Conclusion Mommsen once remarked that the culminating point of Roman development was the period which had no literature. Certainly this statement is true concerning Roman religion, which had already passed under the sway of foreign influences before a Naevius or Livius Andronicus arose. The meager quantity of early art, the formless character of the Italian gods, the thorough destruction of shrines and records of priestly colleges, all combine in rendering it practically impossible to gain accurate information about any problem of Rome's primitive religion. And questions about Juno form no exception to the rule. "What, then," asks Warde Fowler,1 "was Juno originally to the Roman religious mind? There is no more difficult question than this in our whole subject; as we probe carefully in those dark ages she baffles us continually." Since there is such a dearth of material, we must be careful about drawing inferences solely on the ground of negative evidence. But this is in a measure what Otto2 does when he tries to prove that the origin of the Juno-cult is to be sought in Latium. He argues that with a single exception the goddess meets us nowhere outside Latium in a form which is not already known from Rome; and that, apart from Etruria, all the places which are shown to be centers of non-Latin Juno-cult are either colonies, or cities which in early times adopted Roman ways. But the evidence is wholly negative for denying that there was worship of this goddess in Campania during the early period, and according to Peterson, the probability of ancient Junocults in some places is strong; though they were clearly not so important here as in central Italy. Likewise, among the Sabines Juno was said to be a favorite deity, although very little evidence survives to support the tradition. Hild, on the other 1 Relig. Exper. of the Rom. People, p. 135. 2 Op. cit. pp. 171-6. 3 Cults of Campania, pp. 6, 293, 336, and 381. hand, says Sabines, Umbrians, Oscans, Latins, Etruscans have all known her from the greatest antiquity. In Rome, though the earliest known temple of an indigenous Juno-cult was dedicated in 344 B.C., yet we need not suppose that she was not a fairly important divinity during the period of the kings. As Covella she had honors in the time of the early calendar; one of the months was doubtless named for her; as Lucina she enjoyed honors within her ancient hedge on Mons Cispius; as Caprotina she was given an ancient festival on the Nones of July; in the primitive rustic ritual she held a place with Janus, Jupiter, and Vesta. If she had no special priest, as Warde Fowler contends, yet the Rex and Regina Sacrorum together with the Pontifex Minor performed services for Juno. Her position as Moneta on the Arx seems to be the result of no evocatio but of native development. Practically the only aids in deciding the questions about her original character are etymology and later associations with other deities, whose natures from the first are better known. But such aids can only point the investigator towards theories and tendencies rather than facts. The theory which we reach in the case of Juno is that she was in all probability a feminine deity of the bright sky, worshipped with Jupiter, at first through rites pertaining to the heavens, fertility, and harvests. From a deity of increase in this sense, her development into a goddess of childbirth and women would be easy and rapid, especially as she became identified with the moonlight; for in the fancy of many primitive peoples there is connection between the moon, crops, and birth. Epithets, festivals shared in common, proximity of shrines, all seem to indicate close relation of Juno to Janus, and etymology seems to confirm this relation. On the other hand, those scholars who would entirely sever connection with Jupiter and Janus and deny that she was first a goddess of light have arrived at highly improbable conclusions. Chief among these advocates of new theories are Otto and Wissowa. The former has declared that she was a goddess of the under-world and this Warde Fowler rightly calls an "apparently impossible conclusion". Wissowa, when he severs her connection with Jupiter, places her beside Genius. Against such a connection, the comprehensive article on Genius by Otto in Pauly-Wissowa is excellent argument. Also, in such case it would be difficult to account for the different ways in which Genius and Juno developed. In the first edition of Religion und Kultus der Römer, Wissowa reaches the conclusion that Juno was originally a goddess of light; in the second edition he says that she was a goddess of women and birth. And yet very little new evidence has been brought to bear on the question except the two inscriptions from Rome and Norba, which might seem to upset the etymological connection of Iuppiter and Iuno. This issue, however, has been adequately met by Mr. Whatmough. Very little of our present information about her separate cults presents a serious hindrance to our belief in her origin as a sky-goddess. In fact a good deal supports it. Though it seems impossible to agree with Domaszewski" in his theory about the evolution of dei from the numina of momentary functions, yet his explanation of Juno as an Eigenschaftsgöttin is extremely interesting. He says that Jupiter is, according to the oldest conception of him, the heaven. In the inscription' reading, Iuno Loucina Diovis, Juno is designated as a quality or property of Jupiter. She is moonlight. In the prayer to Covella on the Calends, supplication is made for the appearance of light at the time of the new moon; to the old Latins the waxing and waning of the moon in the night sky was a characteristic of Jupiter. In like manner he thinks that heries, in the phrase heries Iunonis preserved by Gellius,' is a quality of Juno-"the gleam and beam of the moon, even as the epithet Lucina indicates." 8 Though perhaps she was not a quality or characteristic of Jupiter originally, Juno was probably worshipped as a related female power, like Libera beside Liber or Fauna beside Faunus. The ancient Roman, scrupulously careful to appeal to the proper deity, would imagine the great power of the over-arching sky • Abhandl. zur röm. Relig. pp. 155 ff. 7 C.I.L. VI, 357; Domaszewski, op. cit. pp. 107-8. Corssen, Ausspr. I2, p. 471, says Her-ie means Herrlichkeit and is from a stem her-o-, her-a-. 'N.A. XIII, 23. |