Era - Giunone/Hera - Juno

Era

Era (in greco antico: Ἥρα, Hera), o Hera (pron. /hɛːra/), è un personaggio della mitologia greca, figlia di Crono e Rea.
Nella religione greca era una delle divinità più importanti, patrona del matrimonio, della fedeltà coniugale e del parto, era considerata la sovrana dell'Olimpo ed i suoi simboli erano la vacca ed il pavone.
Nella mitologia romana la sua figura corrisponde a quella di Giunone.

Genealogia

Sorella di Demetra, Estia, Ade, Poseidone e Zeus, e moglie dell'ultimo, divenne madre di Ebe, Ares ed Ilizia.
Ebbe anche Efesto.
Altri autori latini gli attribuiscono anche Tifone e le Cariti, personaggi comunque spesso fatti discendere anche da altre madri.

Genealogia (Esiodo)

Urano

Gea

Genitali di  Urano

CRONO

Rea

Zeus

Era

Poseidone

Ade

Demetra

Estia

a

b

Ares

Efesto

Meti

Atena

Latona

Apollo

Artemide

Maia

Ermes

Semele

Dioniso

Dione

a

b

Afrodite

Mitologia greca

Appena nata, fu brutalmente ingoiata dal padre insieme ai fratelli ma grazie a uno stratagemma di Zeus e Poseidone, anche lui salvato dalla madre nascondendolo in un branco di cavalli, il padre rigurgitò i figli. Fu allevata nella casa di Oceano e Teti e poi nel giardino delle Esperidi (oppure secondo altre fonti, sulla cima del monte Ida) sposò Zeus. La sua continua lotta contro i tradimenti del consorte diede origine al tema ricorrente della "Gelosia di Era" che rappresenta lo spunto per quasi tutte le leggende e gli aneddoti relativi al suo culto.
Era veniva ritratta come una figura maestosa e solenne, spesso seduta sul trono mentre porta come corona il "polos", il tipico copricapo di forma cilindrica indossato dalle dee madri più importanti di numerose culture antiche. In mano stringeva una melagrana, simbolo di fertilità e di morte usato anche per evocare, grazie alla somiglianza della sua forma, il papavero da oppio. Omero la definiva la Dea dagli occhi "bovini" per l'intensità del suo regale sguardo.
Era, molto gelosa dei tradimenti del marito, odiava soprattutto Eracle, suo figliastro in quanto Eracle era il preferito di Zeus. La natura umana dell'eroe portò Era a odiare tutto il genere umano: conosciuta come la più vendicativa degli dèi, spesso usava gli uomini come autori del suo volere distruttivo. Era sceglieva i suoi guerrieri spedendo loro delle piume di pavone, animale a lei sacro.
I templi di Era, costruiti in due dei luoghi in cui il suo culto fu particolarmente sentito, l'isola di Samo e l'Argolide, risalgono all'VIII secolo a.C. e furono i primissimi esempi di tempio greco monumentale della storia (si tratta rispettivamente dell'Heraion di Samo e dell'Heraion di Argo).

Etimologia del nome

Il nome "Era" potrebbe avere numerose diverse etimologie contrastanti l'una con l'altra. Una prima possibilità è di metterlo in relazione con "hora" (stagione), e di interpretarlo come "pronta per il matrimonio". Alcuni studiosi ritengono che possa significare "padrona" intendendolo come un derivato femminile della parola "heros" (signore). C'è chi propone che significhi "giovane vacca" o "giovenca", in conformità con il comune epiteto a lei riferito di βοῶπις (boòpis, "dall'occhio bovino"). La voce "E-Ra" è comunque già presente nelle più antiche tavolette micenee. Tutto questo indica però che, a differenza di quanto accade per altri dèi greci come Zeus e Poseidone, l'origine del nome di Hera non può essere ascritta con sicurezza né alla lingua greca né in genere ad una lingua indoeuropea. Alcuni aspetti del suo culto sembrano suggerire che Hera sia in realtà una figura sopravvissuta, con alcuni adattamenti, da antichi culti minoici e pelasgici e si rifaccia ad una "grande dea madre" adorata in quelle culture.
L'importanza di Hera fin dall'età arcaica è testimoniata dai grandi edifici di culto che vennero realizzati in suo onore.

Il culto di Era

Il culto di Era, adorata come "Era di Argo" (Hera Argeia), fu particolarmente vivo nel suo santuario che si trovava tra le città-stato micenee di Argo e Micene, dove si tenevano le celebrazioni in suo onore chiamate Heraia. L'altro principale centro dedicato al suo culto si trovava nell'isola di Samo. Templi dedicati ad Era sorgevano anche ad Olimpia, Corinto, Tirinto, Perachora e sulla sacra isola di Delo. Nella Magna Grecia, a Paestum, quello che per lungo tempo fu creduto essere il tempio di Poseidone, negli anni cinquanta si è scoperto che in realtà è un secondo tempio dedicato ad Era. Inoltre vi era un tempio dedicato alla dea anche a Capo Colonna, il tempio di Hera Lacinia
Nella cultura greca classica, gli altari venivano costruiti a cielo aperto. Era potrebbe essere stata la prima divinità a cui fu dedicato un tempio dotato di un tetto chiuso, che fu eretto circa nell'800 a.C. a Samo, e fu successivamente sostituito dall'Heraion, uno dei templi greci più grandi in assoluto. I santuari più antichi, per i quali vi sono meno certezze circa la divinità a cui erano dedicati, erano realizzati secondo un modello Miceneo chiamato "casa-santuario". Gli scavi archeologici di Samo hanno portato alla luce offerte votive, molte delle quali risalenti all'VIII e VII secolo a.C., che rivelano come Era non fosse considerata soltanto una dea greca locale di ambiente egeo: attualmente il museo raccoglie statuette che rappresentano dèi, supplici e offerte votive di altro tipo provenienti dall'Armenia, da Babilonia, dalla Persia, dall'Assiria e dall'Egitto, a testimonianza dell'alta considerazione di cui godeva questo santuario e del grande flusso di pellegrini che attirava.
Sull'isola Eubea ogni sessant'anni si celebravano le Grandi Dedalee, dei riti dedicati ad Era.
Nelle raffigurazioni ellenistiche il carro di Era era trainato da pavoni, una specie di uccello che in Grecia è rimasta sconosciuta fino alle conquiste di Alessandro: Aristotele, l'istitutore di Alessandro si riferiva a quest'animale come all'"uccello persiano". Il motivo artistico del pavone fu riportato molto più tardi in voga dall'iconografia rinascimentale, che fondeva tra loro le figure di Era e Giunone. In epoca arcaica, un periodo durante il quale ad ogni dea dell'area egea era associato il "suo" uccello, veniva associato ad Era anche il cuculo che appare in alcuni frammenti che raccontano la leggenda dei primi corteggiamenti alla vergine Era da parte di Zeus.
Nei tempi più antichi la sua associazione più importante era quella con il bestiame, come dea degli armenti, venerata specialmente nell'isola Eubea detta "ricca di mandrie". Il suo epiteto più comune nei poemi omerici, "boopis", viene sempre tradotto "dall'occhio bovino" dal momento che, come i Greci dell'età classica, la nostra cultura rifiuta la più naturale traduzione "dal volto di vacca" o "dall'aspetto di vacca": un'Era dalla testa bovina come il Minotauro verrebbe percepita come un oscuro e spaventoso demone. Tuttavia sull'isola di Cipro sono stati trovati dei teschi di toro adattati ad essere usati come maschera, il che suggerisce un probabile antico culto dedicato a divinità con un simile aspetto.
Altri suoi tipici epiteti furono:

• θεὰ λευκώλενος (theà leukòlenos): la dea dalle bianche braccia.
• χρυσόθρονος (khrusòthronos): dal trono d'oro.
• εὔκομος (èukomos): dagli splendidi capelli.

La melagrana, antico simbolo dell'arcaica Grande Dea Madre, continuò ad essere usato come simbolo di Era: molte delle melagrane e dei papaveri da oppio votivi trovati negli scavi di Samo sono realizzate in avorio, materiale che resiste all'usura del tempo meglio del legno, con il quale dovevano essere invece comunemente realizzati. Al pari delle altre dee, Era veniva ritratta mentre indossava un diadema e con un velo sul capo.

Era nell'Iliade

Si dice che Era, durante la guerra di Troia, fosse schierata dalla parte dei greci, a causa del suo odio per Paride e per Afrodite.

Prima parte del canto n° IV dell'Iliade

«...Dice accigliato Zeus: -Atena ed Era parteggiano per Menelao, sì: ma si limitano a guardare e a sorridergli. Tu invece, Afrodite, sei scesa a salvare Paride che, pure, era stato sconfitto e meritava quindi la morte. Sono stanco di questa guerra. Finiamola. Concediamo Elena a Menelao, e sia finita. Subito Era ribatté:-No!Non voglio che ci sia pace, fino a quando Troia non sarà distrutta! -Ma che ti hanno fatto di male , Priamo e i suoi figli, che tu li voglia vedere distrutti? Bada, Era, se vuoi che Troia perisca, un giorno sarò io che vorrò vedere annientata una città che t'è cara! -E sia! Se vuoi-afferma l'inesorabile Dea-distruggi pure Atene o Sparta o Argo mie dilette città: non mi opporrò al tuo volere! Ma tu non opporti al mio [volere]!...»

Era e i figli

Era è la patrona del matrimonio propriamente detto e rappresenta l'archetipo simbolico dell'unione di uomo e donna nel talamo nuziale, tuttavia non è certo famosa per le sue qualità di madre. I figli legittimi nati dalla sua unione con Zeus sono Ares (il dio della guerra), Ebe (la dea della giovinezza), Eris (la dea della discordia), Efesto (dio del fuoco e dei metalli) ed Ilizia (protettrice delle nascite). Alcuni autori ancora aggiungono a questa lista i Cureti e anche le tre Cariti. Era, resa gelosa dal fatto che Zeus era diventato padre di Atena senza di lei (infatti l'aveva avuta da Metide), per ripicca decise di mettere al mondo Efesto senza la collaborazione del marito. Entrambi però rimasero disgustati al vedere la bruttezza di Efesto e lo scagliarono giù dall'Olimpo. Una leggenda alternativa dice che Era mise al mondo da sola tutti i figli che tradizionalmente sono attribuiti a lei e Zeus, e che lo fece semplicemente battendo il suolo con la mano, un gesto di grande solennità nella cultura greca antica.
Efesto si vendicò del rifiuto subito dalla madre costruendole un trono magico che, una volta che ella vi si sedette, non le permise più di alzarsi. Gli altri dèi pregarono più volte Efesto di tornare sull'Olimpo e liberarla, ma egli rifiutò ripetutamente. Allora Dioniso lo fece ubriacare e lo riportò sull'Olimpo incosciente, trasportandolo con un mulo. Efesto accettò di liberare Era, ma solo dopo che gli fu concessa in moglie Afrodite.

Era, la nemesi di Eracle

Era era la matrigna dell'eroe Eracle, nonché la sua principale nemica. Quando Alcmena era incinta di Eracle, Era tentò di impedirne la nascita facendo annodare le gambe della puerpera. Fu salvata dalla sua serva Galantide che disse alla dea che il parto era già avvenuto, facendola desistere. Scoperto l'inganno, Era trasformò Galantide in una donnola per punizione. Quando Eracle era ancora un bambino, Era mandò due serpenti ad ucciderlo mentre dormiva nella sua culla. Eracle però strangolò i due serpenti afferrandoli uno per mano, e la sua nutrice lo trovò che si divertiva con i loro corpi come fossero giocattoli. Quest'aneddoto è costruito attorno alla figura dell'eroe che stringe un serpente per mano, esattamente come la famosa dea che teneva in mano i serpenti dell'epoca minoica.
Una descrizione dell'origine della Via Lattea dice che Zeus aveva indotto con l'inganno Era ad allattare Eracle: quando si era accorta di chi fosse, l'aveva strappato via dal petto all'improvviso e uno schizzo del suo latte aveva formato la macchia nel cielo che ancor oggi possiamo vedere (un'altra versione afferma che fu Ermes ad avvicinare Eracle al seno di Era, che era addormentata, per fargli bere il latte benedetto. A causa di un morso di Eracle, però, la dea si sveglio e, per togliere il seno di bocca ad Eracle, cadde una goccia del suo latte formando la Via Lattea). Gli Etruschi dipinsero un Eracle adulto e già con la barba attaccato al seno di Era.
Era fece in modo che Eracle fosse costretto a compiere le sue famose imprese per conto del re Euristeo di Micene e, non contenta, tentò anche di renderle tutte più difficili. Quando l'eroe stava combattendo contro l'Idra di Lerna lo fece mordere ad un piede da un granchio, sperando di distrarlo. Per causargli ulteriori problemi, dopo che aveva rubato la mandria di Gerione, Era mandò dei tafani per irritare e spaventare le bestie, quindi fece gonfiare le acque di un fiume in modo tale che Eracle non potesse più guadarle con la mandria, costringendolo a gettare nel fiume enormi pietre per renderlo attraversabile. Quando finalmente riuscì a raggiungere la corte di Euristeo, la mandria fu sacrificata in onore di Era. Euristeo avrebbe voluto sacrificare alla dea anche il Toro di Creta, ma Era rifiutò perché la gloria di un simile sacrificio sarebbe andata di riflesso anche ad Eracle che l'aveva catturato. Il toro fu così lasciato andare nella piana di Maratona diventando famoso come il Toro di Maratona.
Alcune leggende dicono che Era alla fine si riconciliò con Eracle, dato che l'aveva salvata dal gigante Porfirione che tentava di stuprarla durante la Gigantomachia, e la dea, per farsi perdonare dei tormenti dati all'eroe, gli concesse anche come moglie sua figlia Ebe.

