Domain: Queen of gods, marriage, women, childbirth, state protection Symbol: Peacock, cow, diadem Greek Equivalent: Hera
Overview
Juno is the queen of the Roman gods, wife of Jupiter, and the great protectress of women, marriage, and the Roman state. With Jupiter and Minerva she formed the Capitoline Triad, the three deities at the heart of Roman public worship, and she carried far more civic weight than her Greek counterpart Hera. As guardian of the whole life of Roman women — girlhood, marriage, and childbirth — and as a tutelary spirit of the city, she was among the most widely and deeply honored of all Roman deities. Her sacred animals are the peacock and the cow; she wears a diadem and, in her warlike aspect, a goatskin cloak.
Her cult-titles trace the reach of her power. As Juno Regina she is simply "the Queen"; as Juno Lucina, "of the Light," she brings children into the light of birth and guards mothers in labor; as Juno Sospita, "the Savior," she is the armed protectress of the state; and as Juno Moneta, "the Warner," she gave Rome one of its most enduring legacies. It was in her temple of Juno Moneta on the Capitoline that the Roman mint was housed, so that the coins struck there took the name moneta — the root of the English words "money" and "mint."
That same temple stood at the center of one of Rome's cherished legends. When the Gauls attempted a night assault on the Capitol, the sacred geese kept in Juno's precinct raised such a clamor that the defenders were roused in time to throw the attackers back — the goddess, through her birds, saving the citadel of Rome. Her chief festival, the Matronalia on March 1st, honored Juno Lucina and celebrated married women, who received gifts from their husbands and offered prayers for their families.
Against the Greek Hera, forever consumed by jealousy of Jupiter's wanderings, Juno is a more civic and dignified figure. The jealous-wife narrative recedes, and in its place stand her roles as protector of the state, patroness of women's lives, and keeper of Rome's coinage — a queen of the gods bound up with the fortunes of the city itself.
Related
- Hera - Greek equivalent
- Jupiter - Husband, fellow member of the Capitoline Triad
- Minerva - Fellow member of the Capitoline Triad
- The Empress - The Major Arcana archetype of the sovereign feminine, marriage, and matriarchal power
- Mythology
- Roman Mythology Index