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Crispina – Roman Empress: 177-183 A.D. –
Bronze As 22mm (13.63 grams) Struck circa 177-183 A.D.
Reference: RIC 682
CRISPINA AVGVSTA, draped bust right
IVNO REGINA S-C, Juno standing left holding patera & sceptre.
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Crispina
Augusta: 177-182/3 A.D.
Wife of Commodus
Daughter-in-Law of Marcus Aurelius and Faustina Junior
Bruttia Crispina (164-183 A.D.) was the
Empress of Rome
and wife of
Roman Emperor
Commodus
.
Crispina’s mother is unknown and her father was twice consul
Gaius Bruttius Praesens
. Crispina’s paternal
grandparents were consul and senator
Caius Bruttius Praesens
and rich heiress
Laberia Hostilia Crispina
, who was the daughter
of another twice consul,
Manius Laberius Maximus
. Crispina’s brother was
future consul
Lucius Bruttius Quintius Crispinus
. Her
father’s family originally came from Volceii,
Lucania
,
Italy
and were closely associated with the
Roman Emperors Trajan
,
Hadrian
,
Antoninus Pius
and
Marcus Aurelius
. Crispina was born and raised
in Rome
or Volceii.
Crispina married Commodus, in the summer of 178 (probably July). The actual
ceremony was modest but it was commemorated on coinage and largesse was
distributed to the people. An
epithalamium
for the occasion was composed
by the sophist
Julius Pollux
. Like many marriages of young
members of the upper orders, it was an arranged marriage: Crispina’s father and
Marcus Aurelius (Commodus’ father) had arranged for it to occur. Commodus
disliked Crispina, presumably due to her character – she was a beautiful woman,
but said to be vain and haughty. She received the title of
Augusta
.
On the basis of a misreading of
SHA Commodus
5.9 and Dio 73.4.6 her fall is
sometimes wrongly associated with the conspiracy of
Lucilla
in 181 or 182. Her name continues to
appear in inscriptions until as late as 191 (CIL 8.2366). Her eventual exile and
death may instead have been associated with the fall of
Marcus Aurelius Cleander
or her inability to
help Commodus ensure the dynastic succession.
Juno is an
ancient Roman goddess
, the protector and
special counselor of the state. She is a daughter of
Saturn
and sister (but also the wife) of the
chief god
Jupiter
and the mother of
Mars
and
Vulcan
. Juno also looked after the women of
Rome. Her Greek equivalent is
Hera, her Etruscan counterpart is
Uni
. As the
patron goddess
of
Rome and the
Roman Empire
, Juno was called Regina (“queen”)
and, together with Jupiter and
Minerva
, was worshipped as a triad on the
Capitol (Juno Capitolina) in Rome.
Juno’s own warlike aspect among the Romans is apparent in her attire. She
often appeared sitting pictured with a peacock armed and wearing a goatskin
cloak. The traditional depiction of this warlike aspect was assimilated from the
Greek goddess Hera
, whose goatskin was called the ‘aegis’.
Etymology
The name Iuno 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
.
Iuuen- is related to Latin aevum and Greek
aion (αιών) 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
when the building of the new
Temple of Capitoline Jove
required the
exauguration
of deities who already occupied
the site.
Ancient etymologies associated Juno’s name with iuvare, “to aid,
benefit”, and iuvenescendo, “rejuvenate”, sometimes connecting it to the
renewal of the new and waxing moon, perhaps implying the idea of a moon goddess.
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, fulness of vital energy,
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). Outside Latium in
Campania
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
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.
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.
Her various epithets thus show a complex of mutually interrelated functions
that in the view of
G. Dumezil
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 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
). At Rome on the Kalends of every month
the
pontifex
minor invoked her, under the
epithet Covella, when from the curia Calabra announced the date of
the nonae. On the same day the
regina sacrorum
sacrificed to Juno a white
sow or lamb in the Regia
. 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,
word often used to design 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. Other 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 the interrelated roles of the deity in the spheres of
fertility, war, and regality.
