Diana is the Roman god of the hunt and chastity. In the Diana Acteon myth, Acteon, a young hunter, sees Diana bathing naked by accident while out hunting with his dogs. To punish him for his sight, Diana turns Acteon into a stag, and he is then torn apart by his own dogs. In comparing Rosaline to Diana, Romeo makes her both unattainable and dangerous to love. He uses this allusion to elevate his own love to the level of mythic stories.
"Be not her maid..."See in text(Act II - Scene II)
In Greek mythology, Diana was the goddess of the moon. Here Romeo tells Juliet to be not her Diana's maid, since Juliet is more beautiful than Diana and the goddess will be envious.
"But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
It is the East, and Juliet is the sun!..."See in text(Act II - Scene II)
Romeo stands below Juliet's window and notices a light go on inside. He reacts by constructing an extended metaphor that compares Juliet to the sun. In the original copy of this play there is no stage direction that marks when Juliet enters the stage. So it is unclear whether or not Shakespeare originally intended Romeo to respond to her presence or the light in the room.
Notice how Shakespeare creates a setting using Romeo's dialogue. In Shakespeare's theater, there were few to no set decorations or props used in plays so playwrights had to work the setting into the lines and stage direction.
