Juno ( ; Latin ) was an
ancient Roman goddess, the protector and special counsellor of the state. She was
equated to Hera, queen of the gods in
Greek mythology
A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities ...
. A daughter of
Saturn, she was the sister and wife of
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandth t ...
and the mother of
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...
,
Vulcan
Vulcan may refer to:
Mythology
* Vulcan (mythology), the god of fire, volcanoes, metalworking, and the forge in Roman mythology
Arts, entertainment and media Film and television
* Vulcan (''Star Trek''), name of a fictional race and their home p ...
,
Bellona Bellona may refer to:
Places
*Bellona, Campania, a ''comune'' in the Province of Caserta, Italy
*Bellona Reef, a reef in New Caledonia
*Bellona Island, an island in Rennell and Bellona Province, Solomon Islands
Ships
* HMS ''Bellona'' (1760), a 74 ...
and
Juventas
Juventas, also known as Iuventus or Juventus
(Greek equivalent: Hebe), was the ancient Roman goddess whose sphere of tutelage was youth and rejuvenation. She was especially the goddess of young men "new to wearing the toga" ''(dea novorum t ...
. Like Hera, her sacred animal was the
peacock
Peafowl is a common name for three bird species in the genera '' Pavo'' and '' Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae, the pheasants and their allies. Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and female peafowl are r ...
.
[''Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia'', ]The Book People
The Book People Ltd was a UK online bookseller founded in 1988. It went into administration in 2019 and was formally dissolved in 2022.
History
The Book People started business in 1988, initially in the Guildford, Surrey area. It expanded rap ...
, Haydock, 1995, p. 215. Her
Etruscan __NOTOC__
Etruscan may refer to:
Ancient civilization
*The Etruscan language, an extinct language in ancient Italy
*Something derived from or related to the Etruscan civilization
**Etruscan architecture
**Etruscan art
**Etruscan cities
** Etrusca ...
counterpart was
Uni, and she was said to also watch over the women of Rome. As the
patron goddess
A tutelary () (also tutelar) is a deity or a spirit who is a guardian, patron, or protector of a particular place, geographic feature, person, lineage, nation, culture, or occupation. The etymology of "tutelary" expresses the concept of safety an ...
of
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
and the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...
, Juno was called ("Queen") and was a member of the
Capitoline Triad
The Capitoline Triad was a group of three deities who were worshipped in ancient Roman religion in an elaborate temple on Rome's Capitoline Hill (Latin ''Capitolium''). It comprised Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. The triad held a central place in th ...
(''Juno Capitolina''), centered on the
Capitoline Hill
The Capitolium or Capitoline Hill ( ; it, Campidoglio ; la, Mons Capitolinus ), between the Forum and the Campus Martius, is one of the Seven Hills of Rome.
The hill was earlier known as ''Mons Saturnius'', dedicated to the god Saturn. ...
in Rome, and also including Jupiter, and
Minerva
Minerva (; ett, Menrva) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. Minerva is not a patron of violence such as Mars, but of strategic war. From the second century BC onward, the Rom ...
, goddess of wisdom.
Juno's own warlike aspect among the Romans is apparent in her attire. She was often shown armed and wearing a goatskin cloak. The traditional depiction of this warlike aspect was assimilated from the Greek goddess
Athena
Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretism, syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded ...
, who bore a goatskin, or a goatskin shield, called the
aegis
The aegis ( ; grc, αἰγίς ''aigís''), as stated in the ''Iliad'', is a device carried by Athena and Zeus, variously interpreted as an animal skin or a shield and sometimes featuring the head of a Gorgon. There may be a connection with a d ...
. Juno was also shown wearing a diadem.
Etymology
The name ''Juno'' was also once thought to be connected to ''Iove'' (Jove), originally as ''Diuno'' and ''Diove'' from ''*Diovona''. At the beginning of the 20th century, a derivation was proposed from ''iuven-'' (as in Latin ''iuvenis'', "youth"), through a syncopated form ''iūn-'' (as in ''iūnix'', "heifer", and ''iūnior'', "younger"). This etymology became widely accepted after it was endorsed by
Georg Wissowa
Georg Otto August Wissowa (17 June 1859 – 11 May 1931) was a German classical philologist born in Neudorf, near Breslau.
Education and career
Wissowa studied classical philology under August Reifferscheid at the University of Bresla ...
.
''Iuuen-'' is related to Latin ''aevum'' and Greek ''
aion'' (αἰών) through a common
Indo-European root referring to a concept of vital energy or "fertile time". The ''iuvenis'' is he who has the fullness of vital force. In some inscriptions Jupiter himself is called ''Iuuntus'', and one of the epithets of Jupiter is ''Ioviste'', a
superlative form of ''iuuen-'' meaning "the youngest".
Iuventas, "Youth", was one of two deities who "refused" to leave the
Capitol
A capitol, named after the Capitoline Hill in Rome, is usually a legislative building where a legislature meets and makes laws for its respective political entity.
Specific capitols include:
* United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.
* Numerous ...
when the building of the new
Temple of Capitoline Jove required the
exauguration of deities who already occupied the site.
Juno is the equivalent to Hera, the Greek goddess for love and marriage. Juno is the Roman goddess of love and marriage.
Ancient etymologies associated Juno's name with ''iuvare'', "to aid, benefit", and ''iuvenescere'', "rejuvenate", sometimes connecting it to the renewal of the new and waxing moon, perhaps implying the idea of a moon goddess.
Roles and epithets
![Pompeii - Casa dei Vettii - Ixion](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/Pompeii_-_Casa_dei_Vettii_-_Ixion.jpg)
Juno's theology is one of the most complex and disputed issues in Roman religion. Even more than other major Roman deities, Juno held a large number of significant and diverse
epithets, names and titles representing various aspects and roles of the goddess. In accordance with her central role as a goddess of marriage, these included ''Pronuba'' and ''Cinxia'' ("she who looses the bride's girdle"). However, other epithets of Juno have wider implications and are less thematically linked.
While her connection with the idea of vital force, the fullness of vital energy, and eternal youthfulness is now generally acknowledged, the multiplicity and complexity of her personality have given rise to various and sometimes irreconcilable interpretations among modern scholars.
Juno is certainly the divine protectress of the community, who shows both a sovereign and a fertility character, often associated with a military one. She was present in many towns of ancient Italy: at
Lanuvium
Lanuvium, modern Lanuvio, is an ancient city of Latium vetus, some southeast of Rome, a little southwest of the Via Appia.
Situated on an isolated hill projecting south from the main mass of the Alban Hills, Lanuvium commanded an extensive vie ...
as Sespeis Mater Regina,
Laurentum,
Tibur
Tivoli ( , ; la, Tibur) is a town and in Lazio, central Italy, north-east of Rome, at the falls of the Aniene river where it issues from the Sabine hills. The city offers a wide view over the Roman Campagna.
History
Gaius Julius Solinu ...
,
Falerii
Falerii (now Fabrica di Roma) was a city in southern Etruria, 50 km (31 mi) northeast of Rome, 34 km (21 mi) from Veii (a major Etruscan city-state near the River Tiber) and about 1.5 km (0.9 mi) west of the ancient Via Flaminia. It was the main c ...
,
Veii
Veii (also Veius; it, Veio) was an important ancient Etruscan city situated on the southern limits of Etruria and north-northwest of Rome, Italy. It now lies in Isola Farnese, in the comune of Rome. Many other sites associated with and in the ...
as Regina, at Tibur and Falerii as Regina and Curitis,
Tusculum
Tusculum is a ruined Roman city in the Alban Hills, in the Latium region of Italy. Tusculum was most famous in Roman times for the many great and luxurious patrician country villas sited close to the city, yet a comfortable distance from Rome ( ...
and
Norba
Norba, an ancient town of Latium (''Adjectum''), Italy. It is situated 1 mile northwest of the modern town of Norma, on the western edge of the Volscian Mountains or Monti Lepini. The town is perched above a precipitous cliff with a splendid v ...
as Lucina. She is also attested at
Praeneste
Palestrina (ancient ''Praeneste''; grc, Πραίνεστος, ''Prainestos'') is a modern Italian city and ''comune'' (municipality) with a population of about 22,000, in Lazio, about east of Rome. It is connected to the latter by the Via Pre ...
,
Aricia,
Ardea,
Gabii
Gabii was an ancient city of Latium, located due east of Rome along the Via Praenestina, which was in early times known as the ''Via Gabina''.
It was on the south-eastern perimeter of an extinct volcanic crater lake, approximately circular ...
. In five Latin towns a month was named after Juno (Aricia, Lanuvium, Laurentum, Praeneste, Tibur). Outside Latium in
Campania
(man), it, Campana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
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, demographics1_info1 =
, demog ...
at
Teanum she was Populona (she who increase the number of the people or, in K. Latte's understanding of the ''iuvenes'', the army), in
Umbria
it, Umbro (man) it, Umbra (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 =
, demographics1_footnotes =
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, ...
at
Pisaurum
Pesaro () is a city and ''comune'' in the Italian region of Marche, capital of the Province of Pesaro e Urbino, on the Adriatic Sea. According to the 2011 census, its population was 95,011, making it the second most populous city in the Marche, ...
Lucina, at Terventum in
Samnium
Samnium ( it, Sannio) is a Latin exonym for a region of Southern Italy anciently inhabited by the Samnites. Their own endonyms were ''Safinim'' for the country (attested in one inscription and one coin legend) and ''Safineis'' for the The ...
Regina, at Pisarum Regina Matrona, at
Aesernia
Isernia () or, in Pliny and later writers, ''Eserninus'', or in the Antonine Itinerary, ''Serni''. is a town and ''comune'' in the southern Italian region of Molise, and the capital of province of Isernia.
Geography
Situated on a rocky crest r ...
in Samnium Regina Populona. In Rome she was since the most ancient times named Lucina, Mater and Regina. It is debated whether she was also known as Curitis before the
evocatio
The vocabulary of ancient Roman religion was highly specialized. Its study affords important information about the religion, traditions and beliefs of the ancient Romans. This legacy is conspicuous in European cultural history in its influence on ...
of the Juno of Falerii: this though seems probable.
Other epithets of hers that were in use at Rome include
Moneta
In Roman mythology, Moneta (Latin Monēta) was a title given to two separate goddesses: It was the name of the goddess of memory (identified with the Greek goddess Mnemosyne), and it was an epithet of Juno, called Juno Moneta (Latin Iūno Monē ...
and Caprotina, Tutula, Fluonia or Fluviona, Februalis, the last ones associated with the rites of purification and fertility of February.
Her various epithets thus show a complex of mutually interrelated functions that in the view of
Georges Dumézil and
Vsevolod Basanoff Vsevolod or Wsewolod (russian: Все́волод ; uk, Все́волод ) is a Slavic male first name. Its etymology is from Slavic roots 'vse' (all) and 'volodeti' (to rule) and means 'lord-of-everything/everybody', (similar to another princ ...
(author of ''Les dieux Romains'') can be traced back to the Indoeuropean trifunctional ideology: as Regina and Moneta she is a sovereign deity, as Sespeis, Curitis (spear holder) and Moneta (again) she is an armed protectress, as Mater and Curitis (again) she is a goddess of the fertility and wealth of the community in her association with the
curiae
Curia (Latin plural curiae) in ancient Rome referred to one of the original groupings of the citizenry, eventually numbering 30, and later every Roman citizen was presumed to belong to one. While they originally likely had wider powers, they came ...
