by Jeff Woleslagle on Oct 01, 2007
By Darkgolem
Class: Priest
Symbol: Distaff
Animal: Bear
Juno is the queen of the gods, wife and sister of the god Jupiter,
daughter of Saturn. She is a central member of the Roman
Pantheon, patron of women (though more of married women than others),
the home, marriage, fertility, childbirth and pregnancy.
Juno has many aspects, such as Juno Regina (Juno the queen), the
protector of the Roman people, Juno Moneta (Juno who warns), protector
of the wealth of the Romans, and Juno Lucina (bringer of children into
light), obviously as goddess of childbirth. She was a great
goddess of the Roman State, worshiped in conjunction with Jupiter and
Minerva in the roman capitol (known as the Capitoline Triad).
There are other references to her as Juno Curitis, protector of spear
men.
Juno has festivals (called the Matronalia) every year, held on the
first day of March, with many sacrifices of cattle and other herd
animals to her. The month of June, obviously, was named after
this goddess, and this was considered an auspicious time for
marriage. The first of each kalends (month) is considered sacred
to Juno. Samos (an island) is the location of Junos first three
hundred years of marriage, and a holy place. Another festival,
known as the Nonae Caprotinae honors Juno Caprotina (her aspect of
goddess of fertility) on July 7th, where sacrifices were made under a
fig tree (which as associated with fertility).
href="http://gods.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=129">Priestesses
of Juno were sometimes called Flaminca, and they wore long purple wool
garments and veils (much like brides).
Juno was born under her father Saturn, and like all her siblings,
swallowed by him. Later, Saturn disgorged her (and her other siblings)
by being tricked by Jupiter. She was in turn raised by the titans
Tethys and Okeanos (who were gods of streams and fresh water).
As the defender of marriage, Juno is said to have forced Jupiter to
marry her using a charm (borrowed from Venus), though another myth has
him seducing her by taking shelter in her lap during a storm while in
the guise of wild bird.
Interestingly, while a defender of marriage, Juno uses the spring
Kanathos every year, recovering her virginity.
As the queen of the gods, she is the mother of many of them, including
Mars and Vulcan. Vulcan is said to be (in some myths) her child
without help by Jupiter (or any other male), and he was thrown from
heaven by Jupiter, causing him to be crippled.. She also
had Hebe, goddess of health, as a daughter. Her symbol (according
to mythology not Gods and Heroes), was the peacock, and is also
reported to be the crow and cow. She is often depicted wearing a
diadem and holding a staff.
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/12457">
src="/image/view/78292"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 206px; height: 427px;" align="right">Juno
was not known to be a protector in all of her aspects. Because
Jupiter is known to be amorous, Juno often held great spite and
vengeance toward his lovers. Most notable among these subjects of
spite is Hercules (or Heracles, depending on whether you speak of Roman
or Greek mythology), the son of the Greek woman Alcemne. When
Hercules was birthed, Hera sent snakes to kill the Hercules in his
crib, though Hercules strangled his attackers. Attempts to foil
or kill Hercules by Hera were repeated again and again throughout his
life. Later in his life, Juno sent a fit of madness upon him,
causing him to murder his wife and children, later causing him to make
penance by doing his famous 12 tasks.
Not just Hercules was a subject Junos anger. In addition, Juno
assisted in the destruction of Troy, because Paris failed to judge Juno
the winner in a contest. Leto, another of Jupiters lovers,
suffered Junos antipathy, as in similar case with another hapless
mortal, IO. Needless to say, Juno is not a goddess who forgets
slights. Notably, Juno never stood against Jupiter directly, but
instead against his lovers and children by those lovers.
Needless to say, as a protector of morality, the "mother" of the Roman
people, and the bringer of vengeance for slights, Juno is an excellent
choice for a priest's patron deity. A bestower of curses and
cures, wrath and healing seems just the person a
href="http://www.gods.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=92">scion
of this goddess might be like.
Authors Note: A
student of Greek and Roman mythology may note that I interchange the
mythos of
both cultures. My apologies for this,
however, because of the amount of Roman mythology that was assimilated
from the
Greek cultures (and Etruscan, for that matter), some overlap is
necessary to
give complete credit to the tales of Juno.
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