Juno
Greek: Hera
Marriage Motherhood Childbirth Protection
Queen of the Roman gods, protector of women, marriage and the state.
Juno was the wife of Jupiter and one of Rome's great Capitoline triad. As Juno Lucina she watched over childbirth. Geese were kept in her temple on the Capitol, and Romans told how their honking warned the city of a Gallic night attack around 390 BC.
In the sky: the asteroid Juno, and how it got its name →
Symbols
In the ancient sources
Roman poets and historians
- Lucina
- “she who brings into the light” Ovid, Fasti 3.255
- Regina
- “queen” Livy 5.21–22
- Moneta
- “perhaps 'the one who warns'” Cicero, On Divination 1.101
- Virgil, Aeneid 1.4–33 'Cruel Juno's unforgetting anger' drives the poem: she loves Carthage and has not forgotten Paris's judgment or Ganymede.
- Virgil, Aeneid 7.286–322 Unable to stop the Trojans reaching Italy, she vows, 'If I cannot bend the gods above, I will move the underworld', and calls up the Fury Allecto.
- Virgil, Aeneid 12.791–842 She finally gives way to Jupiter, on the condition that the Latins keep their own name, language and dress.
- Livy 5.21–22 After Veii falls, a young Roman asks the statue of Juno Regina if she wishes to go to Rome; it seems to nod, and she is carried to a new temple on the Aventine.
- Livy 5.47 When the Gauls climb the Capitol by night, the geese sacred to Juno, spared despite the famine, raise the alarm.
- Ovid, Fasti 3.229–258 On March 1, the Matronalia, married women pray to Juno Lucina, who brings babies into the light.
- Ovid, Fasti 6.1–100 Juno argues that June is named after her; the goddesses Youth (Juventas) and Concord make rival claims, and Ovid declines to choose.
'Moneta' was later linked to the mint in her temple on the Capitol, the origin of the word 'money'.
Cross-checked against these texts and records, in public-domain or freely available versions where they exist. Line, section and chapter numbers follow the standard editions, so a particular translation may differ slightly.
Correspondences Explore all
- Festival
- Matronalia (March 1)
- Colors
- Royal purple, Gold
- Plants
- Lily, Pomegranate
- Tarot
- The Empress
These mix ancient attributes with modern associations from contemporary pagan and magical practice; the modern ones weren't part of her original worship.