.
The epithet ''Lucina'' is particularly revealing since it reflects two interrelated aspects of the function of Juno: cyclical renewal of time in the waning and waxing of the moon and protection of delivery and birth (as she who brings to light the newborn as vigour, vital force). The ancient called her ''Covella'' in her function of helper in the ''labours'' of the new moon. The view that she was also a Moon goddess though is no longer accepted by scholars, as such a role belongs to
Diana ''Lucifera'': through her association with the moon she governed the feminine physiological functions, menstrual cycle and pregnancy: as a rule all lunar deities are deities of childbirth. These aspects of Juno mark the heavenly and worldly sides of her function. She is thus associated to all beginnings and hers are the
kalendae of every month: at Laurentum she was known as ''Kalendaris Iuno'' (Juno of the
Kalends
The calends or kalends ( la, kalendae) is the first day of every month in the Roman calendar. The English word "calendar" is derived from this word.
Use
The Romans called the first day of every month the ''calends'', signifying the start of a n ...
). At Rome on the Kalends of every month the ''
pontifex minor'' invoked her, under the epithet ''Covella'', when from the ''
curia Calabra The Curia Calabra was a religious station or ''templum'' used for the ritual observation of the new moon in ancient Rome. Although its exact location is unclear, it was most likely a roofless enclosure in front of an augural hut ''( auguraculum)'', ...
'' he announced the date of the ''nonae''. On the same day the ''
regina sacrorum'' sacrificed to Juno a white sow or lamb in the
Regia
The Regia ("Royal house") was a two-part structure in Ancient Rome lying along the Via Sacra at the edge of the Roman Forum that originally served as the residence or one of the main headquarters of kings of Rome and later as the office of the ...
. She is closely associated with
Janus, the god of passages and beginnings who after her is often named ''Iunonius''.
Some scholars view this concentration of multiple functions as a typical and structural feature of the goddess, inherent to her being an expression of the nature of femininity. Others though prefer to dismiss her aspects of femininity and fertility and stress only her quality of being the spirit of youthfulness, liveliness and strength, regardless of sexual connexions, which would then change according to circumstances: thus in men she incarnates the ''iuvenes'', a word often used to designate soldiers, hence resulting in a tutelary deity of the sovereignty of peoples; in women capable of bearing children, from puberty on she oversees childbirth and marriage. Thence she would be a ''poliad'' goddess related to politics, power and war. Others think her military and poliadic qualities arise from her being a fertility goddess who through her function of increasing the numbers of the community became also associated to political and military functions.
Juno Sospita and Lucina
''Part of the following sections is based on the article by Geneviève Dury Moyaers and Marcel Renard "Aperçu critique des travaux relatifs au culte de Junon" in ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römische Welt'' 1981 p. 142-202.''
The rites of the month of February and the ''Nonae Caprotinae'' of July 5 offer a depiction of Juno's roles in the spheres of fertility, war, and regality.
In the Roman calendar, February is a month of universal purification, and begins the new year. In book II of his ''
Fasti
In ancient Rome, the ''fasti'' (Latin plural) were chronological or calendar-based lists, or other diachronic records or plans of official and religiously sanctioned events. After Rome's decline, the word ''fasti'' continued to be used for simil ...
'', Ovid derives the month's name from ''februae'' (expiations); lustrations designed to remove spiritual contamination or ritual pollution accumulated in the previous year. On the 1st of the month, a black ox was sacrificed to
Helernus, a minor underworld deity whom Dumézil takes as a
god of vegetation related to the cult of
Carna/Crane, a nymph who may be an image of Juno Sospita. On the same day, Juno's ''
dies natalis'' ("birthday") as Juno Sospita was celebrated at her
Palatine
A palatine or palatinus (in Latin; plural ''palatini''; cf. derivative spellings below) is a high-level official attached to imperial or royal courts in Europe since Roman times. temple. On February 15 the
Lupercalia
Lupercalia was a pastoral festival of Ancient Rome observed annually on February 15 to purify the city, promoting health and fertility. Lupercalia was also known as ''dies Februatus'', after the purification instruments called ''februa'', the ...
festival was held, in which Juno was involved as ''Juno Lucina''. This is usually understood to be a rite of purification and fertility. A goat was sacrificed and its hide cut into strips, used to make whips known as ''februum'' and ''amiculus Iunonis'', wielded by the
Luperci. The Juno of this day bears the epithet of ''Februalis'', ''Februata'', ''Februa''. On the last day of the month, leading into March 1, she was celebrated as protectress of matrons and marriages. The new year began on March 1. The same was celebrated as the birthday of Rome's founder and first king,
Romulus, and the peaceful union of Romans and Sabine peoples through treaty and marriage after their
war
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
, which was ended by the intervention of women.
After Wissowa many scholars have remarked the similarity between the Juno of the Lupercalia and the Juno of Lanuvium ''Seispes Mater Regina'' as both are associated with the goat, symbol of fertility. But in essence there is unity between fertility, regality and purification. This unity is underlined by the role of
Faunus
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Faunus was the rustic god of the forest, plains and fields; when he made cattle fertile he was called Inuus. He came to be equated in literature with the Greek god Pan, after which Romans depicted him as a ...
in the aetiologic story told by Ovid and the symbolic relevance of the
Lupercal: asked by the Roman couples at her ''lucus'' how to overcome the sterility that ensued the abduction of the Sabine women, Juno answered through a murmuring of leaves "''Italidas matres sacer hircus inito''" "That a sacred ram cover the Italic mothers".
''Februlis'' oversees the secundament of the placenta and is strictly associated to ''Fluvonia, Fluonia'', goddess who retains the blood inside the body during pregnancy. While the protection of pregnancy is stressed by Duval, Palmer sees in Fluonia only the Juno of lustration in river water. Ovid devotes an ''excursus'' to the lustrative function of river water in the same place in which he explains the etymology of February.
A temple (''aedes'') of Juno Lucina was built in 375 BC in the grove sacred to the goddess from early times. It stood precisely on the
Cispius
Cispius is the '' nomen'' of the Roman '' gens Cispia''.
Cispius Laevus
The '' Mons Cispius'', or Cispian Hill, is one of several summits of the Esquiline Hill in Rome. The grammarian Festus says that it was named for a Cispius Laevus of Anagn ...
near the sixth shrine of the
Argei. probably not far west of the church of S. Prassede, where inscriptions relating to her cult have been found. The grove should have extended down the slope south of the temple. As
Servius Tullius
Servius Tullius was the legendary sixth king of Rome, and the second of its Etruscan dynasty. He reigned from 578 to 535 BC. Roman and Greek sources describe his servile origins and later marriage to a daughter of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, ...
ordered the gifts for the newborn to be placed in the treasury of the temple though it looks that another shrine stood there before 375 BC. In 190 BC the temple was struck by lightning, its gable and doors injured. The annual festival of the
Matronalia
In ancient Roman religion, the Matronalia (or Matronales Feriae) was a festival celebrating Juno Lucina, the goddess of childbirth (" Juno who brings children into the light"), and of motherhood (''mater'' is "mother" in Latin) and women in gene ...
was celebrated here on March 1, day of the dedication of the temple.
A temple to Iuno Sospita was vowed by consul
Gaius Cornelius Cethegus
Gaius Cornelius Cethegus was a consul of the Roman Republic in 197 BC.
He became proconsul in Hispania in 200 BC and was elected aedile ''in absentia''. In Hispania he defeated a hostile force in the territory of the Sedetani and 15,000 of th ...
in 197 BC and dedicated in 194. By 90 BC the temple had fallen into disrepute: in that year it was stained by episodes of prostitution and a bitch delivered her puppies right beneath the statue of the goddess. By decree of the senate consul
L. Iulius Caesar ordered its restoration. In his poem ''Fasti'' Ovid states the temple of Juno Sospita had become dilapidated to the extent of being no longer discernible "because of the injuries of time": this looks hardly possible as the restoration had happened no longer than a century earlier and relics of the temple exist to-day. It is thence plausible that an older temple of Juno Sospita existed in Rome within the
pomerium
The ''pomerium'' or ''pomoerium'' was a religious boundary around the city of Rome and cities controlled by Rome. In legal terms, Rome existed only within its ''pomerium''; everything beyond it was simply territory ('' ager'') belonging to Rome. ...
, as Ovid says it was located near the temple of the Phrygian Mother (
Cybele
Cybele ( ; Phrygian language, Phrygian: ''Matar Kubileya/Kubeleya'' "Kubileya/Kubeleya Mother", perhaps "Mountain Mother"; Lydian language, Lydian ''Kuvava''; el, Κυβέλη ''Kybele'', ''Kybebe'', ''Kybelis'') is an Anatolian mother godde ...
), which stood on the western corner of the
Palatine
A palatine or palatinus (in Latin; plural ''palatini''; cf. derivative spellings below) is a high-level official attached to imperial or royal courts in Europe since Roman times. . As a rule temples of foreign, imported gods stood outside the pomerium.
Juno Caprotina
The alliance of the three aspects of Juno finds a strictly related parallel to the Lupercalia in the festival of the ''Nonae Caprotinae''. On that day the Roman free and slave women picnicked and had fun together near the site of the wild fig (''caprificus''): the custom implied runs, mock battles with fists and stones, obscene language and finally the sacrifice of a male goat to Juno ''Caprotina'' under a wildfig tree and with the using of its lymph.
This festival had a legendary aetiology in a particularly delicate episode of Roman history and also recurs at (or shortly after) a particular time of the year, that of the so-called ''caprificatio'' when branches of wild fig trees were fastened to cultivated ones to promote insemination. The historical episode narrated by ancient sources concerns the siege of Rome by the Latin peoples that followed the Gallic sack. The dictator of the Latins Livius Postumius from
Fidenae
Fidenae ( grc, Φιδῆναι) was an ancient town of Latium, situated about 8 km north of Rome on the '' Via Salaria'', which ran between Rome and the Tiber. Its inhabitants were known as Fidenates. As the Tiber was the border between Etr ...
would have requested the Roman senate that the ''matronae'' and daughters of the most prominent families be surrendered to the Latins as hostages. While the senate was debating the issue a slave girl, whose Greek name was
Philotis and Latin Tutela or Tutula proposed that she together with other slave girls would render herself up to the enemy camp pretending to be the wives and daughters of the Roman families. Upon agreement of the senate, the women dressed up elegantly and wearing golden jewellery reached the Latin camp. There they seduced the Latins into fooling and drinking: after they had fallen asleep, they stole their swords. Then Tutela gave the convened signal to the Romans brandishing an ignited branch after climbing on the wild fig (''caprificus'') and hiding the fire with her mantle. The Romans then irrupted into the Latin camp killing the enemies in their sleep. The women were rewarded with freedom and a dowry at public expenses.
Dumézil in his ''Archaic Roman Religion'' had been unable to interpret the myth underlying this legendary event, later though he accepted the interpretation given by P. Drossart and published it in his ''Fêtes romaines d'été et d'automne, suivi par dix questions romaines'' in 1975 as ''Question IX''. In folklore the wild fig tree is universally associated with sex because of its fertilising power, the shape of its fruits and the white viscous juice of the tree.
