Editing Goddess (section)

==Metaphorical use==
The term "goddess" has also been adapted to poetic and secular use as a complimentary description of a non-mythological woman.<ref>[[OED]]: "Applied to a woman. one's goddess: the woman whom one 'worships' or devotedly admires."{{Incomplete short citation|date=April 2016}}</ref> The [[OED]] notes 1579 as the date of the earliest attestation of such figurative use, in ''[[Laura de Noves|Lauretta]] the diuine [[Petrarch]]es Goddesse''.

[[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]] had several of his male characters address female characters as goddesses, including Demetrius to [[Helena (A Midsummer Night's Dream)|Helena]] in ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'' ("O Helen, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine!"), Berowne to Rosaline in ''[[Love's Labour's Lost]]'' ("A woman I forswore; but I will prove, Thou being a goddess, I forswore not thee"), and Bertram to Diana in ''[[All's Well That Ends Well]]''. Pisanio also compares Imogen to a goddess to describe her composure under duress in ''[[Cymbeline]]''.