Aneddoti sulla gelosia di Era

Eco

Una volta, Zeus convinse una ninfa di nome Eco a distrarre Era dai suoi amori furtivi. Quando Era scoprì l'inganno condannò la ninfa a non aver più una voce propria e a poter, da allora in poi, soltanto ripetere le parole altrui. Un giorno, Eco incontrò Narciso, il suo vero amore che, sentendosi ripetere le ultime parole che diceva si offese e la lasciò lì a morire per amore.

Latona

Quando Era venne a sapere che Latona era incinta di 2 gemelli e che il padre era Zeus, con un incantesimo impedì a Latona di partorire facendo sì che ogni terra ove si recasse risultasse ostile nei suoi confronti. Latona trovò l'isola galleggiante di Delo, che non era né terraferma né una vera e propria isola ed era troppo inospitale per poterla peggiorare. Su questa partorì mentre veniva circondata da cigni. In segno di gratitudine Zeus fissò Delo, che da allora fu sacra ad Apollo, con quattro pilastri. Vi sono anche altre versioni della storia. In una di queste Era rapì la figlia Ilizia, la dea della nascita, per impedire a Latona di cominciare il travaglio, ma gli altri dèi la costrinsero a lasciarla andare. Alcune leggende dicono che Artemide, nata per prima, aiutò la madre a partorire Apollo, mentre un'altra sostiene che Artemide, nata il giorno precedente sull'isola Ortigia, aiutò la madre ad attraversare il mare fino a giungere a Delo per mettere al mondo il fratello.

Callisto e Arcade

Callisto, una ninfa che faceva parte del seguito di Artemide, fece voto di restare vergine, ma Zeus si innamorò di lei e assunse l'aspetto di Apollo (secondo altre versioni di Artemide stessa) per adescarla e sedurla. Era allora, per vendicarsi del tradimento, diede a Callisto le sembianze di un'orsa. Tempo dopo Arcade, il figlio che Callisto aveva generato con Zeus, quasi uccise per errore la madre durante una battuta di caccia e Zeus, per proteggerli da ulteriori rischi, li mise in cielo trasformandoli nelle due costellazioni dell'orsa minore e dell'orsa maggiore. La caratteristica di queste due costellazioni è che non tramontano mai.

Semele e Dioniso

Dioniso era figlio di Zeus e di una mortale. Era, gelosa, tentò di uccidere il bambino mandando dei Titani a fare a pezzi Dioniso dopo averlo attirato con dei giocattoli. Nonostante Zeus fosse riuscito infine a scacciare i Titani con i suoi fulmini, erano riusciti a divorarlo quasi tutto e ne era rimasto solo il cuore salvato, a seconda delle versioni della leggenda, da Atena, Rea, o Demetra. Zeus si servì del cuore per ricreare Dioniso, ponendolo nel grembo di Semele (per questo Dioniso diventò conosciuto come “il due volte nato”). Le versioni della leggenda sono comunque molte e varie.

Io

Un giorno Era stava per sorprendere Zeus con una delle sue amanti, chiamata Io, ma Zeus riuscì ad evitarlo all'ultimo, trasformando Io in una giovenca bianca. Era, tuttavia, ancora insospettita, chiese a Zeus di darle la giovenca in dono. Una volta ottenutala, Era la affidò alla custodia del gigante Argo, perché la tenesse lontana da Zeus. Il re degli dèi allora ordinò ad Ermes di uccidere Argo, cosa che il dio fece addormentando il gigante dai cento occhi grazie al suono del suo flauto e poi tagliandogli la testa. Era prese gli occhi del gigante e, per onorarlo, li pose sulle piume della coda del pavone, il suo animale sacro. Quindi mandò un tafano a tormentare Io, che cominciò a fuggire per tutto il mondo conosciuto, fino a giungere in Egitto dove, dopo aver partorito il figlio Epafo, riacquistò forma umana.

Lamia

Lamia era una regina della Libia della quale Zeus si era innamorato. Era per vendicarsi trasformò la donna in un mostro, ed uccise i figli che aveva avuto da Zeus. Una diversa versione della leggenda dice che Era le uccise i figli e Lamia si trasformò in un mostro per il dolore. Lamia venne anche colpita da Era con la maledizione di non poter mai chiudere gli occhi, in modo che fosse per sempre condannata a vedere ossessivamente l'immagine dei suoi figli morti. Zeus, per consentirle di riposare, le concesse il potere di cavarsi temporaneamente gli occhi e poi rimetterli al loro posto.

Gerana

Gerana era una regina dei Pigmei che si vantò di essere più bella di Era. La dea, furibonda, la trasformò in una gru e proclamò solennemente che gli uccelli suoi discendenti sarebbero stati in eterna lotta contro il popolo dei Pigmei.

Altre leggende su Era

Cidippe

Cidippe, una sacerdotessa di Era, doveva partecipare ad una cerimonia in onore della dea. Dato che il bue che avrebbe dovuto essere aggiogato al suo carro non arrivava, i suoi due figli, Bitone e Cleobi, trainarono essi stessi il carro per 8 km per permetterle di prendere parte al rito. Cidippe rimase impressionata dalla loro devozione e chiese ad Era di premiare i suoi figli con il miglior dono che una persona potesse ricevere. Come risposta, Era dispose che i fratelli morissero nel sonno senza soffrire.
E la più diffusa interpretazione del significato di questa leggenda è che "nessun uomo è mai così tanto benedetto fino a quando è morto". Questa è la versione della leggenda riferita da Erodoto (Storie 1.31) e che venne usata dall'ateniese Solone per spiegare al Re Creso chi fossero state le persone più felici della storia.

Tiresia

Tiresia era un sacerdote di Zeus: quando era giovane si imbatté in due serpenti arrotolati tra loro e, con un bastone, uccise il serpente femmina. Fu allora improvvisamente trasformato in una donna e, cambiato sesso, divenne una sacerdotessa di Era, si sposò ed ebbe dei figli (tra i quali Manto). Altre versioni dicono invece che diventò una famosa ed abile prostituta. Passati sette anni, Tiresia trovò altri due serpenti intrecciati e questa volta uccise il serpente maschio, recuperando il suo sesso originario. A questo punto, dato che era stato sia uomo che donna, Era e Zeus lo convocarono per chiedergli, visto che aveva vissuto entrambi i ruoli, se durante il rapporto amoroso provasse più piacere l'uomo o la donna. Zeus sosteneva fosse la donna, Era naturalmente l'opposto. Quando Tiresia si mostrò propenso a confermare le tesi di Zeus, Era lo accecò infuriata. Zeus allora, non potendo rimediare a ciò che la consorte aveva fatto, per compensarlo del danno gli diede il dono della profezia.
Una versione diversa della leggenda di Tiresia dice che fu invece accecato da Atena per averla vista mentre faceva il bagno nuda, e Zeus gli diede la profezia per le suppliche di sua madre Cariclo.

Gli amori di Era

Sebbene Era fosse una dea crudele e vendicativa nei confronti delle amanti segrete di Zeus, ella stessa non aveva comunque acconsentito a rimanere per sempre fedele al marito (benché in varie versioni si narra che la dea rimase pur sempre fedele a Zeus). Si racconta, infatti, che la dea ebbe anche altre relazioni, con mortali o anche con divinità, da cui generò alcuni figli. Riportiamo una lista che riguardano gli amori più conosciuti della dea:

1. Miriade
2. Crono
3. Efesto - Fabbro degli dèi
4. Eurimedonte - Gigante
5. Prometeo - Titano, punito da Zeus
6. Issione - Re dei Lapiti
7. Centauro, eponimo dei Centauri o gli stessi Centauri
8. Dioniso
9. Pasitea - Una delle Grazie
10. Dal seme di Crono spalmato su due uova
11. Tifone - Mostro

 Hera Campana. Marble, Roman copy of an hellenistic original, 2nd century AD (?).

Unknown - Jastrow (2006)

Giunone

Giunone è una divinità della mitologia romana, legata al ciclo lunare dei primitivi popoli italici.

Descrizione

Era l'antica divinità del matrimonio e del parto, spesso rappresentata nell'atto di allattare, la quale assunse, in seguito, le funzioni di protettrice dello Stato: dagli antichi Romani, infatti, fu gradualmente sovrapposta a Era della mitologia greca, divenendo la moglie di Giove, quindi la più importante divinità femminile. Assieme a Giove e Minerva formava la cosiddetta Triade Capitolina. Figlia, come Giove, di Saturno e Opi, corrispondenti nella mitologia greca a Crono e Rea. Giunone era anche la protettrice degli animali, in particolare era a lei sacro il pavone.

Epiteti

• Regina
• Moneta. In suo onore erano stati eretti templi, nei quali veniva venerata come Moneta ("colei che ammonisce", a cui era dedicato il tempio di Giunone Moneta sul Campidoglio) sede della Zecca, e in questo ruolo si sarebbe distinta salvando i romani durante l'assalto portato dai Galli nel IV secolo a.C..
• Lucina. Giunone Lucina proteggeva le nascite e i bambini: in suo onore venivano celebrate le Matronalia.
• Sospita ossia propizia o protettrice.
• Curiti,
• Viriplaca.
• Caprotina identificata con la Natura, era raffigurata con corna e pelle di capra che ricopriva testa e spalle. Le erano dedicate le feste Caprotine il 7 luglio.
• Pronuba protettrice delle nozze

Templi

• Tempio di Giunone Moneta a Roma;
• Tempio di Giunone Regina sull'Aventino a Roma;
• Tempio di Giunone Regina al Campo Marzio a Roma;
• Tempio di Giunone Sospita a Roma;
• Tempio di Hera Lacinia ad Agrigento;
• Tempio di Giunone a Padova, a ricordo della battaglia vinta dai patavini contro gli spartani condotti da Cleonimo.

Nemica di Troia

Si narra che Giunone fosse nemica giurata dei Troiani per tre motivi mitici:

1. Il torto subito da Paride perché aveva dato la mela della bellezza a Venere anziché a lei.
2. Il rapimento di Ganimede da parte di Giove, che ne fece il suo amante e il coppiere degli dèi.
3. La profezia che si racconta nell'Eneide, secondo la quale la sua città prediletta, cioè Cartagine, sarà distrutta dai discendenti di Troia e quindi i Romani.

Influenza culturale

A Giunone è intitolato il Juno Chasma su Venere.
L'attributo giunonico - riferito a Giunone - ha il significato di forme femminili marcate, e in particolare di un seno pronunciato.

Roman statue Juno Sospita. Plaster cast in pushkin museum after original in vatican museums

shakko - Own work

Hera

Hera (/ˈhɛrə, ˈhɪərə/; Greek: Ἥρᾱ, Hērā; Ἥρη, Hērē in Ionic and Homeric Greek) is the goddess of women, marriage, family, and childbirth in ancient Greek religion and myth, one of the Twelve Olympians and the sister-wife of Zeus. She is the daughter of the Titans Cronus and Rhea. Hera rules over Mount Olympus as queen of the gods. A matronly figure, Hera served as both the patroness and protectress of married women, presiding over weddings and blessing marital unions. One of Hera's defining characteristics is her jealous and vengeful nature against Zeus' numerous lovers and illegitimate offspring, as well as the mortals who cross her.
Hera is commonly seen with the animals she considers sacred including the cow, lion and the peacock. Portrayed as majestic and solemn, often enthroned, and crowned with the polos (a high cylindrical crown worn by several of the Great Goddesses), Hera may hold a pomegranate in her hand, emblem of fertile blood and death and a substitute for the narcotic capsule of the opium poppy. Scholar of Greek mythology Walter Burkert writes in Greek Religion, "Nevertheless, there are memories of an earlier aniconic representation, as a pillar in Argos and as a plank in Samos."
Her Roman counterpart is Juno.
 

Etymology

The name of Hera may have several of mutually exclusive etymologies; one possibility is to connect it with Greek ὥρα hōra, season, and to interpret it as ripe for marriage and according to Plato ἐρατή eratē, "beloved" as Zeus is said to have married her for love. According to Plutarch, Hera was an allegorical name and an anagram of aēr (ἀήρ, "air"). So begins the section on Hera in Walter Burkert's Greek Religion. In a note, he records other scholars' arguments "for the meaning Mistress as a feminine to Heros, Master." John Chadwick, a decipherer of Linear B, remarks "her name may be connected with hērōs, ἥρως, 'hero', but that is no help, since it too is etymologically obscure." A. J. van Windekens, offers "young cow, heifer", which is consonant with Hera's common epithet βοῶπις (boōpis, "cow-eyed"). R. S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin. Her name is attested in Mycenaean Greek written in the Linear B syllabic script as 𐀁𐀨, e-ra, appearing on tablets found in Pylos and Thebes.

Cult

Hera may have been the first deity to whom the Greeks dedicated an enclosed roofed temple sanctuary, at Samos about 800 BCE. It was replaced later by the Heraion, one of the largest of all Greek temples (Greek altars were in front of the temples, under the open sky). There were many temples built on this site so evidence is somewhat confusing and archaeological dates are uncertain.
The temple created by the Rhoecus sculptors and architects was destroyed between 570–560 BCE. This was replaced by the Polycratean temple 540–530 BCE. In one of these temples we see a forest of 155 columns. There is also no evidence of tiles on this temple suggesting either the temple was never finished or that the temple was open to the sky.
Earlier sanctuaries, whose dedication to Hera is less certain, were of the Mycenaean type called "house sanctuaries". Samos excavations have revealed votive offerings, many of them late 8th and 7th centuries BCE, which show that Hera at Samos was not merely a local Greek goddess of the Aegean: the museum there contains figures of gods and suppliants and other votive offerings from Armenia, Babylon, Iran, Assyria, Egypt, testimony to the reputation which this sanctuary of Hera enjoyed and to the large influx of pilgrims. Compared to this mighty goddess, who also possessed the earliest temple at Olympia and two of the great fifth and sixth century temples of Paestum, the termagant of Homer and the myths is an "almost...comic figure" according to Burkert.
Though greatest and earliest free-standing temple to Hera was the Heraion of Samos, in the Greek mainland Hera was especially worshipped as "Argive Hera" (Hera Argeia) at her sanctuary that stood between the former Mycenaean city-states of Argos and Mycenae, where the festivals in her honor called Heraia were celebrated. "The three cities I love best," the ox-eyed Queen of Heaven declares (Iliad, book iv) "are Argos, Sparta and Mycenae of the broad streets." There were also temples to Hera in Olympia, Corinth, Tiryns, Perachora and the sacred island of Delos. In Magna Graecia, two Doric temples to Hera were constructed at Paestum, about 550 BCE and about 450 BCE. One of them, long called the Temple of Poseidon was identified in the 1950s as a second temple there of Hera.
In Euboea, the festival of the Great Daedala, sacred to Hera, was celebrated on a sixty-year cycle.
Hera's importance in the early archaic period is attested by the large building projects undertaken in her honor. The temples of Hera in the two main centers of her cult, the Heraion of Samos and the Heraion of Argos in the Argolid, were the very earliest monumental Greek temples constructed, in the 8th century BCE.