Basanoff has argued that the legend not only alludes to sex and fertility in its association with wildfig and goat but is in fact a summary of sort of all the qualities of Juno. As Juno Sespeis of Lanuvium Juno Caprotina is a warrior, a fertiliser and a sovereign protectress. In fact, the legend presents a heroine, Tutela, who is a slightly disguised representation of the goddess: the request of the Latin dictator would mask an attempted
evocatio
The vocabulary of ancient Roman religion was highly specialized. Its study affords important information about the religion, traditions and beliefs of the ancient Romans. This legacy is conspicuous in European cultural history in its influence on ...
of the tutelary goddess of Rome.
Tutela
''Tutela'' was the ancient Roman concept of "guardianship", conceived of as a goddess in the Imperial period, and from the earliest period as a functional role that various tutelary deities might play, particularly Juno. ''Tutela'' had particu ...
indeed shows regal, military and protective traits, apart from the sexual ones. Moreover, according to Basanoff these too (breasts, milky juice, ''genitalia'', present or symbolised in the fig and the goat) in general, and here in particular, have an inherently apotropaic value directly related to the nature of Juno. The occasion of the
''feria'', shortly after the
poplifugia The Poplifugia or Populifugia (Latin: ''the people's flight''), was a festival of ancient Rome celebrated on July 5, according to Varro, in commemoration of the flight of the Romans, when the inhabitants of Ficuleae and Fidenae appeared in arms ag ...
, i.e. when the community is in its direst straits, needs the intervention of a divine tutelary goddess, a divine queen, since the king (divine or human) has failed to appear or has fled. Hence the customary battles under the wild figs, the scurrilous language that bring together the second and third function. This festival would thus show a ritual that can prove the trifunctional nature of Juno.
Other scholars limit their interpretation of Caprotina to the sexual implications of the goat, the ''caprificus'' and the obscene words and plays of the festival.
Juno Curitis
Under this epithet Juno is attested in many places, notably at
Falerii
Falerii (now Fabrica di Roma) was a city in southern Etruria, 50 km (31 mi) northeast of Rome, 34 km (21 mi) from Veii (a major Etruscan city-state near the River Tiber) and about 1.5 km (0.9 mi) west of the ancient Via Flaminia. It was the main c ...
and
Tibur
Tivoli ( , ; la, Tibur) is a town and in Lazio, central Italy, north-east of Rome, at the falls of the Aniene river where it issues from the Sabine hills. The city offers a wide view over the Roman Campagna.
History
Gaius Julius Solinu ...
. Dumézil remarked that Juno Curitis "is represented and invoked at Rome under conditions very close to those we know about for ''Juno Seispes'' of
Lanuvium
Lanuvium, modern Lanuvio, is an ancient city of Latium vetus, some southeast of Rome, a little southwest of the Via Appia.
Situated on an isolated hill projecting south from the main mass of the Alban Hills, Lanuvium commanded an extensive vie ...
". Martianus Capella states she must be invoked by those who are involved in war. The hunt of the goat by stonethrowing at Falerii is described in Ovid ''Amores'' III 13, 16 ff. In fact the Juno Curritis of Falerii shows a complex articulated structure closely allied to the threefold Juno Seispes of Lanuvium.
Ancient etymologies associated the epithet with
Cures, with the Sabine word for spear ''curis'', with ''currus'' cart, with ''Quirites'', with the ''curiae'', as king Titus Tatius dedicated a table to Juno in every curia, that Dionysius still saw.
Modern scholars have proposed the town of Currium or Curria,
Quirinus
In Roman mythology and religion, Quirinus ( , ) is an early god of the Roman state. In Augustan Rome, ''Quirinus'' was also an epithet of Janus, as ''Janus Quirinus''.
Name
Attestations
The name of god Quirinus is recorded across Roman sou ...
, ''*quir(i)s'' or ''*quiru'', the Sabine word for spear and
curia
Curia (Latin plural curiae) in ancient Rome referred to one of the original groupings of the citizenry, eventually numbering 30, and later every Roman citizen was presumed to belong to one. While they originally likely had wider powers, they came ...
. The *quiru- would design the sacred spear that gave the name to the primitive curiae. The discovery at
Sulmona
Sulmona ( nap, label= Abruzzese, Sulmóne; la, Sulmo; grc, Σουλμῶν, Soulmôn) is a city and ''comune'' of the province of L'Aquila in Abruzzo, Italy. It is located in the Valle Peligna, a plain once occupied by a lake that disappeared in ...
of a sanctuary of
Hercules
Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures.
The Romans adapted the ...
''Curinus'' lends support to a Sabine origin of the epithet and of the cult of Juno in the curiae. The spear could also be the ''celibataris hasta'' (bridal spear) that in the marriage ceremonies was used to comb the bridegroom's hair as a good omen. Palmer views the rituals of the curiae devoted to her as a reminiscence of the origin of the curiae themselves in rites of ''evocatio'', a practice the Romans continued to use for Juno or her equivalent at later times as for Falerii,
Veii
Veii (also Veius; it, Veio) was an important ancient Etruscan city situated on the southern limits of Etruria and north-northwest of Rome, Italy. It now lies in Isola Farnese, in the comune of Rome. Many other sites associated with and in the ...
and
Carthage
Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the cla ...
. Juno Curitis would then be the deity evoked after her admission into the curiae.
Juno Curitis had a temple on the
Campus Martius
The Campus Martius (Latin for the "Field of Mars", Italian ''Campo Marzio'') was a publicly owned area of ancient Rome about in extent. In the Middle Ages, it was the most populous area of Rome. The IV rione of Rome, Campo Marzio, which cove ...
. Excavations in Largo di Torre Argentina have revealed four temple structures, one of whom (temple D or A) could be the temple of Juno Curitis. She shared her anniversary day with Juppiter Fulgur, who had an altar nearby.
Juno Moneta
![Henri-Paul Motte Les oies sacrées sauvent le Capitole](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/Henri-Paul_Motte_Les_oies_sacr%C3%A9es_sauvent_le_Capitole.jpg)
This Juno is placed by ancient sources in a warring context. Dumézil thinks the third, military, aspect of Juno is reflected in Juno Curitis and Moneta. Palmer too sees in her a military aspect.
As for the etymology, Cicero gives the verb ''monēre'' warn, hence ''the Warner''. Palmer accepts Cicero's etymology as a possibility while adding ''mons'' mount, hill, verb ''e-mineo'' and noun ''monile'' referred to the Capitol, place of her cult. Also perhaps a cultic term or even, as in her temple were kept the ''
Libri Lintei'', ''monere'' would thence have the meaning of recording:
Livius Andronicus identifies her as
Mnemosyne
In Greek mythology and ancient Greek religion, Mnemosyne (; grc, Μνημοσύνη, ) is the goddess of memory and the mother of the nine Muses by her nephew Zeus. In the Greek tradition, Mnemosyne is one of the Titans, the twelve divine chil ...
.
Her ''dies natalis'' was on the kalendae of June. Her Temple on the summit of the Capitol was dedicated only in 348 BC by dictator L. Furius Camillus, presumably a son of the great Furius. Livy states he vowed the temple during a war against the
Aurunci
The Aurunci were an Italic tribe that lived in southern Italy from around the 1st millennium BC. They were eventually defeated by Rome and subsumed into the Roman Republic during the second half of the 4th century BC.
Identity
Aurunci is the n ...
. Modern scholars agree that the origins of the cult and of the temple were much more ancient. M. Guarducci considers her cult very ancient, identifying her with Mnemosyne as ''the Warner'' because of her presence near the
auguraculum The auguraculum (plural: auguracula), was a roofless temple oriented to the cardinal points, in which the priests of ancient Rome practiced augury and ornithomancy. The priest observer was positioned at the center of the temple, in a tent or a hut, ...
, her oracular character, her announcement of perils: she considers her as an introduction into Rome of the
Hera of
Cuma
CUMA (Canadian Underwater Mine-countermeasure Apparatus) (commercially called SIVA+) is a make of rebreather underwater breathing set designed and made in Canada for the Canadian Armed Forces by Fullerton Sherwood Engineering Ltd to replace the Ro ...
dating to the 8th century. L. A. Mac Kay considers the goddess more ancient than her etymology on the testimony of
Valerius Maximus
Valerius Maximus () was a 1st-century Latin writer and author of a collection of historical anecdotes: ''Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX'' ("Nine books of memorable deeds and sayings", also known as ''De factis dictisque memorabilibus'' ...
who states she was the Juno of Veii. The sacred geese of the Capitol were lodged in her temple: as they are recorded in the episode of the Gallic siege (ca. 396-390 BC) by Livy, the temple should have existed before Furius's dedication. Basanoff considers her to go back to the regal period: she would be the Sabine Juno who arrived at Rome through
Cures. At Cures she was the tutelary deity of the military chief: as such she is never to be found among Latins. This new quality is apparent in the location of her ''fanum'', her name, her role: 1. her altar is located in the regia of Titus Tatius; 2. Moneta is, from ''monere'', ''the Adviser'': like
Egeria with Numa (Tatius's son in law) she is associated to a Sabine king; 3. In
Dionysius of Halicarnassus the altar-tables of the curiae are consecrated to Juno Curitis to justify the false etymology of Curitis from curiae: the tables would assure the presence of the tutelary ''numen'' of the king as an adviser within each curia, as the epithet itself implies. It can be assumed thence that Juno Moneta intervenes under warlike circumstances as associated to the sacral power of the king. Since coins were later made near her temple, her epithet, ''moneta'' became the Latin term for both the place where coins were made, but also for the currency itself (and the Latin word ultimately yielded in English both ''mint'' and ''money'').
Juno Regina
Juno Regina is perhaps the epithet most fraught with questions. While some scholars maintain she was known as such at Rome since the most ancient times as paredra (consort) of Jupiter in the
Capitoline Triad
The Capitoline Triad was a group of three deities who were worshipped in ancient Roman religion in an elaborate temple on Rome's Capitoline Hill (Latin ''Capitolium''). It comprised Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. The triad held a central place in th ...
others think she is a new acquisition introduced to Rome after her
evocatio
The vocabulary of ancient Roman religion was highly specialized. Its study affords important information about the religion, traditions and beliefs of the ancient Romans. This legacy is conspicuous in European cultural history in its influence on ...
from Veii.
Palmer thinks she is to be identified with Juno Populona of later inscriptions, a political and military poliadic (guardian) deity who had in fact a place in the Capitoline temple and was intended to represent the ''Regina'' of the king. The date of her introduction, though ancient, would be uncertain; she should perhaps be identified with
Hera Basilea or as the queen of Jupiter Rex. The actual epithet Regina could though come from Veii. At Rome this epithet may have been applied to a Juno other than that of the temple on the Aventine built to lodge the evocated Veian Juno as the
rex sacrorum and his wife-queen were to offer a monthly sacrifice to Juno in the Regia. This might imply that the prerepublican Juno was royal.
![Denarius-Julia Soaemias-RIC 0237](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Denarius-Julia_Soaemias-RIC_0237.jpg)
J. Gagé dismisses these assumptions as groundless speculations as no Jupiter Rex is attested and in accord with Roe D'Albret stresses that at Rome no presence of a Juno Regina is mentioned before
Marcus Furius Camillus
Marcus Furius Camillus (; c. 446 – 365 BC) was a Roman soldier and statesman of the patrician class. According to Livy and Plutarch, Camillus triumphed four times, was five times dictator, and was honoured with the title of ''Second Founder ...
