Diana, goddess of the hunt, and the status of a living monarch.