Importance

According to Walter Burkert, both Hera and Demeter have many characteristic attributes of Pre-Greek Great Goddesses.
According to Homeric Hymn III to Delian Apollo, Hera detained Eileithyia to prevent Leto from going into labor with Artemis and Apollo, since the father was Zeus. The other goddesses present at the birthing on Delos sent Iris to bring her. As she stepped upon the island, the divine birth began. In the myth of the birth of Heracles, it is Hera herself who sits at the door, delaying the birth of Heracles until her protégé, Eurystheus, had been born first.
The Homeric Hymn to Pythian Apollo makes the monster Typhaon the offspring of archaic Hera in her Minoan form, produced out of herself, like a monstrous version of Hephaestus, and whelped in a cave in Cilicia. She gave the creature to Python to raise.
In the Temple of Hera, Olympia, Hera's seated cult figure was older than the warrior figure of Zeus that accompanied it. Homer expressed her relationship with Zeus delicately in the Iliad, in which she declares to Zeus, "I am Cronus' eldest daughter, and am honourable not on this ground only, but also because I am your wife, and you are king of the gods." Though Zeus is often called Zeus Heraios 'Zeus, (consort) of Hera', Homer's treatment of Hera is less than respectful, and in late anecdotal versions of the myths (see below) she appeared to spend most of her time plotting revenge on the nymphs seduced by her consort, for Hera upheld all the old right rules of Hellene society and sorority.^{[citation needed]}

Matriarchy

There has been considerable scholarship, reaching back to Johann Jakob Bachofen in the mid-nineteenth century, about the possibility that Hera, whose early importance in Greek religion is firmly established, was originally the goddess of a matriarchal people, presumably inhabiting Greece before the Hellenes. In this view, her activity as goddess of marriage established the patriarchal bond of her own subordination: her resistance to the conquests of Zeus is rendered as Hera's "jealousy", the main theme of literary anecdotes that undercut her ancient cult.
However, it remains a controversial claim that primitive matriarchy existed in Greece or elsewhere.

Origin and birth

Hera is the daughter of the youngest Titan Cronus and his wife, and sister, Rhea. Cronus was fated to be overthrown by one of his children; to prevent this, he swallowed all of his newborn children whole until Rhea tricked him into swallowing a stone instead of her youngest child, Zeus. Zeus grew up in secret and when he grew up he tricked his father into regurgitating his siblings, including Hera. Zeus then led the revolt against the Titans, banished them, and divided the dominion over the world with his brothers Poseidon and Hades.

Youth

Hera was most known as the matron goddess, Hera Teleia; but she presided over weddings as well. In myth and cult, fragmentary references and archaic practices remain of the sacred marriage of Hera and Zeus, and at Plataea, there was a sculpture of Hera seated as a bride by Callimachus, as well as the matronly standing Hera.
Hera was also worshipped as a virgin: there was a tradition in Stymphalia in Arcadia that there had been a triple shrine to Hera the Girl (Παις [Pais]), the Adult Woman (Τελεια [Teleia]), and the Separated (Χήρη [Chḗrē] 'Widowed' or 'Divorced'). In the region around Argos, the temple of Hera in Hermione near Argos was to Hera the Virgin. At the spring of Kanathos, close to Nauplia, Hera renewed her virginity annually, in rites that were not to be spoken of (arrheton). The Female figure, showing her "Moon" over the lake is also appropriate, as Hebe, Hera, and Hecate; new moon, full moon, and old moon in that order and otherwise personified as the Virgin of spring, The Mother of Summer, and the destroying Crone of Autumn.

Emblems

In Hellenistic imagery, Hera's chariot was pulled by peacocks, birds not known to Greeks before the conquests of Alexander. Alexander's tutor, Aristotle, refers to it as "the Persian bird." The peacock motif was revived in the Renaissance iconography that unified Hera and Juno, and which European painters focused on. A bird that had been associated with Hera on an archaic level, where most of the Aegean goddesses were associated with "their" bird, was the cuckoo, which appears in mythic fragments concerning the first wooing of a virginal Hera by Zeus.
Her archaic association was primarily with cattle, as a Cow Goddess, who was especially venerated in "cattle-rich" Euboea. On Cyprus, very early archaeological sites contain bull skulls that have been adapted for use as masks (see Bull (mythology)). Her familiar Homeric epithet Boôpis, is always translated "cow-eyed". In this respect, Hera bears some resemblance to the Ancient Egyptian deity Hathor, a maternal goddess associated with cattle.

Epithets

Hera bore several epithets in the mythological tradition, including:

• Ἀλέξανδρος (Alexandros) 'Protector of Men' (Alexandros) (among the Sicyonians)
• Αἰγοφάγος (Aigophágos) 'Goat-Eater' (among the Lacedaemonians)
• Ἀκραῖα (Akráia) '(She) of the Heights'
• Ἀμμωνία (Ammonia)
• Ἀργεία (Argéia) '(She) of Argos'
• Βασίλεια (Basíleia) 'Queen'
• Βουναία (Bounáia) '(She) of the Mound' (in Corinth)
• Βοῶπις (Boṓpis) 'Cow-Eyed' or 'Cow-Faced'
• Λευκώλενος (Leukṓlenos) 'White-Armed'
• Παῖς (Pais) 'Child' (in her role as virgin)
• Παρθένος (Parthénos) 'Virgin'
• Τελεία (Teléia) (as goddess of marriage)
• Χήρη (Chḗrē) 'Widowed'

Marriage to Zeus

Hera is known for her jealousy; even Zeus, who is known to fear nothing, feared her tantrums. Zeus fell in love with Hera but she refused his first marriage proposal. Zeus then preyed on her empathy for animals and other beings, created a thunderstorm and transformed himself into a little cuckoo. As a cuckoo, Zeus pretended to be in distress outside her window. Hera, feeling pity towards the bird brought it inside and held it to her breast to warm it. Zeus then transformed back into himself and raped her. Hera, ashamed of being exploited, agreed to marriage with Zeus. All of nature burst into bloom for their wedding and many gifts were exchanged.
Zeus loved Hera, but he also loved Greece and often snuck down to Earth in disguise to marry and bear children with the mortals. He wanted many children to inherit his greatness and become great heroes and rulers of Greece. Hera's jealousy towards all of Zeus' lovers and children caused her to continuously torment them and Zeus was powerless to stop his wife. Hera was always aware of Zeus' trickery and kept very close watch over him and his excursions to Earth.
Hera "presided over the right arrangements of the marriage and is the archetype of the union in the marriage bed."

Children

Name	Father	Functions	Explanation
Angelos	Zeus	An underworld goddess	Her story only survives in scholia on Theocritus' Idyll 2. She was raised by nymphs. One day she stole Hera's anointments and gave them away to Europe. To escape her mother's wrath, she tried to hide herself. Hera eventually ceased from prosecuting her, and Zeus ordered the Cabeiroi to cleanse Angelos. They performed the purification rite in the waters of the Acherusia Lake in the Underworld. Consequently, she received the world of the dead as her realm of influence, and was assigned an epithet katachthonia ("she of the underworld").
Ares	Zeus	God of war	According to Hesiod's Theogony, he was a son of Zeus and Hera.
Eileithyia	Zeus	Goddess of childbirth	In Theogony and other sources, she is described as a daughter of Hera by Zeus. Although, the meticulously accurate mythographer Pindar in Seventh Nemean Ode mentions Hera as Eileithyia's mother but makes no mention of Zeus.
Enyo	Zeus	A war goddess	She was responsible with the destruction of cities and an attendant of Ares, though Homer equates Enyo with Eris.
Eris	Zeus	Goddess of discord	She appears in Homer's Iliad Book IV; equated with Enyo as sister of Ares and so presumably daughter of Zeus and Hera.
Hebe	Zeus/–	Goddess of youth	She was a daughter of Zeus and Hera. In an alternative version, Hera alone produced Hebe after being impregnated by a head of lettuce.
Hephaestus	Zeus/–	God of fire and the forge	Attested by the Greek poet Hesiod, Hera was jealous of Zeus' giving birth to Athena with Metis, so she gave birth to Hephaestus without union with Zeus, although in some stories, he is the son of her and Zeus. Hera was then disgusted with Hephaestus' ugliness and threw him from Mount Olympus. In a version of the myth, Hephaestus gained revenge against Hera for rejecting him by making her a magical throne which, when she sat on, did not allow her to leave. The other gods begged Hephaestus to return to Olympus to let her go, but he repeatedly refused. Dionysus got him drunk and took him back to Olympus on the back of a mule. Hephaestus released Hera after being given Aphrodite as his wife.
Typhon	–	Serpent-monster	Typhon is presented both as the son of Hera (in Homer’s Pythian Hymn to Apollo) and as the son of Gaia (in Hesiod’s Theogony). According to the Homeric Hymn to Apollo (6th century BC), Typhon who was the parthenogenous child of Hera, whom she bore alone as a revenge at Zeus who had given birth to Athena. Hera prayed to Gaia to give her a son as strong as Zeus, then slapped the ground and became pregnant. Hera gave the infant Typhon to the serpent Python to raise, and Typhon grew up to become a great bane to mortals. The b scholia to Iliad 2.783, however, has Typhon born in Cilicia as the offspring of Cronus. Gaia, angry at the destruction of the Giants, slanders Zeus to Hera. So Hera goes to Cronus and he gives Hera two eggs smeared with his own semen, telling her to bury them, and that from them would be born one who would overthrow Zeus. Hera, angry at Zeus, buries the eggs in Cilicia "under Arimon", but when Typhon is born, Hera, now reconciled with Zeus, informs him.

Important stories involving Hera

Heracles

Hera is the stepmother and enemy of Heracles. The name Heracles means "Glory of Hera". There are three alternative stories about the birth of Heracles and Hera's role in preventing it. In Homer's Iliad, when Alcmene was about to give birth to Heracles, Zeus announced to all the gods that on that day a child by Zeus himself, would be born and rule all those around him. Hera, after requesting Zeus to swear an oath to that effect, descended from Olympus to Argos and made the wife of Sthenelus (son of Perseus) give birth to Eurystheus after only seven months, while at the same time preventing Alcmene from delivering Heracles. This resulted in the fulfilment of Zeus's oath in that it was Eurystheus rather than Heracles. In an alternative version mentioned in Ovid's Metamorphoses, when Alcmene was pregnant with Zeus' child, Hera tried to prevent the birth from occurring by having Eileithyia (the Greek equivalent of Lucina) tie Alcmene's legs in knots. Her attempt was foiled when Galanthis frightened Eileithyia while she was tying Alcmene's legs and Heracles was born. Hera thus punishes Galanthis by turning her into a weasel. In Pausanias' recounting, Hera sent witches (as they were called by the Thebans) to hinder Alcmene's delivery of Heracles. The witches were successful in preventing the birth until Historis, daughter of Tiresias, thought of a trick to deceive the witches. Like Galanthis, Historis announced that Alcmene had delivered her child; having been deceived, the witches went away, allowing Alcmene to give birth.
Hera's wrath against Zeus' son continues and while Heracles is still an infant, Hera sends two serpents to kill him as he lay in his cot. Heracles throttles the snakes with his bare hands and was found by his nurse playing with their limp bodies as if they were a child's toy.
One account of the origin of the Milky Way is that Zeus had tricked Hera into nursing the infant Heracles: discovering who he was, she pulled him from her breast, and a spurt of her milk formed the smear across the sky that can be seen to this day. Unlike any Greeks, the Etruscans instead pictured a full-grown bearded Heracles at Hera's breast: this may refer to his adoption by her when he became an Immortal. He had previously wounded her severely in the breast.
When Heracles reached adulthood, Hera drove him mad, which led him to murder his family and this later led to him undertaking his famous labours. Hera assigned Heracles to labour for King Eurystheus at Mycenae. She attempted to make almost each of Heracles' twelve labours more difficult. When he fought the Lernaean Hydra, she sent a crab to bite at his feet in the hopes of distracting him. Later Hera stirred up the Amazons against him when he was on one of his quests. When Heracles took the cattle of Geryon, he shot Hera in the right breast with a triple-barbed arrow: the wound was incurable and left her in constant pain, as Dione tells Aphrodite in the Iliad, Book V. Afterwards, Hera sent a gadfly to bite the cattle, irritate them and scatter them. Hera then sent a flood which raised the water level of a river so much that Heracles could not ford the river with the cattle. He piled stones into the river to make the water shallower. When he finally reached the court of Eurystheus, the cattle were sacrificed to Hera.
Eurystheus also wanted to sacrifice the Cretan Bull to Hera. She refused the sacrifice because it reflected glory on Heracles. The bull was released and wandered to Marathon, becoming known as the Marathonian Bull.
Some myths state that in the end, Heracles befriended Hera by saving her from Porphyrion, a giant who tried to rape her during the Gigantomachy, and that she even gave her daughter Hebe as his bride. Whatever myth-making served to account for an archaic representation of Heracles as "Hera's man" it was thought suitable for the builders of the Heraion at Paestum to depict the exploits of Heracles in bas-reliefs.