, while she is attested in many Etruscan and Latin towns. Before that time her Roman equivalent was Juno Moneta. Marcel Renard for his part considers her an ancient Roman figure since the title of the Veian Juno expresses a cultic reality that is close to and indeed presupposes the existence at Rome of an analogous character: as a rule it is the presence of an original local figure that may allow the introduction of the new one through evocatio. He agrees with Dumézil that we ignore whether the translation of the epithet is exhaustive and what Etruscan notion corresponded to the name ''Regina'' which itself is certainly an Italic title. This is the only instance of evocatio recorded by the annalistic tradition. However Renard considers Macrobius's authority reliable in his long list of ''evocationes'' on the grounds of an archaeological find at
Isaura
Isauria ( or ; grc, Ἰσαυρία), in ancient geography, is a rugged, isolated, district in the interior of Asia Minor, of very different extent at different periods, but generally covering what is now the district of Bozkır and its surro ...
. Roe D'Albret underlines the role played by Camillus and sees a personal link between the deity and her magistrate. Similarly Dumézil has remarked the link of Camillus with
Mater Matuta
Mater Matuta was an indigenous Latin goddess, whom the Romans eventually made equivalent to the dawn goddess Aurora, and the Greek goddess Eos. Her cult is attested several places in Latium; her most famous temple was located at Satricum. In Rom ...
. In his relationship to the goddess he takes the place of the king of Veii. Camillus's devotion to female deities Mater Matuta and
Fortuna
Fortuna ( la, Fortūna, equivalent to the Greek goddess Tyche) is the goddess of fortune and the personification of luck in Roman religion who, largely thanks to the Late Antique author Boethius, remained popular through the Middle Ages until at ...
and his contemporary vow of a new temple to both Matuta and Iuno Regina hint to a degree of identity between them: this assumption has by chance been supported by the discovery at
Pyrgi
Pyrgi (''Pyrgus'' in Etruscan) was originally an ancient Etruscan town and port in Latium, central Italy, to the north-west of Caere. Its location is now occupied by the borough of Santa Severa. It is notable for the discovery here of the g ...
of a bronze lamella which mentions together
Uni and
Thesan
In Etruscan mythology, Etruscan Religion and mythology, Thesan is the Etruscan civilization, Etruscan goddess of the dawn, divination, and childbirth and was associated with the generation of life. Roman mythology, Romans identified her with their ...
, the Etruscan Juno and Aurora, i.e. Mater Matuta. One can then suppose Camillus's simultaneous vow of the temples of the two goddesses should be seen in the light of their intrinsic association.
Octavianus
Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pr ...
will repeat the same translation with the statue of the Juno of
Perusia
The ancient Perusia, now Perugia, first appears in history as one of the 12 confederate cities of Etruria. It is first mentioned in the account of the war of 310 or 309 BC between the Etruscans and the Romans. It took, however, an important par ...
in consequence of a dream
That a goddess evoked in war and for political reasons receive the homage of women and that women continue to have a role in her cult is explained by Palmer as a foreign cult of feminine sexuality of Etruscan derivation. The persistence of a female presence in her cult through the centuries down to the
lectisternium
The lectisternium was an ancient Roman propitiatory ceremony, consisting of a meal offered to gods and goddesses. The word derives from ''lectum sternere'', "to spread (or "drape") a couch." The deities were represented by their busts or statues ...
of 217 BC, when the ''matronae'' collected money for the service, and to the times of Augustus during the
ludi saeculares
The Saecular Games ( la, Ludi saeculares, originally ) was a Roman religious celebration involving sacrifices and theatrical performances, held in ancient Rome for three days and nights to mark the end of a and the beginning of the next. A , sup ...
in the sacrifices to Capitoline Juno are proof of the resilience of this foreign tradition.
Gagé and D'Albret remark an accentuation of the matronal aspect of Juno Regina that led her to be the most matronal of the Roman goddesses by the time of the end of the republic. This fact raises the question of understanding why she was able of attracting the devotion of the ''matronae''. Gagé traces back the phenomenon to the nature of the cult rendered to the Juno Regina of the Aventine in which Camillus played a role in person. The original devotion of the ''matronae'' was directed to Fortuna. Camillus was devout to her and to Matuta, both matronal deities. When he brought Juno Regina from Veii the Roman women were already acquainted with many Junos, while the ancient rites of Fortuna were falling off. Camillus would have then made a political use of the cult of Juno Regina to subdue the social conflicts of his times by attributing to her the role of primordial mother.
Juno Regina had two temples (''aedes'') in Rome. The one dedicated by Furius Camillus in 392 BC stood on the
Aventine: it lodged the wooden statue of the Juno transvected from Veii. It is mentioned several times by Livy in connexion with sacrifices offered in atonement of
prodigia. It was restored by Augustus. Two inscriptions found near the church of S. Sabina indicate the approximate site of the temple, which corresponds with its place in the lustral procession of 207 BC, near the upper end of the Clivus Publicius. The day of the dedication and of her festival was September 1.
Another temple stood near the
circus Flaminius
The Circus Flaminius was a large, circular area in ancient Rome, located in the southern end of the Campus Martius near the Tiber River. It contained a small race-track used for obscure games, and various other buildings and monuments. It was "bui ...
, vowed by consul
Marcus Aemilius Lepidus in 187 BC during the war against the
Ligures
The Ligures (singular Ligur; Italian: liguri; English: Ligurians) were an ancient people after whom Liguria, a region of present-day north-western Italy, is named.
Ancient Liguria corresponded more or less to the current Italian regi ...
and dedicated by himself as censor in 179 on December 23. It was connected by a porch with a temple of Fortuna, perhaps that of Fortuna Equestris. Its probable site according to Platner is just south of the
porticus Pompeiana on the west end of circus Flaminius.
The Juno Cealestis of Carthage
Tanit
Tanit ( Punic: 𐤕𐤍𐤕 ''Tīnīt'') was a Punic goddess. She was the chief deity of Carthage alongside her consort Baal-Hamon.
Tanit is also called Tinnit. The name appears to have originated in Carthage (modern day Tunisia), though it doe ...
was
evoked according to Macrobius. She did not receive a temple in Rome: presumably her image was deposited in another temple of Juno (Moneta or Regina) and later transferred to the
Colonia Junonia Colonia Junonia (sometimes ''Iunonia'') refers to an Ancient Roman colony established in 122 BC under the direction of Gaius Gracchus.
History
It is significant as it was the first 'transmarine' Roman colony.E. T. Salmon, Roman Colonization Under ...
founded by
Caius Gracchus. The goddess was once again transferred to Rome by emperor
Elagabalus
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (born Sextus Varius Avitus Bassianus, 204 – 11/12 March 222), better known by his nickname "Elagabalus" (, ), was Roman emperor from 218 to 222, while he was still a teenager. His short reign was conspicuous for s ...
.
Juno in the Capitoline triad
The first mention of a Capitoline triad refers to the ''Capitolium Vetus''. The only ancient source who refers to the presence of this divine triad in Greece is
Pausanias Pausanias ( el, Παυσανίας) may refer to:
*Pausanias of Athens, lover of the poet Agathon and a character in Plato's ''Symposium''
*Pausanias the Regent, Spartan general and regent of the 5th century BC
* Pausanias of Sicily, physician of t ...
X 5, 1–2, who mentions its existence in describing the Φωκικόν in
Phocis
Phocis ( el, Φωκίδα ; grc, Φωκίς) is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the administrative region of Central Greece. It stretches from the western mountainsides of Parnassus on the east to the mountain range of Var ...
. The Capitoline triad poses difficult interpretative problems. It looks peculiarly Roman, since there is no sure document of its existence elsewhere either in Latium or Etruria. A direct Greek influence is possible but it would be also plausible to consider it a local creation. Dumézil advanced the hypothesis it could be an ideological construction of the Tarquins to oppose new Latin nationalism, as it included the three gods that in the Iliad are enemies of
Troy
Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in present-day Turkey, south-west of Ç ...
. It is probable Latins had already accepted the legend of Aeneas as their ancestor. Among ancient sources indeed Servius states that according to the
Etrusca Disciplina towns should have the three temples of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva at the end of three roads leading to three gates.
Vitruvius
Vitruvius (; c. 80–70 BC – after c. 15 BC) was a Roman architect and engineer during the 1st century BC, known for his multi-volume work entitled '' De architectura''. He originated the idea that all buildings should have three attribut ...
writes that the temples of these three gods should be located on the most elevated site, isolated from the other. To his Etruscan founders the meaning of this triad might have been related to peculiarly Etruscan ideas on the association of the three gods with the birth of
Herakles
Heracles ( ; grc-gre, Ἡρακλῆς, , glory/fame of Hera), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptive ...
and the siege of Troy, in which
Minerva
Minerva (; ett, Menrva) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. Minerva is not a patron of violence such as Mars, but of strategic war. From the second century BC onward, the Rom ...
plays a decisive role as a goddess of destiny along with the sovereign couple Uni Tinia.
Junos of Latium
The cults of the Italic Junos reflected remarkable theological complexes: regality, military protection and fertility.
In Latium are relatively well known the instances of Tibur, Falerii, Laurentum and Lanuvium.
At Tibur and Falerii their ''sacerdos'' was a male, called ''pontifex sacrarius'', a fact that has been seen as a proof of the relevance of the goddess to the whole society. In both towns she was known as ''Curitis'', the spearholder, an armed protectress. The martial aspect of these Junos is conspicuous, quite as much as that of fecundity and regality: the first two look strictly interconnected: fertility guaranteed the survival of the community, peaceful and armed. Iuno Curitis is also the tutelary goddess of the ''curiae'' and of the new brides, whose hair was combed with the spear called ''caelibataris hasta'' as in Rome. In her annual rites at Falerii youths and maiden clad in white bore in procession gifts to the goddess whose image was escorted by her priestesses. The idea of purity and virginity is stressed in Ovid's description. A she goat is sacrificed to her after a ritual hunting. She is then the patroness of the young soldiers and of brides.
At Lanuvium the goddess is known under the epithet Seispes Mater Regina. The titles themselves are a theological definition: she was a sovereign goddess, a martial goddess and a fertility goddess. Hence her
flamen
A (plural ''flamens'' or ''flamines'') was a priest of the ancient Roman religion who was assigned to one of eighteen deities with official cults during the Roman Republic. The most important of these were the three (or "major priests"), who ser ...
was chosen by the highest local magistrate, the dictator, and since 388 BC the Roman consuls were required to offer sacrifices to her. Her sanctuary was famous, rich and powerful.
