Juno ( ; ) is a goddess in the ancient Roman religion, the protector and special counsellor of the state. She equates to Hera, queen of the gods in Greek mythology and a goddess of marriage. A daughter of Saturn and Ops, she is the sister and wife of Jupiter and the mother of Mars, Vulcan, Bellona, Lucina and Juventas. Like Hera, her sacred animal is the peafowl.Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia, The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215. Her Etruscan counterpart is Uni, and she was said to also watch over the women of Rome.Corbishley, Mike Ancient Rome Warwick Press 1986 p.62 As the patron goddess of Rome and the Roman Empire, Juno was called ("Queen") and is a member of the Capitoline Triad (Juno Capitolina), centered on the Capitoline Hill in Rome, which also includes Jupiter and Minerva, 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, who bore a goatskin, or a goatskin shield, called the Aegis. Juno was also shown wearing a diadem.
Etymology The name Juno was once popularly thought to be connected to Iove (Jove), originally as Diuno and Diove from *Diovona.P. K. Buttmann Mythologus I Berlin 1828 p. 200 ff.; J. A. Hartung Die Religion der Römer II Erlangen 1836 p. 62; L. Preller Rômische Mythologie I. Although this etymology still receives some support, a derivation was later 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.G. Wissowa Religion und Kultus der Römer Munich 1912 pp. 181-2, drawing on W. Schulze and W. Otto in 1904 and 1905. Juno would then be a derivate noun in -ōn-, rather unusual in the feminine.
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".Émile Benveniste, "Expression indo-européenne de l' éternité" Bulletin de la société de linguistique de Paris 38, 1937, pp.103-112: the theme *yuwen- includes the root *yu- at degree 0 and the suffix -wen-. The original meaning of the root *yu- is that of force as found in Vedic ắyuh vital force, āyúh genius of the vital force and also in Greek αιών and Latin aevum. The iuvenis is he who has the fullness of vital force.Robert E. A. Palmer Roman Religion and Roman Empire. Five Essays Philadelphia, 1974, p. 4; Marcel Renard "Le nom de Junon" in Phoibos 5 1950, 1, p. 141-143. 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".G. Wissowa above p. 135; G. Dumézil La relig. rom. arch. Paris 1974; It. tr. Milano 1977 p. 185-186; C. W. Atkins "Latin 'Iouiste' et le vocabulaire religieux indoeuropéen" in Mélanges Benveniste Paris, 1975, pp.527-535 Iuventas, "Youth", was one of two deities who "refused" to leave the Capitol when the building of the new Temple of Capitoline Jove required the exauguration of deities who already occupied the site.Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiquitates Romanae, III 69, 5-6. M Renard remarks that the annual procession which took the image of the goddess (represented as a goose) from the temple of Juno Moneta on the Arx to the Capitoline temple in a lectica portantine, stopped and placed the image between the cella of Jupiter and that of Minerva and there, in the pronaos in front of the statue of Minerva, stood Iuventas's aedicula. "Aspects anciens de Janus et de Junon" in Revue belge de philologie 1953 p. 21; V. Basanoff Les dieux des romains 1942 p. 154; Livy V 54, 7.
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.Varro Ling. Lat. V 67 and 69; Cicero, Nat. Deor. II 66; Plutarch, Quaestiones Romanae, 77.
Roles and epithets
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 as Sespeis Mater Regina, Laurentum, Tibur, Falerii, Veii as Regina, at Tibur and Falerii as Regina and Curitis, Tusculum and Norba as Lucina. She is also attested at Praeneste, Aricia, Ardea, Gabii. In five Latin towns a month was named after Juno (Aricia, Lanuvium, Laurentum, Praeneste, Tibur).Ovid Fasti VI 59-62 Outside Latium in Campania at Teanum she was Populona (she who increases the number of the people or, in K. Latte's understanding of the iuvenes, the army), in Umbria at Pisaurum Lucina, at Terventum in Samnium Regina, at Pisarum Regina Matrona, at Aesernia 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 of the Juno of Falerii: this though seems probable.; Dionysius of Halicarnassus Roman Antiquities II 50, 3.
Other epithets of hers that were in use at Rome include Moneta and Caprotina, Tutula, Fluonia or Fluviona, Februalis, the last ones associated with the rites of purification and fertility of February.G. Radke Die Götter Altitaliens Münster 1965 articles Tutela, Tutula and Fluonia, Fluviona.
Her various epithets thus show a complex of mutually interrelated functions that in the view of Georges Dumézil and Vsevolod Basanoff (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.
The epithet LucinaThe ancient were divided on the etymology of Lucina: some connected the epithet with the word lucus since the goddess had, since the most ancient times, a sacred grove and a temple on the Cispius near that of Mefitis: Pliny XVI 235; Varro Lin. Lat. V 49; Ovid Fasti II 435 and VI 449. Others favoured the derivation from lux as goddess of infants: Varro Lingua latina V 69; Cicero, Nat. Deor. II 68; Ovid Fasti, ii 450 and III 255; Plutarch, Quaestiones Romanae, 77. The association of Juno Lucina and Mefitis on the same or closely nearby site may not be coincidental, as at Rossano di Vaglio in Lucania have been discovered inscriptions linking the two entities: "μ]εfίτηι καπροτινν[ιαις" and "διωvιιας διομανας" (domina): cf. M. Lejeune "Notes de linguistique italique XXIII: Le culte de Rossano di Vaglio" in Revue d'Etudes Latins 45 1967 p. 202-221; "Inscriptions de Rossano di Vaglio 1971" in RAL 26 1971 p. 667 ff. The inscriptions are dated to the 3rd-2nd centuries. 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. These aspects of Juno mark the heavenly and worldly sides of her function. She is thus associated with all beginnings and hers are the kalendae of every month: at Laurentum she was known as Kalendaris Iuno (Juno of the Kalends).Macrobius Sat. I 15, 18; Varro Ling. Lat. V 69 At Rome on the Kalends of every month, the pontifex minor invoked her, under the epithet Covella, when from the Curia Calabra, he announced the date of the nonae.Varro VI 27: "sic :"Die te quinti kalo Iuno Covella" or "Septimi die te kalo Iuno Covella"; but the text looks to be corrupt: R. Schilling restitutes: "... dixit quinquies: "Kalo Iuno Covella" aut (or) septies: "Kalo Iuno C." ". On the same day, the regina sacrorum sacrificed to Juno, a white sow or a white lamb in the Regia. She is closely associated with Janus, the god of passages and beginnings, who is often named Iunonius after her.
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.G. Dumézil ARR; Others prefer to dismiss her aspects of femininity and fertilityR. E. A. Palmer above, p. 3-56. and stress only her quality of being the spirit of youthfulness, liveliness and strength, regardless of sexual connections, 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.R. E. A. Palmer above, p. 39. Thence she would be a poliad goddess related to politics, power and war. Others think her military and political qualities arise from her being a fertility goddess who, through her function of increasing the numbers of the community, became also associated with political and military functions.Kurt Latte Römishe Religionsgeshichte Munich 1960 p. 168.
Juno Sospita and Lucina
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.