Leto and the Twins: Apollo and Artemis

When Hera discovered that Leto was pregnant and that Zeus was the father, she convinced the nature spirits to prevent Leto from giving birth on terra-firma, the mainland, any island at sea, or any place under the sun. Poseidon gave pity to Leto and guided her to the floating island of Delos, which was neither mainland nor a real island where Leto was able to give birth to her children. Afterwards, Zeus secured Delos to the bottom of the ocean. The island later became sacred to Apollo. Alternatively, Hera kidnapped Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth, to prevent Leto from going into labor. The other gods bribed Hera with a beautiful necklace nobody could resist and she finally gave in.
Either way, Artemis was born first and then assisted with the birth of Apollo. Some versions say Artemis helped her mother give birth to Apollo for nine days. Another variation states that Artemis was born one day before Apollo, on the island of Ortygia and that she helped Leto cross the sea to Delos the next day to give birth to Apollo.
Later Tityos attempted to rape Leto at the behest of Hera. He was slain by Artemis and Apollo.

Io and Argus

Hera saw a lone thundercloud and raced down in an attempt to catch Zeus with a mistress. Zeus saw her coming and transformed his new bride Io into a little snow-white cow. However, Hera was not fooled and demanded that Zeus give her the heifer as a present. Zeus could not refuse his queen without drawing suspicion so he had to give her the beautiful heifer.
Once Io was given to Hera, she tied her to a tree and sent her servant Argus to keep Io separated from Zeus. Argus was a loyal servant to Hera and he has immense strength and one hundred eyes all over his body. It was not possible to go past Argus since he never closed more than half his eyes at any time. Zeus was afraid of Hera's wrath could not personally intervene, so to save Io, he commanded Hermes to kill Argus, which he does by lulling all one hundred eyes into eternal sleep. In Ovid's interpolation, when Hera learned of Argus' death, she took his eyes and placed them in the plumage of the peacock, her favorite animal, accounting for the eye pattern in its tail and making it the vainest of all animals. Hera, furious about Io being free and the death of Argus, sent a gadfly (Greek oistros, compare oestrus) to sting Io as she wandered the earth. Eventually Io made it to Egypt, the Egyptians worshiped the snow-white heifer and named her the Egyptian goddess Isis. Hera permitted Zeus to change Io back into her human form, under the condition that he never look at her again. Io, the goddess-queen of Egypt, then bore Zeus' son as the next King.

Judgment of Paris

A prophecy stated that a son of the sea-nymph Thetis, with whom Zeus fell in love after gazing upon her in the oceans off the Greek coast, would become greater than his father. Possibly for this reasons, Thetis was betrothed to an elderly human king, Peleus son of Aeacus, either upon Zeus' orders, or because she wished to please Hera, who had raised her. All the gods and goddesses as well as various mortals were invited to the marriage of Peleus and Thetis (the eventual parents of Achilles) and brought many gifts. Only Eris, goddess of discord, was not invited and was stopped at the door by Hermes, on Zeus' order. She was annoyed at this, so she threw from the door a gift of her own: a golden apple inscribed with the word καλλίστῃ (kallistēi, "To the fairest"). Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena all claimed to be the fairest, and thus the rightful owner of the apple.
The goddesses quarreled bitterly over it, and none of the other gods would venture an opinion favoring one, for fear of earning the enmity of the other two. They chose to place the matter before Zeus, who, not wanting to favor one of the goddesses, put the choice into the hands of Paris, a Trojan prince. After bathing in the spring of Mount Ida where Troy was situated, they appeared before Paris to have him choose. The goddesses undressed before him, either at his request or for the sake of winning. Still, Paris could not decide, as all three were ideally beautiful, so they resorted to bribes. Hera offered Paris political power and control of all of Asia, while Athena offered wisdom, fame, and glory in battle, and Aphrodite offered the most beautiful mortal woman in the world as a wife, and he accordingly chose her. This woman was Helen, who was, unfortunately for Paris, already married to King Menelaus of Sparta. The other two goddesses were enraged by this and through Helen's abduction by Paris they brought about the Trojan War.

The Iliad

Hera plays a substantial role in The Iliad, appearing in a number of books throughout the epic poem. In accordance with ancient Greek mythology, Hera's hatred towards the Trojans, which was started by Paris' decision that Aphrodite was the most beautiful goddess, is seen as through her support of the Greeks during the war. Throughout the epic Hera makes many attempts to thwart the Trojan army. In books 1 and 2, Hera declares that the Trojans must be destroyed. Hera persuades Athena to aid the Achaeans in battle and she agrees to assist with interfering on their behalf.
In book 5, Hera and Athena plot to harm Ares, who had been seen by Diomedes in assisting the Trojans. Diomedes called for his soldiers to fall back slowly. Hera, Ares' mother, saw Ares' interference and asked Zeus, Ares' father, for permission to drive Ares away from the battlefield. Hera encouraged Diomedes to attack Ares and he threw his spear at the god. Athena drove the spear into Ares' body, and he bellowed in pain and fled to Mt. Olympus, forcing the Trojans to fall back.
In book 8, Hera tries to persuade Poseidon to disobey Zeus and help the Achaean army. He refuses, saying he doesn’t want to go against Zeus. Determined to intervene in the war, Hera and Athena head to the battlefield. However, seeing the two flee, Zeus sent Iris to intercept them and make them return to Mt. Olympus or face grave consequences. After prolonged fighting, Hera sees Poseidon aiding the Greeks and giving them motivation to keep fighting.
In book 14 Hera devises a plan to deceive Zeus. Zeus set a decree that the gods were not allowed to interfere in the mortal war. Hera is on the side of the Achaeans, so she plans a Deception of Zeus where she seduces him, with help from Aphrodite, and tricks him into a deep sleep, with the help of Hypnos, so that the Gods could interfere without the fear of Zeus.
In book 21, Hera continues her interference with the battle as she tells Hephaestus to prevent the river from harming Achilles. Hephaestus sets the battlefield ablaze, causing the river to plead with Hera, promising her he will not help the Trojans if Hephaestus stops his attack. Hephaestus stops his assault and Hera returns to the battlefield where the gods begin to fight amongst themselves.

Smaller stories involving Hera

Echo

• According to the urbane retelling of myth in Ovid's Metamorphoses, for a long time, a nymph named Echo had the job of distracting Hera from Zeus' affairs by leading her away and flattering her. When Hera discovered the deception, she cursed Echo to only repeat the words of others (hence our modern word "echo").

Semele and Dionysus

• When Hera learned that Semele, daughter of Cadmus King of Thebes, was pregnant by Zeus, she disguised herself as Semele's nurse and persuaded the princess to insist that Zeus show himself to her in his true form. When he was compelled to do so, having sworn by Styx  his thunder and lightning destroyed Semele. Zeus took Semele's unborn child, Dionysus and completed its gestation sewn into his own thigh.
• In another version, Dionysus was originally the son of Zeus by either Demeter or Persephone. Hera sent her Titans to rip the baby apart, from which he was called Zagreus ("Torn in Pieces"). Zeus rescued the heart; or, the heart was saved, variously, by Athena, Rhea, or Demeter. Zeus used the heart to recreate Dionysus and implant him in the womb of Semele—hence Dionysus became known as "the twice-born". Certain versions imply that Zeus gave Semele the heart to eat to impregnate her. Hera tricked Semele into asking Zeus to reveal his true form, which killed her. Dionysus later managed to rescue his mother from the underworld and have her live on Mount Olympus.
• See also Dionysus' birth for other variations.

Lamia

• Lamia was a queen of Libya, whom Zeus loved. Hera turned her into a monster and murdered their children. Or, alternatively, she killed Lamia's children and Lamia's grief and rage turned her into a monster. Lamia was cursed with the inability to close her eyes so that she would always obsess over the image of her dead children. Zeus gave her the gift to be able to take her eyes out to rest, and then put them back in. Lamia was envious of other mothers and ate their children.

Gerana

• Gerana was a queen of the Pygmies who boasted she was more beautiful than Hera. The wrathful goddess turned her into a crane and proclaimed that her bird descendants should wage eternal war on the Pygmy folk.

Cydippe

• Cydippe, a priestess of Hera, was on her way to a festival in the goddess' honor. The oxen which were to pull her cart were overdue and her sons, Biton and Cleobis, pulled the cart the entire way (45 stadia, 8 kilometers). Cydippe was impressed with their devotion to her and Hera so asked Hera to give her children the best gift a god could give a person. Hera ordained that the brothers would die in their sleep.
• This honor bestowed upon the children was later used by Solon, as a proof while trying to convince Croesus that it is impossible to judge a person's happiness until they have died a fruitful death after a joyous life.

Tiresias

• Tiresias was a priest of Zeus, and as a young man he encountered two snakes mating and hit them with a stick. He was then transformed into a woman. As a woman, Tiresias became a priestess of Hera, married and had children, including Manto. After seven years as a woman, Tiresias again found mating snakes; depending on the myth, either she made sure to leave the snakes alone this time, or, according to Hyginus, trampled on them and became a man once more.
• As a result of his experiences, Zeus and Hera asked him to settle the question of which sex, male or female, experienced more pleasure during intercourse. Zeus claimed it was women; Hera claimed it was men. When Tiresias sided with Zeus, Hera struck him blind. Since Zeus could not undo what she had done, he gave him the gift of prophecy.
• An alternative and less commonly told story has it that Tiresias was blinded by Athena after he stumbled onto her bathing naked. His mother, Chariclo, begged her to undo her curse, but Athena could not; she gave him prophecy instead.

Chelone

• At the marriage of Zeus and Hera, a nymph named Chelone was disrespectful or refused to attend. Zeus thus, turned her into a tortoise.

The Golden Fleece

• Hera hated Pelias because he had killed Sidero, his step-grandmother, in one of the goddess's temples. She later convinced Jason and Medea to kill Pelias. The Golden Fleece was the item that Jason needed to get his mother freed.

The Metamorphoses

• In Thrace, Hera and Zeus turned King Haemus and Queen Rhodope into mountains, the Balkan (Haemus Mons) and Rhodope Mountains respectively, for their hubris in comparing themselves to the gods.

Ixion

• When Zeus had pity on Ixion and brought him to Olympus and introduced him to the gods, instead of being grateful, Ixion grew lustful for Hera. Zeus found out about his intentions and made a cloud in the shape of Hera, who was later named Nephele, and tricked Ixion into coupling with it and from their union came Centaurus. So Ixion was expelled from Olympus and Zeus ordered Hermes to bind Ixion to a winged fiery wheel that was always spinning. Therefore, Ixion was bound to a burning solar wheel for all eternity, at first spinning across the heavens, but in later myth transferred to Tartarus.

Genealogy

Hera's family tree
Uranus Gaia Uranus' genitals Cronus Rhea Zeus HERA Poseidon Hades Demeter Hestia     a       b  Ares Hephaestus Metis Athena Leto Apollo Artemis Maia Hermes Semele Dionysus Dione     a      b Aphrodite

Art and events

• Barberini Hera - a Roman sculpture of Hera/Juno
• Hera Borghese - sculpture related to Hera
• Hera Farnese - sculpture of Hera's head
• Heraea Games - games dedicated to Hera—the first sanctioned (and recorded) women's athletic competition to be held in the stadium at Olympia.

The Temple of Hera at Agrigento, Magna Graecia.

© José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro /

Juno (English: /ˈdʒuːnoʊ/; Latin: IVNO, Iūnō, [ˈjuːnoː]) is an ancient Roman goddess, the protector and special counselor of the state. A daughter of Saturn, she is the wife of Jupiter and the mother of Mars, Vulcan, Bellona and Juventas. She is the Roman equivalent of Hera, queen of the gods in Greek mythology; like Hera, her sacred animal was the peacock. Her Etruscan counterpart was Uni, and she was said to also watch over the women of Rome. 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; it consisted of her, Jupiter, and Minerva, goddess of wisdom.
Juno's own warlike aspect among the Romans is apparent in her attire. She is 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'.

Etymology

The name Juno was also once thought to be connected to Iove (Jove), originally as Diuno and Diove from *Diovona. At the beginning of the 20th century, a derivation was 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.
Iuuen- is related to Latin aevum and Greek aion (αιών) through a common Indo-European root referring to a concept of vital energy or "fertile time". The iuvenis is he who has the fullness of vital force. 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". 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. Juno is the equivalent to Hera, the Greek goddess for love and marriage. Juno is the Roman goddess of love and marriage. Ancient etymologies associated Juno's name with iuvare, "to aid, benefit", and iuvenescendo, "rejuvenate", sometimes connecting it to the renewal of the new and waxing moon, perhaps implying the idea of a moon goddess.