Her cult included the annual feeding of a sacred snake with barley cakes by virgin maidens. The snake dwelt in a deep cave within the precinct of the temple, on the ''arx'' of the city: the maidens approached the lair blindfolded. The snake was supposed to feed only on the cakes offered by chaste girls. The rite was aimed at ensuring agricultural fertility. The site of the temple as well as the presence of the snake show she was the tutelary goddess of the city, as Athena at Athens and Hera at Argos. The motif of the snake of the palace as guardian goddess of the city is shared by Iuno Seispes with Athena, as well as its periodic feeding. This religious pattern moreover includes armour, goatskin dress, sacred birds and a concern with virginity in cult. Virginity is connected to regality: the existence and welfare of the community was protected by virgin goddesses or the virgin attendants of a goddess. This theme shows a connexion with the fundamental theological character of Iuno, that of incarnating vital force: virginity is the condition of unspoilt, unspent vital energy that can ensure communion with nature and its rhythm, symbolised in the fire of
Vesta. It is a decisive factor in ensuring the safety of the community and the growth of crops. The role of Iuno is at the crossing point of civil and natural life, expressing their interdependence.
At
Laurentum she was known as Kalendaris Iuno and was honoured as such ritually at the kalendae of each month from March to December, i.e. the months of the
pre-Numan ten-month year, a fact which is a testimony to the antiquity of the custom.
A Greek influence in their cults looks probable. It is noteworthy though that Cicero remarked the existence of a stark difference between the Latin Iuno Seispes and the Argolic Hera (as well the Roman Iuno) in his work
De natura deorum
''De Natura Deorum'' (''On the Nature of the Gods'') is a philosophical dialogue by Roman Academic Skeptic philosopher Cicero written in 45 BC. It is laid out in three books that discuss the theological views of the Hellenistic philosophies ...
. Claudius Helianus later wrote "...she has much new of Hera Argolis" The iconography of Argive Hera, matronal and regal, looks quite far away from the warlike and savage character of Iuno Seispes, especially considering that it is uncertain whether the former was an armed Hera.
After the definitive subjugation of the
Latin League
The Latin League (c. 7th century BC – 338 BC)Stearns, Peter N. (2001) ''The Encyclopedia of World History'', Houghton Mifflin. pp. 76–78. . was an ancient confederation of about 30 villages and tribes in the region of Latium near the ancient ...
in 338 BC the Romans required as a condition of peace the condominium of the Roman people on the sanctuary and the sacred grove of Juno Seispes in Lanuvium, while bestowing Roman citizenry on the Lanuvians. Consequently, the ''prodigia'' (supernatural or unearthly phenomena) which happened in her temple were referred to Rome and accordingly expiated there. Many occurred during the presence of
Hannibal in Italy. Perhaps the Romans were not completely satisfied with this solution as in 194 BC consul
C. Cornelius Cethegus erected a temple to the ''Juno Sospita'' of Lanuvium in the Forum Holitorium (vowed three years earlier in a war with the
Galli Insubri); in it the goddess was honoured in military garb. The
flamen
A (plural ''flamens'' or ''flamines'') was a priest of the ancient Roman religion who was assigned to one of eighteen deities with official cults during the Roman Republic. The most important of these were the three (or "major priests"), who ser ...
or special priest belonging to Juno Seispes continued to be a Lanuvian, specially nominated by the town to take care of the goddess even though she was housed in her temple at Rome (in the Forum Holitorium). At the time of
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...
,
Milo
Milo may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Milo'' (magazine), a strength sports magazine
*'' Milo: Sticky Notes and Brain Freeze'', a 2011 children's novel by Alan Silberberg
* ''Milo'' (video game), a first-person adventure-puzzle computer ga ...
, who served as the city's dictator and highest magistrate in 52 BC (Cic. Mil. 27), and of course was also a Roman citizen (he had been
tribune of the plebs
Tribune of the plebs, tribune of the people or plebeian tribune ( la, tribunus plebis) was the first office of the Roman state that was open to the plebeians, and was, throughout the history of the Republic, the most important check on the power o ...
in 57 BC), resided in Rome. When he fatally met
Clodius
Clodius is an alternate form of the Roman '' nomen'' Claudius, a patrician ''gens'' that was traditionally regarded as Sabine in origin. The alternation of ''o'' and ''au'' is characteristic of the Sabine dialect. The feminine form is Clodia.
R ...
near
Bovillae
Bovillae was an ancient Latin town in Lazio, central Italy, currently part of Frattocchie ''frazione'' in the municipality of Marino.
Overview
Bovillae was a station on the Via Appia (which in 293 BC was already paved up to this point), located ...
(Milo's slaves killed Clodius in that encounter), he was on his way to Lanuvium in order to nominate the
flamen
A (plural ''flamens'' or ''flamines'') was a priest of the ancient Roman religion who was assigned to one of eighteen deities with official cults during the Roman Republic. The most important of these were the three (or "major priests"), who ser ...
of Juno Seispes.
Theological and comparative study
The complexity of the figure of Juno has caused much uncertainty and debate among modern scholars. Some emphasize one aspect or character of the goddess, considering it as primary: the other ones would then be the natural and even necessary development of the first. Palmer and Harmon consider it to be the natural vital force of youthfulness, Latte women's fecundity. These original characters would have led to the formation of the complex theology of Juno as a sovereign and an armed tutelary deity.
Georges Dumézil on the other hand proposed the theory of the irreducibility and interdependence of the three aspects (sovereignty, war, fertility) in goddesses that he interprets as an original, irreducible structure as hypothesised in his
hypothesis of the trifunctional ideology of the
Indoeuropeans. While Dumézil's refusal of seeing a Greek influence in Italic Junos looks difficult to maintain in the light of the contributions of archaeology, his comparative analysis of the divine structure is supported by many scholars, as M. Renard and J. Poucet. His theory purports that while male gods incarnated one single function, there are female goddesses who make up a synthesis of the three functions, as a reflection of the ideal of woman's role in society. Even though such a deity has a peculiar affinity for one function, generally fertility, i. e. the third, she is nevertheless equally competent in each of the three.
As concrete instances Dumézil makes that of
Vedic
upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''.
The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the ...
goddess
Sarasvatī
Saraswati ( sa, सरस्वती, ) is the Hindu goddess of knowledge, music, art, speech, wisdom, and learning. She is one of the Tridevi, along with the goddesses Lakshmi and Parvati.
The earliest known mention of Saraswati as a go ...
and Avestic
Anāhīta. Sarasvati as river goddess is first a goddess of the third function, of vitality and fertility associated to the deities of the third function as the
Aśvin and of propagation as
Sinīvalī. She is ''the mother'' and on her rely all vital forces. But at the same time she belongs to the first function as a religious sovereign: she is pure, she is the means of purifications and helps the conceiving and realisation of pious thoughts. Lastly she is also a warrior: allied with the
Maruts
In Hinduism, the Maruts (; sa, मरुत), also known as the Marutagana and sometimes identified with Rudras, are storm deities and sons of Rudra and Prisni. The number of Maruts varies from 27 to sixty (three times sixty in RV 8.96.8). T ...
she annihilates the enemies and, sole among female goddesses, bears the epithet of the warrior god
Indra,
vṛtraghnỉ, ''destroyer of oppositions''. She is the common spouse of all the heroes of the
Mahābhārata, sons and heirs of the Vedic gods
Dharma,
Vāyu
Vayu (, sa, वायु, ), also known as Vata and Pavana, is the Hindu god of the winds as well as the divine massenger of the gods. In the ''Vedic scriptures'', Vayu is an important deity and is closely associated with Indra, the king of g ...
,
Indra and of the Aśvin twins. Though in hymns and rites her threefold nature is never expressed conjointly (except in Ṛg Veda VI 61, 12:: ''triṣadásthā'' having three seats).
Only in her Avestic equivalent Anahita, the great mythic river, does she bear the same three valences explicitly: her
Yašt states she is invoked by warriors, by clerics and by deliverers. She bestows on females an easy delivery and timely milking. She bestowed on heroes the vigour by which they defeated their demonic adversaries. She is the great purifier, "she who puts the worshipper in the ritual, pure condition" (''yaož dā''). Her complete name too is threefold: ''The Wet (''Arədvī''), The Strong (''Sūrā''), The Immaculate (''Anāhitā'')''.
Dumézil remarks these titles match perfectly those of Latin Junos, especially the Juno Seispes Mater Regina of Lanuvium, the only difference being in the religious orientation of the first function. Compare also the epithet Fluonia, Fluviona of Roman Juno, discussed by G. Radke. However D. P. Harmon has remarked that the meaning of Seispes cannot be seen as limited to the warrior aspect, as it implies a more complex, comprehensive function, i. e. of Saviour.
Among Germanic peoples the homologous goddess was bivalent, as a rule the military function was subsumed into the sovereign: goddess *Frīy(y)o- was at the same time sovereign, wife of the great god, and
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...
(thence *Friy(y)a-dagaz "Freitag for Veneris dies). However the internal tension of the character led to a duplication in Scandinavian religion:
Frigg
Frigg (; Old Norse: ) is a goddess, one of the Æsir, in Germanic mythology. In Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about her, she is associated with marriage, prophecy, clairvoyance and motherhood, and dwells in the wet ...
resulted in a merely sovereign goddess, the spouse of wizard god
Óðinn
Odin (; from non, Óðinn, ) is a widely revered god in Germanic paganism. Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about him, associates him with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, victory, ...
, while from the name of
Freyr
Freyr (Old Norse: 'Lord'), sometimes anglicized as Frey, is a widely attested god in Norse mythology, associated with kingship, fertility, peace, and weather. Freyr, sometimes referred to as Yngvi-Freyr, was especially associated with Sweden an ...
, typical god of the third function, was extracted a second character,
Freyja
In Norse paganism, Freyja (Old Norse "(the) Lady") is a goddess associated with love, beauty, fertility, sex, war, gold, and seiðr (magic for seeing and influencing the future). Freyja is the owner of the necklace Brísingamen, rides a chario ...
, confined as a
Vani
Vani ( ka, ვანი) is a town in Imereti region of a western Georgia, at the Sulori river (a tributary of the Rioni river), 41 km southwest from the regional capital Kutaisi. The town with the population of 3,744 (2014) is an administr ...
to the sphere of pleasure and wealth.
Dumézil opines that the theologies of ancient Latium could have preserved a composite image of the goddess and this fact, notably her feature of being ''Regina'', would in turn have rendered possible her ''interpretatio'' as Hera.
Associations with other deities
Juno and Jupiter
![Carracci - Jupiter et Junon](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Carracci_-_Jupiter_et_Junon.jpeg)
The divine couple received from Greece its matrimonial implications, thence bestowing on Juno the role of tutelary goddess of marriage (''Iuno Pronuba'').
The association of Juno and Jupiter is of the most ancient Latin theology.
Praeneste
Palestrina (ancient ''Praeneste''; grc, Πραίνεστος, ''Prainestos'') is a modern Italian city and ''comune'' (municipality) with a population of about 22,000, in Lazio, about east of Rome. It is connected to the latter by the Via Pre ...
offers a glimpse into original Latin mythology: the local goddess
Fortuna
Fortuna ( la, Fortūna, equivalent to the Greek goddess Tyche) is the goddess of fortune and the personification of luck in Roman religion who, largely thanks to the Late Antique author Boethius, remained popular through the Middle Ages until at ...
is represented as nursing two infants, one male and one female, namely
Jove
Jupiter ( la, Iūpiter or , from Proto-Italic "day, sky" + "father", thus " sky father" Greek: Δίας or Ζεύς), also known as Jove ( gen. ''Iovis'' ), is the god of the sky and thunder, and king of the gods in ancient Roman religio ...