February is a month of passages, of ends and beginnings, and as such the
month of yearly universal purification and renewal. Ovid discusses the etymology
of February at the beginning of book II of the Fasti, connecting it to
februae, i.e. piamina, expiations. As the most important time of
passage of the year it implies risks for the community that have to be averted:
the risk of contamination brought about by the contact with the underworld. Juno
is then present and active at the three most prominent and relevant times of the
month: on the kalendae (the first), with the celebration of the
dies natalis
(“birthday”) of Juno Sospita
on the Palatine
, on 15th as Juno Lucina, inspirator
and patroness of the
Lupercalia
and as Lucina and at its end, on
March 1, as the protectress of the Matronae and of the preservation of
marriages: this day united into one three festivals as it was the kalendae
of the month, the beginning of the new year and the birthday of Romulus (as well
as the date of the commemoration of the appeasing role of women during the war
between Romans and Sabines).
Juno as Sospita (the Saviour) is thus the goddess that defends and protects
the Romans since the first day in this perilous time of passage. On the same day
recurred the celebration at the lucus grove of
Helernus
, which Dumezil thinks was a
god of vegetation
related to the cult of
Carna
/Crane, a nymph who may be an image of
Juno Sospita. The way this period should be dealt with came to a concrete
acme on the 15 in the
Lupercalia
: the rite was directly suggested to
the Roman couples by Juno Lucina in her lucus on the
Esquiline
, and was considered to be a rite of
periodical purification and fertility. It was perhaps also associated to the
renewal of political power, as it may appear in the competition between the two
groups of the
Luperci
, the Fabii and the Quinctii, mythically
associated to Remus and Romulus. This political valence is illustrated by the
episode of
Julius Caesar
who chose this occasion to enact
the scene of his crowning by
Mark Antony
and by the fact that he created a
third group, the Luperci Iulii. This element would perhaps be the reason of the
eulogy of Augustus at the beginning of book II of Ovid’s Fasti: as the
heir of Caesar he had indeed succeeded in his stepfather’s plan. Here is then
the sovereign function of Juno that is highlighted.
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 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”.
February owes its name to the februae, lustrations, and the goat whose
hide is used to make the whips of the
Luperci
is named februum and amiculus
Iunonis. The Juno of this day bears the epithet of Februalis,
Februata, Februa.[30]
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
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
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
was celebrated here on March 1, day
of the dedication of the temple.
A temple to Iuno Sospita was vowed by consul C. Cornelius Cethegus 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 exixst to-day. It is
thence plausible that an older temple of Juno Sospita existed in Rome within the
pomerium
, as Ovid says it was located near the
temple of the Phrygian Mother (Cybele),
which stood on the western corner of the
Palatine
. As a rule temples of foreign,
imported gods stood without 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 picniced 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
ensued the Gallic sack. The dictator of the Latins Livius Postumius from
Fidenae
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.
Dumezil 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
of the tutelary goddess of Rome.
Tutela 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
, 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 scurrile 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
and
Tibur
. Dumezil remarked that Juno Curitis “is
represented and invoked at Rome under conditions very close to those we know
about for Juno Seispes of
Lanuvium
“. 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
, *quir(i)s or *quiru,
the Sabine word for spear and
curia
. The *quiru- would design the sacred
spear that gave the name to the primitive curiae. The discovery at
Sulmona
of a sanctuary of
Hercules
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, practise the Romans continued to
use for Juno or her equivalent at later times as for Falerii,
Veii and
Carthage
. Juno Curitis would then be the evoked
deity after her admission into the curiae.
Juno Curitis had a temple on the
Campus Martius
. 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
This Juno is placed by ancient sources in a warring context. Dumezil 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
.
Her dies natalis was on the kalendae of June. Her Temple on the summit
of the Capitol was dedicted 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
. 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
, her oracular character, her
announcement of perils: she considers her as an introduction into Rome of the
Hera of
Cuma
dating to the 8th century. L. A. Mac Kay
considers the goddess more ancient than her etymology on the testimony of
Valerius Maximus
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.
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 of Jupiter in the
Capitoline Triad
[71]
others think she is a new acquisition introduced to Rome after her
evocatio
from Veii.