Roles and epithets

Juno's theology is one of the most complex and disputed issues in Roman religion. Even more than other major Roman deities, Juno held a large number of significant and diverse epithets, names and titles representing various aspects and roles of the goddess. In accordance with her central role as a goddess of marriage, these included Pronuba and Cinxia ("she who looses the bride's girdle"). However, other epithets of Juno have wider implications and are less thematically linked.
While her connection with the idea of vital force, fullness of vital energy, eternal youthfulness is now generally acknowledged, the multiplicity and complexity of her personality have given rise to various and sometimes irreconcilable interpretations among modern scholars.
Juno is certainly the divine protectress of the community, who shows both a sovereign and a fertility character, often associated with a military one. She was present in many towns of ancient Italy: at Lanuvium as Sespeis Mater Regina, Laurentum, Tibur, Falerii, Veii as Regina, at Tibur and Falerii as Regina and Curitis, Tusculum and Norba as Lucina. She is also attested at Praeneste, Aricia, Ardea, Gabii. In five Latin towns a month was named after Juno (Aricia, Lanuvium, Laurentum, Praeneste, Tibur). Outside Latium in Campania at Teanum she was Populona (she who increase the number of the people or, in K. Latte's understanding of the iuvenes, the army), in Umbria at Pisaurum Lucina, at Terventum in Samnium Regina, at Pisarum Regina Matrona, at Aesernia in Samnium Regina Populona. In Rome she was since the most ancient times named Lucina, Mater and Regina. It is debated whether she was also known as Curitis before the evocatio of the Juno of Falerii: this though seems probable.
Other epithets of hers that were in use at Rome include Moneta and Caprotina, Tutula, Fluonia or Fluviona, Februalis, the last ones associated with the rites of purification and fertility of February.
Her various epithets thus show a complex of mutually interrelated functions that in the view of Georges Dumézil and Vsevolod Basanoff (author of Les dieux Romains) can be traced back to the Indoeuropean trifunctional ideology: as Regina and Moneta she is a sovereign deity, as Sespeis, Curitis (spear holder) and Moneta (again) she is an armed protectress, as Mater and Curitis (again) she is a goddess of the fertility and wealth of the community in her association with the curiae.
The epithet Lucina is particularly revealing since it reflects two interrelated aspects of the function of Juno: cyclical renewal of time in the waning and waxing of the moon and protection of delivery and birth (as she who brings to light the newborn as vigour, vital force). The ancient called her Covella in her function of helper in the labours of the new moon. The view that she was also a Moon goddess though is no longer accepted by scholars, as such a role belongs to Diana Lucifera: through her association with the moon she governed the feminine physiological functions, menstrual cycle and pregnancy: as a rule all lunar deities are deities of childbirth. These aspects of Juno mark the heavenly and worldly sides of her function. She is thus associated to all beginnings and hers are the kalendae of every month: at Laurentum she was known as Kalendaris Iuno (Juno of the Kalends). At Rome on the Kalends of every month the pontifex minor invoked her, under the epithet Covella, when from the curia Calabra announced the date of the nonae. On the same day the regina sacrorum sacrificed to Juno a white sow or lamb in the Regia. She is closely associated with Janus, the god of passages and beginnings who after her is often named Iunonius.
Some scholars view this concentration of multiple functions as a typical and structural feature of the goddess, inherent to her being an expression of the nature of femininity. Others though prefer to dismiss her aspects of femininity and fertility and stress only her quality of being the spirit of youthfulness, liveliness and strength, regardless of sexual connexions, which would then change according to circumstances: thus in men she incarnates the iuvenes, word often used to design soldiers, hence resulting in a tutelary deity of the sovereignty of peoples; in women capable of bearing children, from puberty on she oversees childbirth and marriage. Thence she would be a poliad goddess related to politics, power and war. Other think her military and poliadic qualities arise from her being a fertility goddess who through her function of increasing the numbers of the community became also associated to political and military functions.

Juno Sospita and Lucina

Part of the following sections is based on the article by Geneviève Dury Moyaers and Marcel Renard "Aperçu critique des travaux relatifs au culte de Junon" in Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römische Welt 1981 p. 142-202.
The rites of the month of February and the Nonae Caprotinae of July 5 offer a depiction of Juno's roles in the spheres of fertility, war, and regality.
In the Roman calendar, February is a month of universal purification, and begins the new year. In book II of his Fasti, Ovid derives the month's name from februae (expiations); lustrations designed to remove spiritual contamination or ritual pollution accumulated in the previous year. On the 1st of the month, a black ox was sacrificed to Helernus, a minor underworld deity whom Dumézil takes as a god of vegetation related to the cult of Carna/Crane, a nymph who may be an image of Juno Sospita. On the same day, Juno's dies natalis ("birthday") as Juno Sospita was celebrated at her Palatine temple. On February 15 the Lupercalia festival was held, in which Juno was involved as Juno Lucina. This is usually understood to be a rite of purification and fertility. A goat was sacrificed and its hide cut into strips, used to make whips known as februum and amiculus Iunonis, wielded by the Luperci. The Juno of this day bears the epithet of Februalis, Februata, Februa.On the last day of the month, leading into March 1, she was celebrated as protectress of matrons and marriages. The new year began on March 1. The same was celebrated as the birthday of Rome's founder and first king, Romulus, and the peaceful union of Romans and Sabine peoples through treaty and marriage after their war, which was ended by the intervention of women.
After Wissowa many scholars have remarked the similarity between the Juno of the Lupercalia and the Juno of Lanuvium Seispes Mater Regina as both are associated with the goat, symbol of fertility. But in essence there is unity between fertility, regality and purification. This unity is underlined by the role of Faunus in the aetiologic story told by Ovid and the symbolic relevance of the Lupercal:^{[clarification needed]} asked by the Roman couples at her lucus how to overcome the sterility that ensued the abduction of the Sabine women, Juno answered through a murmuring of leaves "Italidas matres sacer hircus inito" "That a sacred ram cover the Italic mothers".
Februlis oversees the secundament of the placenta and is strictly associated to Fluvonia, Fluonia, goddess who retains the blood inside the body during pregnancy. While the protection of pregnancy is stressed by Duval, Palmer sees in Fluonia only the Juno of lustration in river water. Ovid devotes an excursus to the lustrative function of river water in the same place in which he explains the etymology of February.
A temple (aedes) of Juno Lucina was built in 375 BC in the grove sacred to the goddess from early times. It stood precisely on the Cispius near the sixth shrine of the Argei. probably not far west of the church of S. Prassede, where inscriptions relating to her cult have been found. The grove should have extended down the slope south of the temple. As Servius Tullius ordered the gifts for the newborn to be placed in the treasury of the temple though it looks that another shrine stood there before 375 BC. In 190 BC the temple was struck by lightning, its gable and doors injured. The annual festival of the Matronalia was celebrated here on March 1, day of the dedication of the temple.
A temple to Iuno Sospita was vowed by consul Gaius Cornelius Cethegus in 197 BC and dedicated in 194. By 90 BC the temple had fallen into disrepute: in that year it was stained by episodes of prostitution and a bitch delivered her puppies right beneath the statue of the goddess. By decree of the senate consul L. Iulius Caesar ordered its restoration. In his poem Fasti Ovid states the temple of Juno Sospita had become dilapidated to the extent of being no longer discernible "because of the injuries of time": this looks hardly possible as the restoration had happened no longer than a century earlier and relics of the temple exist to-day. It is thence plausible that an older temple of Juno Sospita existed in Rome within the pomerium, as Ovid says it was located near the temple of the Phrygian Mother (Cybele), which stood on the western corner of the Palatine. As a rule temples of foreign, imported gods stood without the pomerium.

Juno Caprotina

The alliance of the three aspects of Juno finds a strictly related parallel to the Lupercalia in the festival of the Nonae Caprotinae. On that day the Roman free and slave women picnicked and had fun together near the site of the wild fig (caprificus): the custom implied runs, mock battles with fists and stones, obscene language and finally the sacrifice of a male goat to Juno Caprotina under a wildfig tree and with the using of its lymph. This festival had a legendary aetiology in a particularly delicate episode of Roman history and also recurs at (or shortly after) a particular time of the year, that of the so-called caprificatio when branches of wild fig trees were fastened to cultivated ones to promote insemination. The historical episode narrated by ancient sources concerns the siege of Rome by the Latin peoples that ensued the Gallic sack. The dictator of the Latins Livius Postumius from Fidenae would have requested the Roman senate that the matronae and daughters of the most prominent families be surrendered to the Latins as hostages. While the senate was debating the issue a slave girl, whose Greek name was Philotis and Latin Tutela or Tutula proposed that she together with other slave girls would render herself up to the enemy camp pretending to be the wives and daughters of the Roman families. Upon agreement of the senate, the women dressed up elegantly and wearing golden jewellery reached the Latin camp. There they seduced the Latins into fooling and drinking: after they had fallen asleep they stole their swords. Then Tutela gave the convened signal to the Romans brandishing an ignited branch after climbing on the wild fig (caprificus) and hiding the fire with her mantle. The Romans then irrupted into the Latin camp killing the enemies in their sleep. The women were rewarded with freedom and a dowry at public expenses.
Dumézil in his Archaic Roman Religion had been unable to interpret the myth underlying this legendary event, later though he accepted the interpretation given by P. Drossart and published it in his Fêtes romaines d'été et d'automne, suivi par dix questions romaines in 1975 as Question IX. In folklore the wild fig tree is universally associated with sex because of its fertilising power, the shape of its fruits and the white viscous juice of the tree.
Basanoff has argued that the legend not only alludes to sex and fertility in its association with wildfig and goat but is in fact a summary of sort of all the qualities of Juno. As Juno Sespeis of Lanuvium Juno Caprotina is a warrior, a fertiliser and a sovereign protectress. In fact the legend presents a heroine, Tutela, who is a slightly disguised representation of the goddess: the request of the Latin dictator would mask an attempted evocatio of the tutelary goddess of Rome. Tutela indeed shows regal, military and protective traits, apart from the sexual ones. Moreover, according to Basanoff these too (breasts, milky juice, genitalia, present or symbolised in the fig and the goat) in general, and here in particular, have an inherently apotropaic value directly related to the nature of Juno. The occasion of the feria, shortly after the poplifugia, i.e. when the community is in its direst straits, needs the intervention of a divine tutelary goddess, a divine queen, since the king (divine or human) has failed to appear or has fled. Hence the customary battles under the wild figs, the scurrile language that bring together the second and third function. This festival would thus show a ritual that can prove the trifunctional nature of Juno.
Other scholars limit their interpretation of Caprotina to the sexual implications of the goat, the caprificus and the obscene words and plays of the festival.

Juno Curitis

Under this epithet Juno is attested in many places, notably at Falerii and Tibur. Dumézil remarked that Juno Curitis "is represented and invoked at Rome under conditions very close to those we know about for Juno Seispes of Lanuvium". Martianus Capella states she must be invoked by those who are involved in war. The hunt of the goat by stonethrowing at Falerii is described in Ovid Amores III 13, 16 ff. In fact the Juno Curritis of Falerii shows a complex articulated structure closely allied to the threefold Juno Seispes of Lanuvium.
Ancient etymologies associated the epithet with Cures, with the Sabine word for spear curis, with currus cart, with Quirites, with the curiae, as king Titus Tatius dedicated a table to Juno in every curia, that Dionysius still saw.
Modern scholars have proposed the town of Currium or Curria, Quirinus, *quir(i)s or *quiru, the Sabine word for spear and curia. The *quiru- would design the sacred spear that gave the name to the primitive curiae. The discovery at Sulmona of a sanctuary of Hercules Curinus lends support to a Sabine origin of the epithet and of the cult of Juno in the curiae. The spear could also be the celibataris hasta (bridal spear) that in the marriage ceremonies was used to comb the bridegroom's hair as a good omen. Palmer views the rituals of the curiae devoted to her as a reminiscence of the origin of the curiae themselves in rites of evocatio, practise the Romans continued to use for Juno or her equivalent at later times as for Falerii, Veii and Carthage. Juno Curitis would then be the evoked deity after her admission into the curiae.
Juno Curitis had a temple on the Campus Martius. Excavations in Largo di Torre Argentina have revealed four temple structures, one of whom (temple D or A) could be the temple of Juno Curitis. She shared her anniversary day with Juppiter Fulgur, who had an altar nearby.

Juno Moneta

This Juno is placed by ancient sources in a warring context. Dumézil thinks the third, military, aspect of Juno is reflected in Juno Curitis and Moneta. Palmer too sees in her a military aspect.
As for the etymology Cicero gives the verb monēre warn, hence the Warner. Palmer accepts Cicero's etymology as a possibility while adding mons mount, hill, verb e-mineo and noun monile referred to the Capitol, place of her cult. Also perhaps a cultic term or even, as in her temple were kept the Libri Lintei, monere would thence have the meaning of recording: Livius Andronicus identifies her as Mnemosyne.
Her dies natalis was on the kalendae of June. Her Temple on the summit of the Capitol was dedicated only in 348 BC by dictator L. Furius Camillus, presumably a son of the great Furius. Livy states he vowed the temple during a war against the Aurunci. Modern scholars agree that the origins of the cult and of the temple were much more ancient. M. Guarducci considers her cult very ancient, identifying her with Mnemosyne as the Warner because of her presence near the auguraculum, her oracular character, her announcement of perils: she considers her as an introduction into Rome of the Hera of Cuma dating to the 8th century. L. A. Mac Kay considers the goddess more ancient than her etymology on the testimony of Valerius Maximus who states she was the Juno of Veii. The sacred geese of the Capitol were lodged in her temple: as they are recorded in the episode of the Gallic siege (ca. 396-390 BC) by Livy, the temple should have existed before Furius's dedication. Basanoff considers her to go back to the regal period: she would be the Sabine Juno who arrived at Rome through Cures. At Cures she was the tutelary deity of the military chief: as such she is never to be found among Latins. This new quality is apparent in the location of her fanum, her name, her role: 1. her altar is located in the regia of Titus Tatius; 2. Moneta is, from monere, the Adviser: like Egeria with Numa (Tatius's son in law) she is associated to a Sabine king; 3. In Dionysius of Halicarnassus the altar-tables of the curiae are consecrated to Juno Curitis to justify the false etymology of Curitis from curiae: the tables would assure the presence of the tutelary numen of the king as an adviser within each curia, as the epithet itself implies. It can be assumed thence that Juno Moneta intervenes under warlike circumstances as associated to the sacral power of the king.

Juno Regina

Juno Regina is perhaps the epithet most fraught with questions. While some scholars maintain she was known as such at Rome since the most ancient times as paredra of Jupiter in the Capitoline Triad others think she is a new acquisition introduced to Rome after her evocatio from Veii.
Palmer thinks she is to be identified with Juno Populona of later inscriptions, a political and military poliadic deity who had in fact a place in the Capitoline temple and was intended to represent the Regina of the king. The date of her introduction, though ancient, would be uncertain; she should perhaps be identified with Hera Basilea or as the queen of Jupiter Rex. The actual epithet Regina could though come from Veii. At Rome this epithet may have been applied to a Juno other than that of the temple on the Aventine built to lodge the evocated Veian Juno as the rex sacrorum and his wife-queen were to offer a monthly sacrifice to Juno in the Regia. This might imply that the prerepublican Juno was royal.