(Jupiter) and Juno. It seems fairly safe to assume that from the earliest times they were identified by their own proper names and since they got them they were never changed through the course of history: they were called Jupiter and Juno. These gods were the most ancient deities of every Latin town. Praeneste preserved divine filiation and infancy as the sovereign god and his paredra Juno have a mother who is the primordial goddess Fortuna Primigenia. Many terracotta statuettes have been discovered which represent a woman with a child: one of them represents exactly the scene described by Cicero of a woman with two children of different sex who touch her breast. Two of the votive inscriptions to Fortuna associate her and Jupiter: " Fortunae Iovi puero..." and "Fortunae Iovis puero..."
However, in 1882 R. Mowat published an inscription in which Fortuna is called ''daughter of Jupiter'', raising new questions and opening new perspectives in the theology of Latin gods. Dumézil has elaborated an interpretative theory according to which this contradiction would be an intrinsic, fundamental feature of
Indoeuropean deities of the primordial and sovereign level, as it finds a parallel in Vedic religion. The contradiction would put Fortuna both at the origin of time and into its ensuing diachronic process: it is the comparison offered by Vedic deity
Aditi
Aditi (Sanskrit: अदिति, lit. 'boundless' or 'limitless' or 'innocence') is an important Vedic goddess in Hinduism.
She is the personification of the sprawling infinite and vast cosmos. She is the goddess of motherhood, conscio ...
, the ''Not-Bound'' or ''Enemy of Bondage'', that shows that there is no question of choosing one of the two apparent options: as the mother of the
Aditya
Surya (; sa, सूर्य, ) is the sun as well as the solar deity in Hinduism. He is traditionally one of the major five deities in the Smarta tradition, all of whom are considered as equivalent deities in the Panchayatana puja and a ...
she has the same type of relationship with one of his sons,
Dakṣa, the minor sovereign who represents the ''Creative Energy'', being at the same time his mother and daughter, as is true for the whole group of sovereign gods to which she belongs.
Juno and Janus
The relationship of the female sovereign deity with the god of beginnings and passages is reflected mainly in their association with the
kalendae of every month, which belong to both, and in the festival of the
Tigillum Sororium The ''Sororium Tigillum'', which translates as the "sister's beam", was a wooden beam said to have been erected on the slope of the Oppian Hill in Ancient Rome by the father of Publius Horatius, one of the three brothers Horatii. Publius Horatiu ...
of October 1.
Janus as gatekeeper of the gates connecting Heaven and Earth and guardian of all passages is particularly related to time and motion. He holds the first place in ritual invocations and prayers, in order to ensure the communication between the worshipper and the gods. He enjoys the privilege of receiving the first sacrifice of the new year, which is offered by the ''rex'' on the day of the
Agonium
An Agonalia or Agonia was an obscure archaic religious observance celebrated in ancient Rome several times a year, in honor of various divinities. Its institution, like that of other religious rites and ceremonies, was attributed to Numa Pompil ...
of January as well as at the kalendae of each month: These rites show he is considered the patron of the cosmic year. Ovid in his ''
Fasti
In ancient Rome, the ''fasti'' (Latin plural) were chronological or calendar-based lists, or other diachronic records or plans of official and religiously sanctioned events. After Rome's decline, the word ''fasti'' continued to be used for simil ...
'' has Janus say that he is the original Chaos and also the first era of the world, which got organised only afterwards. He preserves a tutelary function on this universe as the gatekeeper of Heaven. His nature, qualities and role are reflected in the myth of him being the first to reign in Latium, on the banks of the Tiber, and there receiving the god
Saturn, in the age when the Earth could still bear gods. The theology of Janus is also presented in the
carmen Saliare
The ''Carmen Saliare'' is a fragment of archaic Latin, which played a part in the rituals performed by the Salii (Salian priests, a.k.a. "leaping priests") of Ancient Rome. There are 35 extant fragments of the ''Carmen Saliare'', which can be r ...
. According to
Johannes Lydus the Etruscans called him Heaven. His epithets are numerous ''Iunonius'' is particularly relevant, as the god of the kalendae who cooperates with and is the source of the youthful vigour of Juno in the birth of the new lunar month. His other epithet ''Consivius'' hints to his role in the generative function.
The role of the two gods at the kalendae of every month is that of presiding over the birth of the new moon. Janus and Juno cooperate as the first looks after the passage from the previous to the ensuing month while the second helps it through the strength of her vitality. The rites of the kalendae included the invocations to Juno Covella, giving the number of days to the ''nonae'', a sacrifice to Janus by the rex sacrorum and the pontifex minor at the ''curia Calabra'' and one to Juno by the regina sacrorum in the Regia: originally when the month was still lunar the ''pontifex minor'' had the task of signalling the appearance of the new moon. While the meaning of the epithet Covella is unknown and debated, that of the rituals is clear as the divine couple is supposed to oversee, protect and help the moon during the particularly dangerous time of her darkness and her ''labours'': the role of Juno Covella is hence the same as that of Lucina for women during parturition. The association of the two gods is reflected on the human level at the difficult time of labours as is apparent in the custom of putting a key, symbol of Janus, in the hand of the woman with the aim of ensuring an easy delivery, while she had to invoke Juno Lucina. At the nonae Caprotinae similarly Juno had the function of aiding and strengthening the moon as the nocturnal light, at the time when her force was supposed to be at its lowest, after the Summer solstice.
The Tigillum Sororium was a rite (sacrum) of the gens
Horatia and later of the State. In it ''Janus Curiatius'' was associated to ''Juno Sororia'': they had their altars on opposite sides of the alley behind the Tigillum Sororium. Physically this consisted of a beam spanning the space over two posts. It was kept in good condition down to the time of Livy at public expenses. According to tradition it was a rite of purification that served at the expiation of
Publius Horatius who had murdered his own sister when he saw her mourning the death of her betrothed Curiatius. Dumézil has shown in his ''Les Horaces et les Curiaces'' that this story is in fact the historical transcription of rites of reintegration into civil life of the young warriors, in the myth symbolised by the hero, freed from their ''furor'' (wrath), indispensable at war but dangerous in social life. What is known of the rites of October 1 shows at Rome the legend has been used as an aetiological myth for the yearly purification ceremonies which allowed the ''desacralisation'' of soldiers at the end of the warring season, i.e. their cleansing from the religious pollution contracted at war. The story finds parallels in Irish and Indian mythologies. These rites took place in October, the month that at Rome saw the celebration of the end of the yearly military activity. Janus would then be the patron of the ''feria'' as god of transitions, Juno for her affinities to Janus, especially on the day of the kalendae. It is also possible though that she took part as the tutelary goddess of young people, the ''iuniores'', etymologically identical to her. Modern scholars are divided on the interpretation of J. Curiatius and J. Sororia. Renard citing Capdeville opines that the wisest choice is to adhere to tradition and consider the legend itself as the source of the epithets.
M. Renard advanced the view that Janus and not Jupiter was the original paredra or consort of Juno, on the grounds of their many common features, functions and appearance in myth or rites as is shown by their cross coupled epithets Janus Curiatius and Juno Sororia: Janus shares the epithet of Juno Curitis and Juno the epithet Janus Geminus, as ''sororius'' means paired, double. Renard's theory has been rejected by G. Capdeville as not being in accord with the level of sovereign gods in Dumézil's trifunctional structure. The theology of Janus would show features typically belonging to the order of the gods of the beginning. In Capdeville's view it is only natural that a god of beginnings and a sovereign mother deity have common features, as all births can be seen as beginnings, Juno is invoked by deliverers, who by custom hold a key, symbol of Janus.
Juno and Hercules
Even though the origins of
Hercules
Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures.
The Romans adapted the ...
are undoubtedly Greek his figure underwent an early assimilation into Italic local religions and might even preserve traces of an association to Indoiranian deity
Trita Apya that in Greece have not survived. Among other roles that Juno and Hercules share there is the protection of the newborn.
Jean Bayet, author of ''Les origines de l'Arcadisme romain'', has argued that such a function must be a later development as it looks to have superseded that of the two original Latin gods
Picumnus and
Pilumnus.
The two gods are mentioned together in a dedicatory inscription found in the ruins of the temple of Hercules at Lanuvium, whose cult was ancient and second in importance only to that of Juno Sospita. In the cults of this temple just like in those at the
Ara maxima in Rome women were not allowed. The exclusion of one sex is a characteristic practice in the cults of deities of fertility. Even though no text links the cults of the Ara maxima with Juno Sospita, her temple, founded in 193 BC, was located in the
Forum Holitorium
The Forum Holitorium ( it, Foro Olitorio; en, Vegetable-sellers' Market) is an archaeological area of Rome, Italy, on the slopes of the Capitoline Hill. It was "oddly located" outside the Porta Carmentalis in the Campus Martius, crowded between ...
near the
Porta Carmentalis
The Porta Carmentalis was a double gate in the Servian Walls of ancient Rome. It was named for a nearby shrine to the goddess or nymph Carmenta, whose importance in early Roman religion is also indicated by the assignment of one of the fifteen '' ...
, one of the sites of the legend of Hercules in Rome. The feria of the goddess coincides with a ''Natalis Herculis'', birthday of Hercules, which was celebrated with ''ludi circenses'', games in the circus. In Bayet's view Juno and Hercules did supersede Pilumnus and Picumnus in the role of tutelary deities of the newborn not only because of their own features as goddess of the deliverers and as apotropaic tutelary god of infants but also because of their common quality as gods of fertility. This was the case in Rome and at
Tusculum
Tusculum is a ruined Roman city in the Alban Hills, in the Latium region of Italy. Tusculum was most famous in Roman times for the many great and luxurious patrician country villas sited close to the city, yet a comfortable distance from Rome ( ...
where a cult of Juno Lucina and Hercules was known. At Lanuvium and perhaps Rome though their most ancient association rests on their common fertility and military characters. The Latin Junos certainly possessed a marked warlike character (at Lanuvium, Falerii, Tibur, Rome). Such a character might suggest a comparison with the Greek armed
Heras one finds in the South of Italy at
Cape Lacinion and at the mouth of river
Sele, military goddesses close to the Heras of
Elis
Elis or Ilia ( el, Ηλεία, ''Ileia'') is a historic region in the western part of the Peloponnese peninsula of Greece. It is administered as a regional unit of the modern region of Western Greece. Its capital is Pyrgos. Until 2011 it was ...
and
Argos
Argos most often refers to:
* Argos, Peloponnese, a city in Argolis, Greece
** Ancient Argos, the ancient city
* Argos (retailer), a catalogue retailer operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland
Argos or ARGOS may also refer to:
Businesses
...
known as ''Argivae''. In the cult this Hera received at Cape Lacinion she was associated with Heracles, supposed to be the founder of the sanctuary. Contacts with Central Italy and similarity would have favoured a certain assimilation between Latin warlike Junos and Argive Heras and the association with Heracles of Latin Junos. Some scholars, mostly Italians, recognize in the Junos of Falerii, Tibur and Lavinium the Greek Hera, rejecting the theory of an indigenous original cult of a military Juno. Renard thinks Dumézil's opposition to such a view is to be upheld: Bayet's words though did not deny the existence of local warlike Junos, but only imply that at a certain time they received the influence of the Heras of Lacinion and Sele, a fact that earned them the epithet of ''Argive'' and a Greek connotation. However Bayet recognized the quality of mother and of fertility deity as being primitive among the three purported by the epithets of the Juno of Lanuvium (Seispes, Mater, Regina).