Palmer thinks she is to be identified with Juno Populona of later
inscriptions, a political and military poliadic 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.
IVNO REGINA (“Queen Juno”) on a coin celebrating
Julia Soaemias
.
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
, 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 Dumezil 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
. Roe D’Albret underlines the role played
by Camillus and sees a personal link between the deity and her magistrate.
Similarly Dumezil has remarked the link of Camillus with
Mater Matuta
. 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 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
of a bronze lamella which mentions
together
Uni
and
Thesan
, 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
will repeat the same translation
with the statue of the Juno of
Perusia
in consequence of a dream
The fact 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
of 217 BC, when the matronae
collected money for the service, and to the times of Augustus during the
ludi saeculares
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 have 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
, vowed by consul
Marcus Aemilius Lepidus
in 187 BC during the
war against the Ligures
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
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
founded by
Caius Gracchus
. The goddess was once again
transferred to Rome by emperor
Elagabalus
.
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
X 5, 1-2, who mentions its existence
in describing the Φωκικόν in
Phocis
. 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. 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
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
and the siege of Troy, in which
Minerva
plays a decisive role as a goddess of
destiny along with the sovereign couple Uni Tinia.
The 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, 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 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 annaual 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
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 motive of the snake of the
palace goddess guardian 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 prenuman ten month year, 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
. Claudius Helianus later wrote
“…she has much new of Hera Argolis” The iconogrphy 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
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
Lanuvins. Consequently the prodigia (supernatural or unearthly phenomena)
happened in her temple were referred to Rome and accordingly expiated there.
Many occurred during the presence of
Hannibal
in Italy. At the time of
Cicero
Milo
, Lanuvium’s dictator and highest
magistrate, resided in Rome. When he met
Clodius
near
Bovillae
and his slaves murdered the
politician, he was on his way to Lanuvium in order to nominate the flamen of
Juno Seispes. Perhaps the Romans were not completely satisfied of 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 martial effigy.
Theological and comparative remarks
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.
Juno. Silver statuette, 1st–2nd century.
G. Dumezil has on the other hand proposed the theory of the irreducibility
and interdependence of the three aspects (sovereignty, war, fertility) that he
interprets as an original, irreducible structure as hypothesised in his theory
of the trifunctional ideology of the Indoeuropean. While Dumezil’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 Dumezil makes that of Vedic goddess
Sarasvatī
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
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
,
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).
Dumezil 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 (thence *Friy(y)a-dagaz
“Freitag for Veneris dies). However the internal tension of the character led to
a duplication in Scandinavian religion:
Frigg
resulted into a merely sovereign goddess,
the spouse of wizard god
Óðinn
, while from the name of
Freyr
, typical god of the third function, was
extracted a second character,
Freyja
, confined as a
Vani to the sphere of pleasure and wealth.
Dumezil 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
Jupiter
and Juno, by
Annibale Carracci
.
The divine couple received from Greece its matrimonial implications, thence
bestowing on Juno the role of tutelary goddess of marriage (Iuno Pronuba).
The couple itself though cannot be reduced to a Greek apport. The association
of Juno and Jupiter is of the most ancient Latin theology.
Praeneste
offers a glimpse into original Latin
mythology: the local goddess
Fortuna
is represented as milking two infants,
one male and one female, namely
Jove
(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. Dumezil has elaborated an interpretative theory
according to which this aporia 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
, 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
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. Moreover Aditi
is thus one of the heirs (along with
Savitr
) of the opening god of the Indoiranians,
as she is represented with her head on her two sides, with the two faces looking
opposite directions. The mother of the sovereign gods has thence two solidal but
distinct modalities of duplicity, i.e. of having two foreheads and a double
position in the genealogy. Angelo Brelich has interpreted this theology as the
basic opposition between the primordial absence of order (chaos) and the
organisation of the cosmos.
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
Sororium Tigillum
(better known as Tigillum
Sororium) 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
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
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 god
Saturn
, in the age when the Earth still could
bear the gods. The theology of Janus is also presented in the
carmen Saliare
. 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, month that at Rome saw
the celebration of the end of the yearly military activity. Janus would then 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 epithts.