J. Gagé dismisses these assumptions as groundless speculations as no Jupiter Rex is attested and in accord with Roe D'Albret stresses that at Rome no presence of a Juno Regina is mentioned before Marcus Furius Camillus, while she is attested in many Etruscan and Latin towns. Before that time her Roman equivalent was Juno Moneta. Marcel Renard for his part considers her an ancient Roman figure since the title of the Veian Juno expresses a cultic reality that is close to and indeed presupposes the existence at Rome of an analogous character: as a rule it is the presence of an original local figure that may allow the introduction of the new one through evocatio. He agrees with Dumézil that we^[who?] ignore whether the translation of the epithet is exhaustive and what Etruscan notion corresponded to the name Regina which itself is certainly an Italic title. This is the only instance of evocatio recorded by the annalistic tradition. However Renard considers Macrobius's authority reliable in his long list of evocationes on the grounds of an archaeological find at Isaura. Roe D'Albret underlines the role played by Camillus and sees a personal link between the deity and her magistrate. Similarly Dumézil has remarked the link of Camillus with Mater Matuta. In his relationship to the goddess he takes the place of the king of Veii. Camillus's devotion to female deities Mater Matuta and Fortuna and his contemporary vow of a new temple to both Matuta and Iuno Regina hint to a degree of identity between them: this assumption has by chance been supported by the discovery at Pyrgi of a bronze lamella which mentions together Uni and Thesan, the Etruscan Juno and Aurora, i.e. Mater Matuta. One can then suppose Camillus's simultaneous vow of the temples of the two goddesses should be seen in the light of their intrinsic association. Octavianus will repeat the same translation with the statue of the Juno of Perusia in consequence of a dream
That a goddess evoked in war and for political reasons receive the homage of women and that women continue to have a role in her cult is explained by Palmer as a foreign cult of feminine sexuality of Etruscan derivation. The persistence of a female presence in her cult through the centuries down to the lectisternium of 217 BC, when the matronae collected money for the service, and to the times of Augustus during the ludi saeculares in the sacrifices to Capitoline Juno are proof of the resilience of this foreign tradition.
Gagé and D'Albret remark an accentuation of the matronal aspect of Juno Regina that led her to be the most matronal of the Roman goddesses by the time of the end of the republic. This fact raises the question of understanding why she was able of attracting the devotion of the matronae. Gagé traces back the phenomenon to the nature of the cult rendered to the Juno Regina of the Aventine in which Camillus played a role in person. The original devotion of the matronae was directed to Fortuna. Camillus was devout to her and to Matuta, both matronal deities. When he brought Juno Regina from Veii the Roman women were already acquainted with many Junos, while the ancient rites of Fortuna were falling off. Camillus would have then made a political use of the cult of Juno Regina to subdue the social conflicts of his times by attributing to her the role of primordial mother.
Juno Regina had two temples (aedes) in Rome. The one dedicated by Furius Camillus in 392 BC stood on the Aventine: it lodged the wooden statue of the Juno transvected from Veii. It is mentioned several times by Livy in connexion with sacrifices offered in atonement of prodigia. It was restored by Augustus. Two inscriptions found near the church of S. Sabina indicate the approximate site of the temple, which corresponds with its place in the lustral procession of 207 BC, near the upper end of the Clivus Publicius. The day of the dedication and of her festival was September 1.
Another temple stood near the circus Flaminius, vowed by consul Marcus Aemilius Lepidus in 187 BC during the war against the Ligures and dedicated by himself as censor in 179 on December 23. It was connected by a porch with a temple of Fortuna, perhaps that of Fortuna Equestris. Its probable site according to Platner is just south of the porticus Pompeiana on the west end of circus Flaminius.
The Juno Cealestis of Carthage Tanit was evoked according to Macrobius. She did not receive a temple in Rome: presumably her image was deposited in another temple of Juno (Moneta or Regina) and later transferred to the Colonia Junonia founded by Caius Gracchus. The goddess was once again transferred to Rome by emperor Elagabalus.

Juno in the Capitoline triad

The first mention of a Capitoline triad refers to the Capitolium Vetus. The only ancient source who refers to the presence of this divine triad in Greece is Pausanias X 5, 1-2, who mentions its existence in describing the Φωκικόν in Phocis. The Capitoline triad poses difficult interpretative problems. It looks peculiarly Roman, since there is no sure document of its existence elsewhere either in Latium or Etruria. A direct Greek influence is possible but it would be also plausible to consider it a local creation. Dumézil advanced the hypothesis it could be an ideological construction of the Tarquins to oppose new Latin nationalism, as it included the three gods that in the Iliad are enemies of Troy. It is probable Latins had already accepted the legend of Aeneas as their ancestor. Among ancient sources indeed Servius states that according to the Etrusca Disciplina towns should have the three temples of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva at the end of three roads leading to three gates. Vitruvius writes that the temples of these three gods should be located on the most elevated site, isolated from the other. To his Etruscan founders the meaning of this triad might have been related to peculiarly Etruscan ideas on the association of the three gods with the birth of Herakles and the siege of Troy, in which Minerva plays a decisive role as a goddess of destiny along with the sovereign couple Uni Tinia.

The Junos of Latium

The cults of the Italic Junos reflected remarkable theological complexes: regality, military protection and fertility.
In Latium are relatively well known the instances of Tibur, Falerii, Laurentum and Lanuvium.
At Tibur and Falerii their sacerdos was a male, called pontifex sacrarius, fact that has been seen as a proof of the relevance of the goddess to the whole society. In both towns she was known as Curitis, the spearholder, an armed protectress. The martial aspect of these Junos is conspicuous, quite as that of fecundity and regality: the first two look strictly interconnected: fertility guaranteed the survival of the community, peaceful and armed. Iuno Curitis is also the tutelary goddess of the curiae and of the new brides, whose hair was combed with the spear called caelibataris hasta as in Rome. In her annual rites at Falerii youths and maiden clad in white bore in procession gifts to the goddess whose image was escorted by her priestesses. The idea of purity and virginity is stressed in Ovid's description. A she goat is sacrificed to her after a ritual hunting. She is then the patroness of the young soldiers and of brides.
At Lanuvium the goddess is known under the epithet Seispes Mater Regina. The titles themselves are a theological definition: she was a sovereign goddess, a martial goddess and a fertility goddess. Hence her flamen was chosen by the highest local magistrate, the dictator, and since 388 BC the Roman consuls were required to offer sacrifices to her. Her sanctuary was famous, rich and powerful.
Her cult included the annual feeding of a sacred snake with barley cakes by virgin maidens. The snake dwelt in a deep cave within the precinct of the temple, on the arx of the city: the maidens approached the lair blindfolded. The snake was supposed to feed only on the cakes offered by chaste girls. The rite was aimed at ensuring agricultural fertility. The site of the temple as well as the presence of the snake show she was the tutelary goddess of the city, as Athena at Athens and Hera at Argos. The motive of the snake of the palace goddess guardian of the city is shared by Iuno Seispes with Athena, as well as its periodic feeding. This religious pattern moreover includes armour, goatskin dress, sacred birds and a concern with virginity in cult. Virginity is connected to regality: the existence and welfare of the community was protected by virgin goddesses or the virgin attendants of a goddess. This theme shows a connexion with the fundamental theological character of Iuno, that of incarnating vital force: virginity is the condition of unspoilt, unspent vital energy that can ensure communion with nature and its rhythm, symbolised in the fire of Vesta. It is a decisive factor in ensuring the safety of the community and the growth of crops. The role of Iuno is at the crossing point of civil and natural life, expressing their interdependence.
At Laurentum she was known as Kalendaris Iuno and was honoured as such ritually at the kalendae of each month from March to December, i.e. the months of the prenuman ten month year, fact which is a testimony to the antiquity of the custom.
A Greek influence in their cults looks probable. It is noteworthy though that Cicero remarked the existence of a stark difference between the Latin Iuno Seispes and the Argolic Hera (as well the Roman Iuno) in his work De natura deorum. Claudius Helianus later wrote "...she has much new of Hera Argolis" The iconography of Argive Hera, matronal and regal, looks quite far away from the warlike and savage character of Iuno Seispes, especially considering that it is uncertain whether the former was an armed Hera.
After the definitive subjugation of the Latin League in 338 BC the Romans required as a condition of peace the condominium of the Roman people on the sanctuary and the sacred grove of Juno Seispes in Lanuvium, while bestowing Roman citizenry on the Lanuvians. Consequently, the prodigia (supernatural or unearthly phenomena) happened in her temple were referred to Rome and accordingly expiated there. Many occurred during the presence of Hannibal in Italy. Perhaps the Romans were not completely satisfied with this solution as in 194 BC consul C. Cornelius Cethegus erected a temple to the Juno Sospita of Lanuvium in the Forum Holitorium (vowed three years earlier in a war with the Galli Insubri):); in it the goddess was honoured in military garb. The flamen or special priest belonging to Juno Seispes continued to be a Lanuvian, specially nominated by the town to take care of the goddess even though she was housed in her temple at Rome (in the Forum Holitorium). At the time of Cicero, Milo, who served as the city's dictator and highest magistrate in 52 BC (Cic. Mil. 27), and of course was also a Roman citizen (he had been tribune of the plebs in 57 BCE), resided in Rome. When he fatally met Clodius near Bovillae (Milo's slaves killed Clodius in that encounter), he was on his way to Lanuvium in order to nominate the flamen of Juno Seispes. 

Theological and comparative study

The complexity of the figure of Juno has caused much uncertainty and debate among modern scholars. Some emphasize one aspect or character of the goddess, considering it as primary: the other ones would then be the natural and even necessary development of the first. Palmer and Harmon consider it to be the natural vital force of youthfulness, Latte women's fecundity. These original characters would have led to the formation of the complex theology of Juno as a sovereign and an armed tutelary deity.
Georges Dumézil on the other hand proposed the theory of the irreducibility and interdependence of the three aspects (sovereignty, war, fertility) in goddesses that he interprets as an original, irreducible structure as hypothesised in his hypothesis of the trifunctional ideology of the Indoeuropeans. While Dumézil's refusal of seeing a Greek influence in Italic Junos looks difficult to maintain in the light of the contributions of archaeology, his comparative analysis of the divine structure is supported by many scholars, as M. Renard and J. Poucet. His theory purports that while male gods incarnated one single function, there are female goddesses who make up a synthesis of the three functions, as a reflection of the ideal of woman's role in society. Even though such a deity has a peculiar affinity for one function, generally fertility, i. e. the third, she is nevertheless equally competent in each of the three.
As concrete instances Dumézil makes that of Vedic goddess Sarasvatī and Avestic Anāhīta. Sarasvati as river goddess is first a goddess of the third function, of vitality and fertility associated to the deities of the third function as the Aśvin and of propagation as Sinīvalī. She is the mother and on her rely all vital forces. But at the same time she belongs to the first function as a religious sovereign: she is pure, she is the means of purifications and helps the conceiving and realisation of pious thoughts. Lastly she is also a warrior: allied with the Maruts she annihilates the enemies and, sole among female goddesses, bears the epithet of the warrior god Indra, vṛtraghnỉ, destroyer of oppositions. She is the common spouse of all the heroes of the Mahābhārata, sons and heirs of the Vedic gods Dharma, Vāyu, Indra and of the Aśvin twins. Though in hymns and rites her threefold nature is never expressed conjointly (except in Ṛg Veda VI 61, 12:: triṣadásthā having three seats).
Only in her Avestic equivalent Anahita, the great mythic river, does she bear the same three valences explicitly: her Yašt states she is invoked by warriors, by clerics and by deliverers. She bestows on females an easy delivery and timely milking. She bestowed on heroes the vigour by which they defeated their demonic adversaries. She is the great purifier, "she who puts the worshipper in the ritual, pure condition" (yaož dā). Her complete name too is threefold: The Wet (Arədvī), The Strong (Sūrā), The Immaculate (Anāhitā).
Dumézil remarks these titles match perfectly those of Latin Junos, especially the Juno Seispes Mater Regina of Lanuvium, the only difference being in the religious orientation of the first function. Compare also the epithet Fluonia, Fluviona of Roman Juno, discussed by G. Radke. However D. P. Harmon has remarked that the meaning of Seispes cannot be seen as limited to the warrior aspect, as it implies a more complex, comprehensive function, i. e. of Saviour.
Among Germanic peoples the homologous goddess was bivalent, as a rule the military function was subsumed into the sovereign: goddess *Frīy(y)o- was at the same time sovereign, wife of the great god, and Venus (thence *Friy(y)a-dagaz "Freitag for Veneris dies). However the internal tension of the character led to a duplication in Scandinavian religion: Frigg resulted in a merely sovereign goddess, the spouse of wizard god Óðinn, while from the name of Freyr, typical god of the third function, was extracted a second character, Freyja, confined as a Vani to the sphere of pleasure and wealth.
Dumézil opines that the theologies of ancient Latium could have preserved a composite image of the goddess and this fact, notably her feature of being Regina, would in turn have rendered possible her interpretatio as Hera.

