JUNO, one of the chief goddesses of the Roman state, was identified through the influence of Greek religion with the Hellenic goddess Hera. It is exceedingly unlikely that this identification is grounded on any real connexion between the two, as is the case with Zeus and Jupiter (see Jupiter); it was suggested solely by some superficial points of resemblance. There was a certain analogy in the relation which they respectively bore to the chief god; but it is probable that the marriage of Jupiter and Juno is not a native but a borrowed idea. In Latin and in modern literature the character of Juno is wholly that of the Greek Hera (see Hera). The opinion is general that Juno is not an Aryan goddess, but adopted from a non-Aryan race; if so, she must be Etruscan. One of the chief cults of Juno in Rome was that of Juno Regina on the Aventine. She had been brought thither by Camillus when Rome conquered the Etruscan city of Veii and adopted its patron goddess Juno. The Etruscan name is apparently Uni (see Deecke, Das Templum von Piacenza). Another great seat of the worship of Juno was Lanuvium. When that city was conquered, the cultus of Juno Sospita was carried to Rome and established on the Palatine hill. Had Juno been an Aryan goddess, we should certainly find a strong naturalistic element in her; but in fact her sphere is almost entirely limited to human life and action. She must, therefore, have been adopted from some civilized race, where the moral side of the divine conception had been developed, and the naturalistic element which originally belongs to all deities had lost prominence. At Veii, Lanuvium, and other places Juno was the protecting goddess of the state and of society, and in a similar way she had been worshipped at Rome from the earliest times under the ...epithets Curiatia and Populona.
The great cultus of Juno at Rome was on the Capitol, where Tarquin had established her beside Jupiter to share with him the sovereignty of the state. Though she has nothing to correspond to the naturalistic side of Jupiter, she is readily associated with him in his moral character. She is the patroness and guardian of women, as he is of men. She watches over women from their birth onward. As Virginensis she protects maidenhood; as Pronuba, Juga or Jugalis, Domiduca, Unxia, Cinxia, she ushers them through all the rites of marriage; as Matrona she presides over their wedded life; as Lucina she helps them in childbirth. The Kalends were sacred to Juno, as the Ides belong to Jupiter; and thus the two divide the month and the year between them. Geese were her favourite birds, and those which were kept in the Capitoline temple gave the garrison timely warning of the Gallic attack. The chief feast of Juno was the Matronalia, on the Kalends of March. Only maidens and wives of stainless character could participate in the procession which was made to the temple of Lucina on the Esquiline hill. On this the first day of the year, the women received presents from their husbands and relatives, and gave presents to their slaves. The name Junones was also applied to the attendant spirits who belong to each woman, just as each man has his own genius. A woman swears by her Juno, a lover by the Juno of his mistress; hence the sarcasm of Juvenal, “per Junonem domini jurante ministro.” When Rome began to coin money in order to compete with the currency of the Greek states on the south coast, the mint was the temple of Juno Moneta; but this was probably due to Greek influence. The coinage was modelled on that of the cities of Magna Graecia, which it was designed to supplant; and these cities had their religious centre in the temple of Hera Lacinia (see Curtius, “Religious Character of Greek Coins,” Humism. Chron., 1870, p. 102).
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