M. Renard advanced the view that Janus and not Juppiter 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 Dumezil’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
are undoubetdly 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 supersided 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
near the
Porta Carmentalis
, 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 superside Pilumnus
and Picumnus in the role of tutelary deities of the newborn not only because of
their own features of goddess of the deliverers and of apotropaic tutelary god
of infants but also because of their common quality of gods of fertility. This
was the case in Rome and at
Tusculum
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 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 and Argos
known as Argivae. In the cult this
Hera received at Cape Lacinion she was associated with Heracles, supposed 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
Dumezil’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, 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
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
, 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
and K. Latte Genius (from the
root gen-, whence gigno bear or be born, archaic also geno)
would design 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
mentions it first). Dumezil also remarks from these passages one could infer
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
. On this point it looks remarkable
that also in
Martianus Capella
‘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 classical time conceptions, 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
states: “Genius is the god under
whose tutelage everyone is born and lives on”, and that “many ancient authors,
among whom
Granius Flaccus
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 reflect 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 issue 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 αγαθός.
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.
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
(Heres Martea).
Festivals
Main article:
Matronalia
All festivals of Juno were held on the kalendae of a month except two (or,
perhaps, three): The Nonae Caprotinae on the
nonae
of July, the festival of Juno
Capitolina on September 13, because the date of these two was determined by
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 honor of Juno
Lucina called the
Matronalia
.
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
.
The second festival was devoted to Juno Moneta on June 1.
Following 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 13 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.
Last of her yearly festivals came 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 coming then 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 Iuno
The Etruscans were a people who entertained strict (if often conflicting)
contacts with the other peoples of the Mediterranean: the Greeks, the
Phoenicians and the Carthaginians.
Testimony of intense cultural exchanges with the Greeks have been found in
1969 at the sanctuary of the port of Gravisca near
Tarquinia
. 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 of marriage and family and of their sacrality. Hera’s presence had
already been attested at
Caere
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
has been brought to light by the
discovery of the
Pyrgi Tablets
in 1964. At
Pyrgi
, 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 Etruscan
goddess Uni was strongly influenced by the Argive Heras and had her Punic
counterpart in Carthaginian goddess
Tanit
, identified by the Romans as Juno
Caelestis. Nonetheless
Augustin
had already stated that Iuno was named
Astarte in the Punic language, 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
Carthagenian-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
thonym Eilethya corresponds to Juno Lucina, the second Leuchothea 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 the 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
. 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
by the situation of Uni in case
IV, owing to a threefold location of
Tinia
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
(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
, 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 of spouse
of Saturn.
Statue at Samos
In the Dutch
city of
Maastricht
, which was founded as Trajectum
ad Mosam 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 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. Juno was sent to
Samos
when she was a very young child. She was
carefully raised there until
puberty
, 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
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
on the
Capitoline Hill
. 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
is as the primary antagonistic
force in Virgil
‘s
Aeneid
, where she is depicted as a cruel
and savage goddess intent upon supporting first
Dido
and then
Turnus
and the
Rutulians
against
Aeneas
‘ attempt to found a new
Troy in Italy. There has been some speculation—such as by
Maurus Servius Honoratus
, an ancient
commentator on the Aeneid—that she is perhaps a conflation of
Hera with the
Carthaginian
storm-goddess
Tanit
in some aspects of her portrayal here.
Juno is also mentioned in
The Tempest
in Act IV, Scene I; she appears
in a supernatural masque, portrayed by spirits conjured by Prospero. She relates
to Prospero as they are both leaders in their realm and have spirit like
messengers who are very loyal (Juno has Iris, Prospero has Ariel).
William Shakespeare
repeatedly mentions Juno
throughout the play
Antony and Cleopatra
, often in forms of
exclamation by the characters.
Juno is a major character in the
Heroes of Olympus
series by
Rick Riordan
. Her goal in the series is to
bring the Greek and Roman demigods together against the
Gigantes
. She had earlier been a supporting
character in the
Percy Jackson & the Olympians
series, under
the name Hera
.
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