Associations with other deities

Juno and Jupiter

The divine couple received from Greece its matrimonial implications, thence bestowing on Juno the role of tutelary goddess of marriage (Iuno Pronuba).
The couple itself though cannot be reduced to a Greek apport. The association of Juno and Jupiter is of the most ancient Latin theology. Praeneste offers a glimpse into original Latin mythology: the local goddess Fortuna is represented as nursing two infants, one male and one female, namely Jove (Jupiter) and Juno. It seems fairly safe to assume that from the earliest times they were identified by their own proper names and since they got them they were never changed through the course of history: they were called Jupiter and Juno. These gods were the most ancient deities of every Latin town. Praeneste preserved divine filiation and infancy as the sovereign god and his paredra Juno have a mother who is the primordial goddess Fortuna Primigenia. Many terracotta statuettes have been discovered which represent a woman with a child: one of them represents exactly the scene described by Cicero of a woman with two children of different sex who touch her breast. Two of the votive inscriptions to Fortuna associate her and Jupiter: " Fortunae Iovi puero..." and "Fortunae Iovis puero..."
However, in 1882 R. Mowat published an inscription in which Fortuna is called daughter of Jupiter, raising new questions and opening new perspectives in the theology of Latin gods. Dumézil has elaborated an interpretative theory according to which this aporia would be an intrinsic, fundamental feature of Indoeuropean deities of the primordial and sovereign level, as it finds a parallel in Vedic religion. The contradiction would put Fortuna both at the origin of time and into its ensuing diachronic process: it is the comparison offered by Vedic deity Aditi, the Not-Bound or Enemy of Bondage, that shows that there is no question of choosing one of the two apparent options: as the mother of the Aditya she has the same type of relationship with one of his sons, Dakṣa, the minor sovereign who represents the Creative Energy, being at the same time his mother and daughter, as is true for the whole group of sovereign gods to which she belongs.Moreover, Aditi is thus one of the heirs (along with Savitr) of the opening god of the Indoiranians, as she is represented with her head on her two sides, with the two faces looking opposite directions. The mother of the sovereign gods has thence two solidal but distinct modalities of duplicity, i.e. of having two foreheads and a double position in the genealogy. Angelo Brelich has interpreted this theology as the basic opposition between the primordial absence of order (chaos) and the organisation of the cosmos.

Juno and Janus

The relationship of the female sovereign deity with the god of beginnings and passages is reflected mainly in their association with the kalendae of every month, which belong to both, and in the festival of the Tigillum Sororium of October 1.
Janus as gatekeeper of the gates connecting Heaven and Earth and guardian of all passages is particularly related to time and motion. He holds the first place in ritual invocations and prayers, in order to ensure the communication between the worshipper and the gods. He enjoys the privilege of receiving the first sacrifice of the new year, which is offered by the rex on the day of the Agonium of January as well as at the kalendae of each month: These rites show he is considered the patron of the cosmic year. Ovid in his Fasti has Janus say that he is the original Chaos and also the first era of the world, which got organised only afterwards. He preserves a tutelary function on this universe as the gatekeeper of Heaven. His nature, qualities and role are reflected in the myth of him being the first to reign in Latium, on the banks of the Tiber, and there receiving god Saturn, in the age when the Earth still could bear the gods. The theology of Janus is also presented in the carmen Saliare. According to Johannes Lydus the Etruscans called him Heaven. His epithets are numerous Iunonius is particularly relevant, as the god of the kalendae who cooperates with and is the source of the youthful vigour of Juno in the birth of the new lunar month. His other epithet Consivius hints to his role in the generative function.
The role of the two gods at the kalendae of every month is that of presiding over the birth of the new moon. Janus and Juno cooperate as the first looks after the passage from the previous to the ensuing month while the second helps it through the strength of her vitality. The rites of the kalendae included the invocations to Juno Covella, giving the number of days to the nonae, a sacrifice to Janus by the rex sacrorum and the pontifex minor at the curia Calabra and one to Juno by the regina sacrorum in the Regia: originally when the month was still lunar the pontifex minor had the task of signalling the appearance of the new moon. While the meaning of the epithet Covella is unknown and debated, that of the rituals is clear as the divine couple is supposed to oversee, protect and help the moon during the particularly dangerous time of her darkness and her labours: the role of Juno Covella is hence the same as that of Lucina for women during parturition. The association of the two gods is reflected on the human level at the difficult time of labours as is apparent in the custom of putting a key, symbol of Janus, in the hand of the woman with the aim of ensuring an easy delivery, while she had to invoke Juno Lucina. At the nonae Caprotinae similarly Juno had the function of aiding and strengthening the moon as the nocturnal light, at the time when her force was supposed to be at its lowest, after the Summer solstice.
The Tigillum Sororium was a rite (sacrum) of the gens Horatia and later of the State. In it Janus Curiatius was associated to Juno Sororia: they had their altars on opposite sides of the alley behind the Tigillum Sororium. Physically this consisted of a beam spanning the space over two posts. It was kept in good condition down to the time of Livy at public expenses. According to tradition it was a rite of purification that served at the expiation of Publius Horatius who had murdered his own sister when he saw her mourning the death of her betrothed Curiatius. Dumézil has shown in his Les Horaces et les Curiaces that this story is in fact the historical transcription of rites of reintegration into civil life of the young warriors, in the myth symbolised by the hero, freed from their furor (wrath), indispensable at war but dangerous in social life. What is known of the rites of October 1 shows at Rome the legend has been used as an aetiological myth for the yearly purification ceremonies which allowed the desacralisation of soldiers at the end of the warring season, i.e. their cleansing from the religious pollution contracted at war. The story finds parallels in Irish and Indian mythologies. These rites took place in October, month that at Rome saw the celebration of the end of the yearly military activity. Janus would then the patron of the feria as god of transitions, Juno for her affinities to Janus, especially on the day of the kalendae. It is also possible though that she took part as the tutelary goddess of young people, the iuniores, etymologically identical to her. Modern scholars are divided on the interpretation of J. Curiatius and J. Sororia. Renard citing Capdeville opines that the wisest choice is to adhere to tradition and consider the legend itself as the source of the epithets.
M. Renard advanced the view that Janus and not Juppiter was the original paredra or consort of Juno, on the grounds of their many common features, functions and appearance in myth or rites as is shown by their cross coupled epithets Janus Curiatius and Juno Sororia: Janus shares the epithet of Juno Curitis and Juno the epithet Janus Geminus, as sororius means paired, double. Renard's theory has been rejected by G. Capdeville as not being in accord with the level of sovereign gods in Dumézil's trifunctional structure. The theology of Janus would show features typically belonging to the order of the gods of the beginning. In Capdeville's view it is only natural that a god of beginnings and a sovereign mother deity have common features, as all births can be seen as beginnings, Juno is invoked by deliverers, who by custom hold a key, symbol of Janus.

Juno and Hercules

Even though the origins of Hercules are undoubtedly Greek his figure underwent an early assimilation into Italic local religions and might even preserve traces of an association to Indoiranian deity Trita Apya that in Greece have not survived. Among other roles that Juno and Hercules share there is the protection of the newborn. Jean Bayet, author of Les origines de l'Arcadisme romain, has argued that such a function must be a later development as it looks to have superseded that of the two original Latin gods Picumnus and Pilumnus.
The two gods are mentioned together in a dedicatory inscription found in the ruins of the temple of Hercules at Lanuvium, whose cult was ancient and second in importance only to that of Juno Sospita. In the cults of this temple just like in those at the Ara maxima in Rome women were not allowed. The exclusion of one sex is a characteristic practice in the cults of deities of fertility. Even though no text links the cults of the Ara maxima with Juno Sospita, her temple, founded in 193 BC, was located in the Forum Holitorium near the Porta Carmentalis, one of the sites of the legend of Hercules in Rome. The feria of the goddess coincides with a Natalis Herculis, birthday of Hercules, which was celebrated with ludi circenses, games in the circus. In Bayet's view Juno and Hercules did supersede Pilumnus and Picumnus in the role of tutelary deities of the newborn not only because of their own features of goddess of the deliverers and of apotropaic tutelary god of infants but also because of their common quality of gods of fertility. This was the case in Rome and at Tusculum where a cult of Juno Lucina and Hercules was known. At Lanuvium and perhaps Rome though their most ancient association rests on their common fertility and military characters. The Latin Junos certainly possessed a marked warlike character (at Lanuvium, Falerii, Tibur, Rome). Such character might suggest a comparison with the Greek armed Heras one finds in the South of Italy at Cape Lacinion and at the mouth of river Sele, military goddesses close to the Heras of Elis and Argos known as Argivae. In the cult this Hera received at Cape Lacinion she was associated with Heracles, supposed the founder of the sanctuary. Contacts with Central Italy and similarity would have favoured a certain assimilation between Latin warlike Junos and Argive Heras and the association with Heracles of Latin Junos. Some scholars, mostly Italians, recognize in the Junos of Falerii, Tibur and Lavinium the Greek Hera, rejecting the theory of an indigenous original cult of a military Juno. Renard thinks Dumézil's opposition to such a view is to be upheld: Bayet's words though did not deny the existence of local warlike Junos, but only imply that at a certain time they received the influence of the Heras of Lacinion and Sele, fact that earned them the epithet of Argive and a Greek connotation. However Bayet recognized the quality of mother and of fertility deity as being primitive among the three purported by the epithets of the Juno of Lanuvium (Seispes, Mater, Regina).
Magna Graecia and Lanuvium mixed their influence in the formation of the Roman Hercules and perhaps there was a Sabine element too as is testified by Varro, supported by the find of the sanctuary of Hercules Curinus at Sulmona and by the existence of a Juno Curitis in Latium.
The mythical theme of the suckling of the adult Heracles by Hera, though being of Greek origin, is considered by scholars as having received its full acknowledgement and development in Etruria: Heracles has become a bearded adult on the mirrors of the 4th and 3rd centuries BC. Most scholars view the fact as an initiation, i.e. the accession of Heracles to the condition of immortal. Even though the two versions coexisted in Greece and that of Heracles infant is attested earlier Renard suggests a process more in line with the evolution of the myth: the suckling of the adult Heracles should be regarded as more ancient and reflecting its original true meaning.

Juno and Genius

The view that Juno was the feminine counterpart to Genius, i.e. that as men possess a tutelary entity or double named genius, so women have their own one named juno, has been maintained by many scholars, lastly Kurt Latte. In the past it has also been argued that goddess Juno herself would be the issue of a process of abstraction from the individual junos of every woman. According to Georg Wissowa and K. Latte Genius (from the root gen-, whence gigno bear or be born, archaic also geno) would design the specific virile generative potency, as opposed to feminine nature, reflected in conception and delivery, under the tutelage of Juno Lucina. Such an interpretation has been critically reviewed by Walter F. Otto
While there are some correspondences between the ideas about genius and juno, especially in the imperial age, the relevant documentation is rather late (Tibullus mentions it first).Dumézil also remarks from these passages one could infer every woman has a Venus too. As evidence of the antiquity of the concept of a juno of women, homologous to the genius of men, is the Arval sacrifice of two sheep to the Juno Deae Diae ("the juno of goddesses named Dea Dia"), in contrast to their sacrifice of two cows sacrificed to Juno (singular). However both G. Wissowa and K. Latte allow that this ritual could have been adapted to fit theology of the Augustan restoration. While the concept of a Juno of goddesses is not attested in the inscriptions of 58 BC from Furfo, that of a Genius of gods is, and even of a Genius of a goddess, Victoria. On this point it looks remarkable that also in Martianus Capella's division of Heaven a Juno Hospitae Genius is mentioned in region IX, and not a Juno: the sex of this Genius is feminine. See section below for details.
Romans believed the genius of somebody was an entity that embodied his essential character, personality, and also originally his vital, generative force and raison d' être. However the genius had no direct relationship with sex, at least in classical time conceptions, even though the nuptial bed was named lectus genialis in honour of the Genius and brides on the day of marriage invoked the genius of their grooms. This seems to hint to a significance of the Genius as the propagative spirit of the gens, of whom every human individual is an incarnation: Censorinus states: "Genius is the god under whose tutelage everyone is born and lives on", and that "many ancient authors, among whom Granius Flaccus in his De Indigitamentis, maintain that he is one and the same with the Lar", meaning the Lar Familiaris. Festus calls him "a god endowed with the power of doing everything", then citing an Aufustius: "Genius is the son of the gods and the parent of men, from whom men receive life. Thence is he named my genius, because he begot me". Festus's quotation goes on saying: "Other think he is the special god of every place", a notion that reflects a different idea. In classic age literature and iconography he is often represented as a snake, that may appear in the conjugal bed, this conception being perhaps the issue of a Greek influence. It was easy for the Roman concept of Genius to expand annexing other similar religious figures as the Lares and the Greek δαίμων αγαθός.
The genius was believed to be associated with the forehead of each man, while goddess Juno, not the juno of every woman, was supposed to have under her jurisdiction the eyebrows of women or to be the tutelary goddess of the eyebrows of everybody, irrespective of one's sex.

Juno and the Penates

According to an interpretation of the Di Penates Juno, along with Jupiter and Minerva, is one of the Penates of man. This view is ascribed by Macrobius to the mystic religion of Samothrace, imported to Rome by Tarquinius Priscus, himself an initiate, who thereby created the Roman Capitoline Triad. Juno is the god by whom man gets his body.

Heries Junonis

Among the female entities that in the pontifical invocations accompanied the naming of gods, Juno was associated to Heries, which she shared with Mars (Heres Martea).

Festivals

All festivals of Juno were held on the kalendae of a month except two (or, perhaps, three): The Nonae Caprotinae on the nonae of July, the festival of Juno Capitolina on September 13, because the date of these two was determined by preeminence of Jupiter. Perhaps a second festival of Juno Moneta was held on October 10, possibly the date of the dedication of her temple. This fact reflects the strict association of the goddess with the beginning of each lunar month.
Every year, on the first of March, women held a festival in honor of Juno Lucina called the Matronalia. Lucina was an epithet for Juno as "she who brings children into light." On this day, lambs and cattle were sacrificed in her honor in the temple of her sacred grove on the Cispius.
The second festival was devoted to Juno Moneta on June 1.
Following was the festival of the Nonae Caprotinae ("The Nones of the Wild Fig") held on July 7.
The festival of Juno Regina fell on September 1, followed on the 13 of the same month by that of Juno Regina Capitolina.
October 1 was the date of the Tigillum Sororium in which the goddess was honoured as Juno Sororia.
Last of her yearly festivals came that of Juno Sospita on February 1. It was an appropriate date for her celebration since the month of February was considered a perilous time of passage, the cosmic year coming then to an end and the limits between the world of the living and the underworld being no longer safely defined. Hence the community invoked the protection (tutela) of the warlike Juno Sospita, "The Saviour".
Juno is the patroness of marriage, and many people believe that the most favorable time to marry is June, the month named after the goddess.

