Juno (mythology)
Juno (English: /ˈdʒuːnoʊ/ JOO-noh; Latin Iūnō [ˈjuːnoː]) 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 and a goddess of love and marriage. A daughter of Saturn and Ops, she was the sister and wife of Jupiter and the mother of Mars, Vulcan, Bellona, Lucina and Juventas. Like Hera, her sacred animal was the peacock.[1] Her Etruscan counterpart was Uni, and she was said to also watch over the women of Rome.[2] As the patron goddess of Rome and the Roman Empire, Juno was called Regina ("Queen") and was a member of the Capitoline Triad (Juno Capitolina), centered on the Capitoline Hill in Rome, and also including Jupiter, and Minerva, goddess of wisdom.
This article is about the Roman goddess. For other uses, see Juno.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[edit]
The name Juno was once popularly thought to be connected to Iove (Jove), originally as Diuno and Diove from *Diovona.[3] 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.[4]
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".[5] The iuvenis is he who has the fullness of vital force.[6] 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".[7] 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.[8]
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.[9]
In literature[edit]
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.[217] Servius the Grammarian, commenting on some of her several roles in the Aeneid, supposes her as a conflation of Hera with the Carthaginian storm-goddess Tanit.[218] Ovid's Metamorphoses offers a story accounting for her sacred association with the peacock.[219] She is remembered in De Mulieribus Claris, a collection of biographies of historical and mythological women by the Florentine author Giovanni Boccaccio, composed in 1361–62. It is notable as the first collection devoted exclusively to biographies of women in Western literature.[220] William Shakespeare briefly employs Juno as a masque character in The Tempest (Act IV, Scene I).