Magna Graecia and Lanuvium mixed their influence in the formation of the Roman Hercules and perhaps there was a Sabine element too as is testified by Varro, supported by the find of the sanctuary of Hercules Curinus at Sulmona and by the existence of a Juno Curitis in Latium.
The mythical theme of the suckling of the adult
Heracles
Heracles ( ; grc-gre, Ἡρακλῆς, , glory/fame of Hera), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptiv ...
by
Hera, though being of Greek origin, is considered by scholars as having received its full acknowledgement and development in Etruria: Heracles has become a bearded adult on the mirrors of the 4th and 3rd centuries BC. Most scholars view the fact as an initiation, i.e. the accession of Heracles to the condition of immortal. Even though the two versions coexisted in Greece and that of Heracles infant is attested earlier Renard suggests a process more in line with the evolution of the myth: the suckling of the adult Heracles should be regarded as more ancient and reflecting its original true meaning.
Juno and Genius
The view that Juno was the feminine counterpart to
Genius
Genius is a characteristic of original and exceptional insight in the performance of some art or endeavor that surpasses expectations, sets new standards for future works, establishes better methods of operation, or remains outside the capabili ...
, i.e. that as men possess a tutelary entity or ''double'' named genius, so women have their own one named ''juno'', has been maintained by many scholars, lastly Kurt Latte. In the past it has also been argued that goddess Juno herself would be the issue of a process of abstraction from the individual ''junos'' of every woman. According to
Georg Wissowa
Georg Otto August Wissowa (17 June 1859 – 11 May 1931) was a German classical philologist born in Neudorf, near Breslau.
Education and career
Wissowa studied classical philology under August Reifferscheid at the University of Bresla ...
and K. Latte, Genius (from the root ''gen-'', whence ''gigno'' bear or be born, archaic also ''geno'') would designate the specific virile generative potency, as opposed to feminine nature, reflected in conception and delivery, under the tutelage of Juno Lucina. Such an interpretation has been critically reviewed by
Walter F. Otto.
While there are some correspondences between the ideas about genius and ''juno'', especially in the imperial age, the relevant documentation is rather late (
Tibullus
Albius Tibullus ( BC19 BC) was a Latin poet and writer of elegies. His first and second books of poetry are extant; many other texts attributed to him are of questionable origins.
Little is known about the life of Tibullus. There are only a f ...
mentions it first). Dumézil also remarks that from these passages one could infer that every woman has a Venus too. As evidence of the antiquity of the concept of a ''juno'' of women, homologous to the ''genius'' of men, is the
Arval sacrifice of two sheep to the Juno
Deae Diae ("the juno of goddesses named Dea Dia"), in contrast to their sacrifice of two cows sacrificed to Juno (singular). However both G. Wissowa and K. Latte allow that this ritual could have been adapted to fit theology of the Augustan restoration. While the concept of a Juno of goddesses is not attested in the inscriptions of 58 BC from Furfo, that of a Genius of gods is, and even of a Genius of a goddess,
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
. On this point it looks remarkable that also in
Martianus Capella
Martianus Minneus Felix Capella (fl. c. 410–420) was a jurist, polymath and Latin prose writer of late antiquity, one of the earliest developers of the system of the seven liberal arts that structured early medieval education. He was a nati ...
's division of Heaven a ''Juno Hospitae Genius'' is mentioned in region IX, and not a ''Juno'': the sex of this Genius is feminine. See section below for details.
Romans believed the genius of somebody was an entity that embodied his essential character, personality, and also originally his vital, generative force and ''raison d' être''. However the genius had no direct relationship with sex, at least in the conceptions of the classical period, even though the nuptial bed was named ''lectus genialis'' in honour of the Genius and brides on the day of marriage invoked the genius of their grooms. This seems to hint to a significance of the ''Genius'' as the propagative spirit of the ''gens'', of whom every human individual is an incarnation:
Censorinus
Censorinus was a Roman grammarian and miscellaneous writer from the 3rd century AD.
Biography
He was the author of a lost work ''De Accentibus'' and of an extant treatise ''De Die Natali'', written in 238, and dedicated to his patron Quintus ...
states: "Genius is the god under whose tutelage everyone is born and lives on", and that "many ancient authors, among whom
Granius Flaccus Granius Flaccus (active in the 1st century BC) was an antiquarian and scholar of Roman law and religion, probably in the time of Julius Caesar and Augustus.
Religious scholar
Granius wrote a book ''De indigitamentis'' ("On Forms of Address"), on th ...
in his ''De Indigitamentis'', maintain that he is one and the same with the
Lar", meaning the Lar Familiaris. Festus calls him "a god endowed with the power of doing everything", then citing an Aufustius: "Genius is the son of the gods and the parent of men, from whom men receive life. Thence is he named my genius, because he begot me". Festus's quotation goes on saying: "Other think he is the special god of every place", a notion that reflects a different idea. In classic age literature and iconography he is often represented as a snake, that may appear in the conjugal bed, this conception being perhaps the result of a Greek influence. It was easy for the Roman concept of Genius to expand annexing other similar religious figures as the Lares and the Greek
δαίμων ἀγαθός.
The genius was believed to be associated with the forehead of each man, while goddess Juno, not the ''juno'' of every woman, was supposed to have under her jurisdiction the eyebrows of women or to be the tutelary goddess of the eyebrows of everybody, irrespective of one's sex.
Juno and the Penates
According to one interpretation of the
Di Penates
In ancient Roman religion, the Di Penates () or Penates ( ) were among the ''dii familiares'', or household deities, invoked most often in domestic rituals. When the family had a meal, they threw a bit into the fire on the hearth for the Penates. ...
, Juno, along with Jupiter and Minerva, is one of the Penates of man. This view is ascribed by Macrobius to the mystic religion of Samothrace, imported to Rome by Tarquinius Priscus, himself an initiate, who thereby created the Roman Capitoline Triad. Juno is the god by whom man gets his body.
Heries Junonis
Among the female entities that in the pontifical invocations accompanied the naming of gods, Juno was associated to Heries, which she shared with
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...
(''Heres Martea'').
Festivals
![S03 06 01 020 image 2539](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/S03_06_01_020_image_2539.jpg)
All festivals of Juno were held on the kalendae of a month except two (or, perhaps, three): the ''Nonae Caprotinae'' on the
nonae
The Roman calendar was the calendar used by the Roman Kingdom and Roman Republic. The term often includes the Julian calendar established by the reforms of the Roman dictator, dictator Julius Caesar and Roman emperor, emperor Augustus in the ...
of July, the festival of ''Juno Capitolina'' on September 13, because the date of these two was determined by the preeminence of Jupiter. Perhaps a second festival of ''Juno Moneta'' was held on October 10, possibly the date of the dedication of her temple. This fact reflects the strict association of the goddess with the beginning of each lunar month.
Every year, on the first of March, women held a festival in honour of Juno Lucina called the
Matronalia
In ancient Roman religion, the Matronalia (or Matronales Feriae) was a festival celebrating Juno Lucina, the goddess of childbirth (" Juno who brings children into the light"), and of motherhood (''mater'' is "mother" in Latin) and women in gene ...
.
Lucina was an epithet for Juno as "she who brings children into light". On this day, lambs and cattle were sacrificed in her honor in the temple of her sacred grove on the
Cispius
Cispius is the '' nomen'' of the Roman '' gens Cispia''.
Cispius Laevus
The '' Mons Cispius'', or Cispian Hill, is one of several summits of the Esquiline Hill in Rome. The grammarian Festus says that it was named for a Cispius Laevus of Anagn ...
.
The second festival was devoted to ''Juno Moneta'' on June 1.
After this was the festival of the ''Nonae Caprotinae'' ("The Nones of the Wild Fig") held on July 7.
The festival of ''Juno Regina'' fell on September 1, followed on the 13th of the same month by that of ''Juno Regina Capitolina''.
October 1 was the date of the ''Tigillum Sororium'' in which the goddess was honoured as ''Juno Sororia''.
The last of her yearly festivals was that of ''Juno Sospita'' on February 1. It was an appropriate date for her celebration since the month of February was considered a perilous time of passage, the cosmic year then coming to an end and the limits between the world of the living and the underworld being no longer safely defined. Hence the community invoked the protection (''tutela'') of the warlike ''Juno Sospita'', "''The Saviour''".
Juno is the patroness of marriage, and many people believe that the most favorable time to marry is June, the month named after the goddess.
Etrurian Uni, Hera, Astarte and Juno
The
Etruscans
The Etruscan civilization () was developed by a people of Etruria in ancient Italy with a common language and culture who formed a federation of city-states. After conquering adjacent lands, its territory covered, at its greatest extent, rou ...
were a people who maintained extensive (if often conflicting) contacts with the other peoples of the Mediterranean: the Greeks, the Phoenicians, and the Carthaginians.
Evidence of intense cultural exchanges with the Greeks has been found in 1969 at the sanctuary of the port of Gravisca near
Tarquinia
Tarquinia (), formerly Corneto, is an old city in the province of Viterbo, Lazio, Central Italy, known chiefly for its ancient Etruscan tombs in the widespread necropoleis, or cemeteries, for which it was awarded UNESCO World Heritage status ...
. Renard thinks the cult of Hera in great emporia such as
Croton, Posidonia, Pyrgi might be a counter to Aphrodite's, linked to sacred prostitution in ports, as the sovereign of legitimate marriage and family and of their sacrality. Hera's presence had already been attested at
Caere
:
Caere (also Caisra and Cisra) is the Latin name given by the Romans to one of the larger cities of southern Etruria, the modern Cerveteri, approximately 50–60 kilometres north-northwest of Rome. To the Etruscans it was known as Cisra, t ...
in the sanctuary of Manganello. In the 18th century a dedication to Iuno Historia was discovered at Castrum Novum (Santa Marinella). The cult of Iuno and Hera is generally attested in Etruria.
The relationship between Uni and the Phoenician goddess
Astarte
Astarte (; , ) is the Hellenized form of the Ancient Near Eastern goddess Ashtart or Athtart ( Northwest Semitic), a deity closely related to Ishtar ( East Semitic), who was worshipped from the Bronze Age through classical antiquity. The name ...
has been brought to light by the discovery of the
Pyrgi Tablets
The Pyrgi Tablets (dated ) are three golden plates inscribed with a bilingual Phoenician– Etruscan dedicatory text. They are the oldest historical source documents from pre-Roman Italy and are rare examples of texts in these languages. They w ...
in 1964. At
Pyrgi
Pyrgi (''Pyrgus'' in Etruscan) was originally an ancient Etruscan town and port in Latium, central Italy, to the north-west of Caere. Its location is now occupied by the borough of Santa Severa. It is notable for the discovery here of the g ...
, one of the ports of Caere, excavations had since 1956 revealed the existence of a sacred area, intensely active from the last quarter of the 4th century, yielding two documents of a cult of
Uni. Scholars had long believed the Etruscan goddess Uni was strongly influenced by the Argive Heras and had her Punic counterpart in the Carthaginian goddess
Tanit
Tanit ( Punic: 𐤕𐤍𐤕 ''Tīnīt'') was a Punic goddess. She was the chief deity of Carthage alongside her consort Baal-Hamon.