Etrurian Uni, Hera, Astarte and

Iuno

The Etruscans were a people who maintained extensive (if often conflicting) contacts with the other peoples of the Mediterranean: the Greeks, the Phoenicians, and the Carthaginians.
Testimony of intense cultural exchanges with the Greeks have been found in 1969 at the sanctuary of the port of Gravisca near Tarquinia. Renard thinks the cult of Hera in great emporia such as Croton, Posidonia, Pyrgi might be a counter to Aphrodite's, linked to sacred prostitution in ports, as the sovereign of legitimate of marriage and family and of their sacrality. Hera's presence had already been attested at Caere in the sanctuary of Manganello. In the 18th century a dedication to Iuno Historia was discovered at Castrum Novum (Santa Marinella). The cult of Iuno and Hera is generally attested in Etruria.
The relationship between Uni and the Phoenician goddess Astarte has been brought to light by the discovery of the Pyrgi Tablets in 1964. At Pyrgi, one of the ports of Caere, excavations had since 1956 revealed the existence of a sacred area, intensely active from the last quarter of the 4th century, yielding two documents of a cult of Uni. Scholars had long believed Etruscan goddess Uni was strongly influenced by the Argive Heras and had her Punic counterpart in Carthaginian goddess Tanit, identified by the Romans as Juno Caelestis. Nonetheless Augustine of Hippo had already stated that Iuno was named Astarte in the Punic language, notion that the discovery of the Pyrgi lamellae has proved correct. It is debated whether such an identification was linked to a transient political stage corresponding with Tefarie Velianas's Carthaginian-backed tyranny on Caere as the sanctuary does not show any other trait proper to Phoenician ones. The mention of the goddess of the sanctuary as being named locally Eileitheia and Leucothea by different Greek authors narrating its destruction by the Syracusean fleet in 384 BC, made the picture even more complex. R. Bloch has proposed a two-stage interpretation: the first theonym Eilethya corresponds to Juno Lucina, the second Leucothea to Mater Matuta. However, the local theonym is Uni and one would legitimately expect it to be translated as Hera. A fragmentary bronze lamella discovered on the same site and mentioning both theonym Uni and Thesan (i. e. Latin Juno and Aurora-Mater Matuta) would then allow the inference of the integration of the two deities at Pyrgi: the local Uni-Thesan matronal and auroral, would have become the Iuno Lucina and the Mater Matuta of Rome. The Greek assimilation would reflect this process as not direct but subsequent to a process of distinction. Renard rejects this hypothesis since he sees in Uni and Thesan two distinct deities, though associated in cult. However the entire picture should have been familiar in Italian and Roman religious lore as is shown by the complexity and ambivalence of the relationship of Juno with the Rome and Romans in Virgil's Aeneid, who has Latin, Greek and Punic traits, result of a plurisaecular process of amalgamation. Also remarkable in this sense is the Fanum Iunonis of Malta (of the Hellenistic period) which has yielded dedicatory inscriptions to Astarte and Tanit.

Juno in Martianus Capella's division of Heaven

Martianus Capella's collocation of gods into sixteen different regions of Heaven is supposed to be based on and to reflect Etruscan religious lore, at least in part. It is thence comparable with the theonyms found in the sixteen cases of the outer rim of the Piacenza Liver. Juno is to be found in region II, along with Quirinus Mars, Lars militaris, Fons, Lymphae and the dii Novensiles. This position is reflected on the Piacenza Liver by the situation of Uni in case IV, owing to a threefold location of Tinia in the first three cases that determines an equivalent shift.
An entity named Juno Hospitae Genius is to be found alone in region IX. Since Grotius (1599) many editors have proposed the correction of Hospitae into Sospitae. S. Weinstock has proposed to identify this entity with one of the spouses of Neptune, as the epithet recurs below (I 81) used in this sense.
In region XIV is located Juno Caelestis along with Saturn. This deity is the Punic Astarte_Tanit, usually associated with Saturn in Africa. Iuno Caelestis is thence in turn assimilated to Ops and Greek Rhea. Uni is here the Punic goddess, in accord with the identification of Pyrgi. Her paredra was the Phoenician god Ba'al, interpreted as Saturn. Capdeville admits of being unable to explain the collocation of Juno Caelestis among the underworld gods, which looks to be determined mainly by her condition of spouse of Saturn.

Statue at Samos

In the Dutch city of Maastricht, which was founded as Trajectum ad Mosam about 2000 years ago, the remains of the foundations of a substantial temple for Juno and Jupiter are to be found in the cellars of Hotel Derlon. Over part of the Roman remains the first Christian church of the Netherlands was built in the 4th century AD.
The story behind these remains begins with Juno and Jupiter being born as twins of Saturn and Opis. Juno was sent to Samos when she was a very young child. She was carefully raised there until puberty, when she then married her brother. A statue was made representing Juno, the bride, as a young girl on her wedding day. It was carved out of Parian marble and placed in front of her temple at Samos for many centuries. Ultimately this statue of Juno was brought to Rome and placed in the sanctuary of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitoline Hill. For a long time the Romans honored her with many ceremonies under the name Queen Juno. The remains were moved then sometime between the 1st century and the 4th century to the Netherlands.

In literature

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. Maurus Servius Honoratus, commenting on some of her several roles in the Aeneid, supposes her as a conflation of Hera with the Carthaginian storm-goddess Tanit. Ovid's Metamorphoses offers a story accounting for her sacred association with the peacock.
William Shakespeare briefly employs Juno as a masque character in The Tempest (Act IV, Scene I).

Ancient source references

• Servius, In Aeneida ii.225
• Lactantius, Divinae institutions i.17.8

Punishment of Ixion: in the center is Mercury holding the caduceus and on the right Juno sits on her throne. Behind her Iris stands and gestures. On the left is Vulcan (blond figure) standing behind the wheel, manning it, with Ixion already tied to it. Nephele sits at Mercury's feet; a Roman fresco from the eastern wall of the triclinium in the House of the Vettii, Pompeii, Fourth Style (60-79 AD).

 Il Tempio di Hera Lacinia in una stampa francese del Settecento.

RennyDJ - Opera propria

Il Tempio di Hera Lacinia (Kroton) in una stampa francese del Settecento

 L'area archeologica di Capo Colonna.

Revolweb

 IVNO REGINA ("Queen Juno") on a coin celebrating Julia Soaemias

Roman copy of a Greek 5th century Hera of the "Barberini Hera" type, from the Museo Chiaramonti

Marie-Lan Nguyen (2006)

Juno. Silver statuette, 1st–2nd century.

User:Bibi Saint-Pol, own work, 2007-01-10 Juno. Silver statuette, 1st–2nd century. Produced in Rome?

Petit Palais

 Heracles strangling the snakes sent by Hera, Attic red-figured stamnos, ca. 480–470 BCE. From Vulci, Etruria. 

Marie-Lan Nguyen and one more author - Own work

Jupiter and Juno, by Annibale Carracci. 

The Origin of the Milky Way by Jacopo Tintoretto.
 1575

 Juno; Vatican, Rome. Brooklyn Museum Archives, Goodyear Archival Collection

William Henry Goodyear - Brooklyn Museum

Vatican, Rome, Italy. Juno (so called Hera Barberini). Brooklyn Museum Archives, Goodyear Archival Collection 

 Io with Zeus by Giovanni Ambrogio Figino.
1599

 Juno attired by the Graces
Brescia Mattes Pana

This is one of the many works depicting the event. Hera is the goddess in the center, wearing the crown. Das Urteil des Paris by Anton Raphael Mengs, ca. 1757

Anton Raphael Mengs - Steffi Roettgen, Anton Raphael Mengs 1728-1779, vol. 2: Leben und Wirken (Munich: Hirmer, 2003),

 Arte romana, cameo in sardonice con due mebri della famiglia imperiale come giove ammone e giunone (o iside), 37-50 dc

I, Sailko

 Jupiter and Juno on Mount Ida by James Barry, 1773 (City Art Galleries, Sheffield.)

 Ауреус. Манлия Сканцилла. Ок. 193 г. (реверс. Надпись IVNO REGINA. Юнона с патерой в правой руке стоит, влево; опирается на длинный скипетр; у ног павлин.)
АНО "Международный нумизматический клуб" 

Hera and Prometheus, tondo of a 5th-century BCE cup from Vulci, Etruria

Douris - Jastrow (2006). Image renamed from Image:Hera Prometheus CdM 542.jpg

Hera and Prometheus. Tondo of an Attic red-figured kylix, 490–480 BC. From Vulci, Etruria.

 revers d'un denier de a gens Procilia avec Junon Sospita / Juno Iuno Sospita

Maxime Cambreling - Own work

 Joseph Paelinck - Juno, 1832

 Fresque du Collegio degli Augustali à Herculanum représentant Hercule dans l'Olympe avec Junon et Minerve

 Velvet - Own work

 Schéma de l'intérieur du temple d'Héra, Héraion d'Argos.

 Franck devedjian - Own work

The Judgement of Paris. Marble, limestone and glass tesserae, 115–150 AD. From the Atrium House triclinium in Antioch-on-the-Orontes (Turkey).

Unknown - Mbzt Own work

 Rubens medici cycle meeting at Lyon

Part of a series of 24 paintings illustrating the life of Marie de' Medici.

Peter Paul Rubens

 between 1621 and 1625 date

Mosaico de los Amores, en Cástulo (Linares, Jaén).

Ángel M. Felicísimo - Cástulo, mosaico completo

Late Archaic temple of Hera, circa 500 BC, on older foundations. Delos. In the foreground of the altar, in the background on the right is the later temple of Isis. In the temple of Hera found the perfect ceramic is in the Museum.

Zde - Own work 

Kupferstich (1795) von Tommaso Piroli (1752 – 1824) nach einer Zeichnung (1793) von John Flaxman (1755 – 1826). 

H.-P.Haack - Antiquariat Dr. Haack Leipzig 

 Andrea Appiani - Venere allaccia il cinto a Giunone

 circa 1811 date

 Kupferstich (1795) von Tommaso Piroli (1752 – 1824) nach einer Zeichnung (1793) von John Flaxman (1755 – 1826). 

H.-P.Haack - Antiquariat Dr. Haack Leipzig

 Afrodita le entrega a Hera el Ceñidor que esta le pidio prestado. Hecho mencionado en el capitulo XIV de la Iliada de Homero

 Guy Head

 Kupferstich (1795) von Tommaso Piroli (1752 – 1824) nach einer Zeichnung (1793) von John Flaxman (1755 – 1826).

H.-P.Haack - Antiquariat Dr. Haack Leipzig

Juno toma el ceñidor de Venus, Studiolo de Francisco I, Palazzo Vecchio, Florencia

Francesco del Coscia

1572

Lefebvre Juno

Valentin Lefebvre

 circa 1681 

Juno Borrowing the Girdle of Venus by Benjamin West. 1771

Древности Российского государства (Antiquities of Russian country), 1846—1853. Иллюстратор — ru:Солнцев, Фёдор Григорьевич. Серебряные подсвечники, присланные, в 1674 году, в дар от Шведского Короля Карла I. Рисунок Отд. V. № 61

ru:Солнцев, Фёдор Григорьевич - Руниверс

 Juno Receiving the Cestus from Venus by Joshua Reynolds

 Honor Blackman in the film Jason and the Argonauts.

Juno wearing belt (or girdle) of Venus

Gavin Hamilton

18th century 

Juno and Minerva Going To Assist the Greeks.
Created: 1 January 1833

 Jupiter and Juno - Frans Christoph Janneck

 Venus Juno Aeneas Louvre OA6596

Marie-Lan Nguyen and one more author - Own work

William Wynne Ryland - Juno borrowing the Cestus from Venus, 1782

 Juno standing naked viewed from behind, her right hand rests on the neck of a peacock, set within a niche, the surround of which has no shading; Jacopo Caraglio, from a series of 20 engravings depicting mythological gods and goddesses. 1526 Engraving, 

Hera, Athena and Iris in the Trojan War (Attributed to Jacques Réattu)
18th century  

 Ambrogio Brambilla - Caricatures of the Gods of Olympus
 Created: 1580s

 Michel Martin Drolling - The Law Descends to the Earth, 1827

Jupiter et Junon
Agostino Carracci

 

Urbino Judgement of Paris

Anonymous (Urbino)

 circa 1550 

Cornelis Bos - Juno en Aeolus, 1546

 Beham Judgement of Paris

 Hans Sebald Beham

 1546

 Cornelis Jacobsz. Drebbel - Juno, 1598

A possibly German red lustre and gilt verre eglomisé of the Judgement of Paris

AN IMPORTANT COLLECTION FROM GERMANY 

Grecian and Roman mythology (1876) 

 Exhibit in the Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA. This work is old enough so that it is in the public domain.

 Daderot - Own work

 Head of Hera, or Juno.Illustrated by Engravings on Wood. - Greek Mythology Systematized by Sarah Amelia Scull. Publisher: Porter & Coates. 1880. P.92

 Bottega hirsvogel, giudizio di paride, norimberga 1530-50 caI, 
Sailko

 Juno 1596
 Hendrik Goltzius  (1558–1617)  

Giorgio Ghisi - The Judgment of Paris 1555

  Jacob Matham - Juno, 1585-1589

 Plate with Jupiter, Juno, and Io transformed into a cow, lustered in workshop of Maestro Giorgio Andreoli, Gubbio, or Vincenzo Andreoli, Urbino, c.1535-1540, maiolica - National Gallery of Art, Washington 

 Jan Saenredam - Juno, 1575-1607

Giovanni Ambrogio Figino - Jupiter, Juno and Io 1599