JUNO (Luno). – An Italic and Roman goddess. The classic figure of Jupiter’s spouse, familiar from Latin poetry, is only a historically determined product largely influenced by Hellenic poetry: in Italy, JUNO has a long and varied past. The name of the goddess, not connected with the root *di- of the name of Jupiter, as was once believed, belongs to the group of *iuvenis*, *iuvenca*, *iunix* and contains within itself the meaning of “young” (woman?), “new” (moon?). The most ancient Italic and Roman cult of JUNO confirms these etymological interpretations. Outside Rome, JUNO is intensely venerated in almost all the centres of Latium, in Etruria (where the name Uni derives from the Latin Luno) and in the Tusco-Umbrian territory.
In various localities she assumes the importance of a *pallade* goddess, with characteristics of queen and warrior. Thus in Latium, Iuno Sospes Mater Regina, at Lanuvium, who in her iconography appears armed and dressed in goatskin; in her sacred precinct, in a cave, there dwelt a sacred serpent: when it did not accept the food offered to it by a woman (a priestess?), this signified that she was not a virgin. Also at Ardea and in Etrurian Veii, JUNO bears the title of queen; at Tibur, Falerii (Civita Castellana) she has the epithet Curitis or Quiritis (from the Sabine *curis* = lance?), and even at Perugia she is the city’s protecting goddess. In this dominant position she is alone, without a divine “spouse” of equal rank. In Etruria and elsewhere (Tibur, Tusculum, traces also at Rome), under Etruscan influence, she often forms a pair with Hercules. Dominant in her are the characters of femininity: the goat, whose skin she wears at Lanuvium and which is her victim at Falerii, expresses the aspect of the fertility of feminine nature. This, however, does not exclude that already in archaic times she could appear as the spouse of Jupiter, as seems to have been the case at Ardea: not only because the identification of JUNO with the murderous Hera was current in Etruscan imagination, but also because the great goddess of chthonic nature could be particularly suited to complement the world of the sky god. At Rome, the most ancient documents of the cult of JUNO are contained in the so-called calendar of Numa. Here the goddess is paired with Jupiter, even without any reference to mythical marriage: while the days of the full moon (Ides) are sacred to Jupiter, the Kalends, the darkest nights, those of the new moon, are sacred to JUNO. She indeed receives, under the name of Iuno Covella, a sacrifice every first day of the month in the Curia Calabra; and the festivals of her most important temples all occupy the Kalends of the various months. At the same time the goddess preserves all her characteristics of fertile femininity. The Nonae Caprotinae (7 July) are a festival of hers celebrated by women and particularly by slave-women, in licentious forms: the character of the festival, the epithet “Caprotina” given also to the goddess and the importance which in the festival is given to a wild fig tree highlight the meaning of her cult. Also in the Lupercalia – another festival celebrated by persons dressed in goatskins, the Luperci – JUNO has her part: the tradition according to which the festival would have been celebrated in her honour is isolated; but the goatskin thong with which the Luperci struck women to render them fertile was significantly called *amiculum Iunonis*. Its use goes back, according to the cult legend, to a suggestion of Iuno Lucina. She, whose epithet contains an allusion to light, in her cult appears as protector of women in childbirth; she has her sanctuary on the Esquiline; her festival, 1 March, is a great women’s festival, popularly called “Matronalia”. In inscriptions from Norba, Iuno Lucina appears as the spouse of Jupiter. But Roman public cult ignores the kinship among the gods: therefore when the cult of Jupiter reaches its highest expression in the Capitoline cult, Iuno Regina, although not present in the temple with three cells, no longer has that equality of rank with the great god which is revealed by the structure of the calendar: she is Minerva who stands at Jupiter’s side, in an equal and subordinate position, in the *aedes Iovis capitolina*. In the historical-religious period whose centre is the Capitoline cult, JUNO will still have temples and independent cults of great importance: in these survive her original characteristics, the more so since a great part of such cults are Italic cults adopted and opportunely transformed by Rome. Iuno Moneta on the Capitol, which has its festival on 1 October, appears as protector of the city; in her precinct are geese sacred to the goddess. Iuno Regina is “evoked” from Veii by Camillus in 392 BC. Iuno Curitis comes from Falerii. Iuno Sospita, arrived from Lanuvium, loses the cave of the serpent, but preserves the iconography: her sanctuary near the Theatre of Marcellus has its festival on 1 February. In public consciousness, JUNO, on the model of Olympic Hera, is considered as the spouse of Jupiter. She becomes, perhaps for this reason and it is not known precisely from when, goddess of marriage: in Iuno Pronuba, Iuno Iuga perhaps sublimate the original independent divinities Pronuba, Iuga etc. In the syncretistic period JUNO is identified with foreign goddesses, among which the most important is Carthage’s Caelestis.
JUNO, in another sense, is the particular divinity of every single woman: just as man has his Genius, woman has her own JUNO. This is documented from the Augustan age onwards, although mention is also made of the Genius of women. Even goddesses have their own JUNO: the Iuno Deae Diae figures in the ritual of the *fratres Arvales*.