Tanit is also called Tinnit. The name appears to have originated in Carthage (modern day Tunisia), though it doe ...
, identified by the Romans as Juno Caelestis. Nonetheless
Augustine of Hippo had already stated that Juno was named Astarte in the Punic language, a notion that the discovery of the Pyrgi lamellae has proved correct. It is debated whether such an identification was linked to a transient political stage corresponding with Tefarie Velianas's Carthaginian-backed tyranny on Caere as the sanctuary does not show any other trait proper to Phoenician ones. The mention of the goddess of the sanctuary as being named locally Eileitheia and Leucothea by different Greek authors narrating its destruction by the Syracusean fleet in 384 BC, made the picture even more complex. R. Bloch has proposed a two-stage interpretation: the first theonym Eilethya corresponds to Juno Lucina, the second Leucothea to Mater Matuta. However, the local theonym is Uni and one would legitimately expect it to be translated as Hera. A fragmentary bronze lamella discovered on the same site and mentioning both theonym Uni and Thesan (i. e. Latin Juno and Aurora-Mater Matuta) would then allow the inference of the integration of the two deities at Pyrgi: the local Uni-Thesan matronal and auroral, would have become the Iuno Lucina and the Mater Matuta of Rome. The Greek assimilation would reflect this process as not direct but subsequent to a process of distinction. Renard rejects this hypothesis since he sees in Uni and Thesan two distinct deities, though associated in cult. However the entire picture should have been familiar in Italian and Roman religious lore as is shown by the complexity and ambivalence of the relationship of Juno with Rome and Romans in Virgil's Aeneid, who has Latin, Greek and Punic traits, result of a plurisaecular process of amalgamation. Also remarkable in this sense is the ''Fanum Iunonis'' of Malta (of the Hellenistic period) which has yielded dedicatory inscriptions to Astarte and Tanit.
Juno in Martianus Capella's division of Heaven
Martianus Capella's collocation of gods into sixteen different regions of Heaven is supposed to be based on and to reflect Etruscan religious lore, at least in part. It is thence comparable with the theonyms found in the sixteen cases of the outer rim of the
Piacenza Liver
The Liver of Piacenza is an Etruscan artifact found in a field on September 26, 1877, near Gossolengo, in the province of Piacenza, Italy, now kept in the Municipal Museum of Piacenza, in the Palazzo Farnese.
It is a life-sized bronze model o ...
. Juno is to be found in region II, along with Quirinus Mars, Lars militaris, Fons, Lymphae and the dii Novensiles. This position is reflected on the
Piacenza Liver
The Liver of Piacenza is an Etruscan artifact found in a field on September 26, 1877, near Gossolengo, in the province of Piacenza, Italy, now kept in the Municipal Museum of Piacenza, in the Palazzo Farnese.
It is a life-sized bronze model o ...
by the situation of Uni in case IV, owing to a threefold location of
Tinia
In Etruscan religion and mythology, Tinia (also Tin, Tinh, Tins or ''Tina'') was the god of the sky and the highest god in Etruscan mythology, equivalent to the Roman Jupiter and the Greek Zeus. However, a primary source from the Roman Varr ...
in the first three cases that determines an equivalent shift.
An entity named Juno Hospitae Genius is to be found alone in region IX. Since
Grotius
Hugo Grotius (; 10 April 1583 – 28 August 1645), also known as Huig de Groot () and Hugo de Groot (), was a Dutch humanist, diplomat, lawyer, theologian, jurist, poet and playwright.
A teenage intellectual prodigy, he was born in Delft ...
(1599) many editors have proposed the correction of Hospitae into Sospitae. S. Weinstock has proposed to identify this entity with one of the spouses of
Neptune, as the epithet recurs below (I 81) used in this sense.
In region XIV is located Juno Caelestis along with
Saturn. This deity is the Punic Astarte/Tanit, usually associated with Saturn in Africa. Iuno Caelestis is thence in turn assimilated to
Ops and Greek
Rhea. Uni is here the Punic goddess, in accord with the identification of Pyrgi. Her paredra was the Phoenician god
Ba'al
Baal (), or Baal,; phn, , baʿl; hbo, , baʿal, ). ( ''baʿal'') was a title and honorific meaning "owner", "lord" in the Northwest Semitic languages spoken in the Levant during antiquity. From its use among people, it came to be applied t ...
, interpreted as Saturn. Capdeville admits of being unable to explain the collocation of Juno Caelestis among the underworld gods, which looks to be determined mainly by her condition as spouse of Saturn.
Statue at Samos
In the
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
city of
Maastricht
Maastricht ( , , ; li, Mestreech ; french: Maestricht ; es, Mastrique ) is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg. Maastricht is located on both sides of the ...
, which was founded as ''Trajectum ad Mosam'' in the Roman province of
Germania Inferior
Germania Inferior ("Lower Germania") was a Roman province from AD 85 until the province was renamed Germania Secunda in the fourth century, on the west bank of the Rhine bordering the North Sea. The capital of the province was Colonia Agripp ...
about 2000 years ago, the remains of the foundations of a substantial temple for Juno and Jupiter are to be found in the cellars of Hotel Derlon. Over part of the Roman remains the first Christian church of the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
was built in the 4th century AD.
The story behind these remains begins with Juno and Jupiter being born as twins of
Saturn and
Opis
Opis (Akkadian ''Upî'' or ''Upija''; grc, Ὦπις) was an ancient Babylonian city near the Tigris, not far from modern Baghdad. Akkadian and Greek texts indicate that it was located on the east side of the Tigris, near the Diyala River.
T ...
. Juno was sent to
Samos
Samos (, also ; el, Σάμος ) is a Greece, Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese, and off the coast of western Turkey, from which it is separated by the -wide Mycale Strait. It is also a se ...
when she was a very young child. She was carefully raised there until
puberty
Puberty is the process of physical changes through which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of sexual reproduction. It is initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads: the ovaries in a girl, the testes in a bo ...
, when she then married her brother. A statue was made representing Juno, the bride, as a young girl on her wedding day. It was carved out of
Parian marble
Parian marble is a fine-grained semi translucent pure-white and entirely flawless marble quarried during the classical era on the Greek island of Paros in the Aegean Sea.
It was highly prized by ancient Greeks for making sculptures. Some of the ...
and placed in front of her temple at Samos for many centuries. Ultimately this statue of Juno was brought to Rome and placed in the sanctuary of
Jupiter Optimus Maximus
The Capitoline Triad was a group of three deities who were worshipped in ancient Roman religion in an elaborate temple on Rome's Capitoline Hill (Latin ''Capitolium''). It comprised Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. The triad held a central place in th ...
on the
Capitoline Hill
The Capitolium or Capitoline Hill ( ; it, Campidoglio ; la, Mons Capitolinus ), between the Forum and the Campus Martius, is one of the Seven Hills of Rome.
The hill was earlier known as ''Mons Saturnius'', dedicated to the god Saturn. ...
. For a long time the Romans honored her with many ceremonies under the name Queen Juno. The remains were moved then sometime between the 1st century and the 4th century to the Netherlands.
In literature
Perhaps Juno's most prominent appearance in
Roman literature
Latin literature includes the essays, histories, poems, plays, and other writings written in the Latin language. The beginning of formal Latin literature dates to 240 BC, when the first stage play in Latin was performed in Rome. Latin literature ...
is as the primary antagonistic force in
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: th ...
's ''
Aeneid
The ''Aeneid'' ( ; la, Aenē̆is or ) is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who fled the fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of th ...
'', where she is depicted as a cruel and savage goddess intent upon supporting first
Dido
Dido ( ; , ), also known as Elissa ( , ), was the legendary founder and first queen of the Phoenician city-state of Carthage (located in modern Tunisia), in 814 BC.
In most accounts, she was the queen of the Phoenician city-state of Tyre (t ...
and then
Turnus
Turnus ( grc, Τυρρηνός, Tyrrhênós) was the legendary King of the Rutuli in Roman history, and the chief antagonist of the hero Aeneas in Virgil's ''Aeneid''.
According to the ''Aeneid'', Turnus is the son of Daunus and the nymph V ...
and the
Rutuli
The Rutuli or Rutulians were an ancient people in Italy. The Rutuli were located in a territory whose capital was the ancient town of Ardea, located about 35 km southeast of Rome.
Thought to have been descended from the Umbri and the Pelas ...
ans against
Aeneas
In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas (, ; from ) was a Trojan hero, the son of the Trojan prince Anchises and the Greek goddess Aphrodite (equivalent to the Roman Venus). His father was a first cousin of King Priam of Troy (both being grandsons ...
' attempt to found a new
Troy
Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in present-day Turkey, south-west of Ç ...
in Italy.
Maurus Servius Honoratus
Servius was a late fourth-century and early fifth-century grammarian. He earned a contemporary reputation as the most learned man of his generation in Italy; he authored a set of commentaries on the works of Virgil. These works, ''In tria V ...
, commenting on some of her several roles in the ''Aeneid'', supposes her as a conflation of
Hera with the
Carthaginian storm-goddess
Tanit
Tanit ( Punic: 𐤕𐤍𐤕 ''Tīnīt'') was a Punic goddess. She was the chief deity of Carthage alongside her consort Baal-Hamon.
Tanit is also called Tinnit. The name appears to have originated in Carthage (modern day Tunisia), though it doe ...
.
Ovid
Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...
's ''
Metamorphoses
The ''Metamorphoses'' ( la, Metamorphōsēs, from grc, μεταμορφώσεις: "Transformations") is a Latin narrative poem from 8 CE by the Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the ...
'' offers a story accounting for her sacred association with the
peacock
Peafowl is a common name for three bird species in the genera '' Pavo'' and '' Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae, the pheasants and their allies. Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and female peafowl are r ...
. She is remembered in ''
De Mulieribus Claris
''De Mulieribus Claris'' or ''De Claris Mulieribus'' (Latin for "Concerning Famous Women") is a collection of biographies of historical and mythological women by the Florentine author Giovanni Boccaccio, composed in Latin prose in 1361–1362. ...
'', a collection of biographies of historical and mythological women by the
Florentine author
Giovanni Boccaccio, composed in 136162. It is notable as the first collection devoted exclusively to biographies of women in Western literature.
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
briefly employs Juno as a
masque
The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment that flourished in 16th- and early 17th-century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio (a public version of the masque was the pageant). A masq ...
character in ''
The Tempest'' (Act IV, Scene I).
Modern reception
Spaceflight
In spaceflight,
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
launched a space probe to
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandth t ...
in 2011, and named it Juno in reference to her relationship to the god
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandth t ...
in mythology.
See also
*
Potnia Theron
*
Reitia
Reitia (Venetic: 𐌓𐌄:𐌉:𐌕𐌉:𐌀) is a goddess, one of the best known deities of the Adriatic Veneti of northeastern Italy.
While her place in the Venetic pantheon cannot be known for certain, the importance of her cult to Venetic ...
Ancient source references
*Servius, ''In Aeneida ii.225''
*Lactantius, ''Divinae institutions'' i.17.8
References
External links
Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (ca 400 images of Juno)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Juno (Mythology)
Roman goddesses
Deities in the Aeneid
June
Tutelary deities
Hera
Metamorphoses characters
Queens of Heaven (antiquity)
Marriage goddesses
Childhood goddesses
Capitoline Triad
Dii Consentes