This week we're going to be talking about Juno, queen of the Roman gods.
Juno is a very interesting character, because she reigns in matters both domestic and militant. She can be gentle and nurturing, or vengeful and warlike. It all depends on her mood, and who is involved in any given situation.
Let's start with her gentle nature.
Juno is the wife of Jupiter, king of the gods. She is viewed as a matron, because she is the mother of many of the rest of the pantheon. Juno is also considered the goddess of marriage. Women in particular worship her, and weddings were done with offerings to her in hopes of the goddess' blessing.
One of Juno's titles was "Regina", meaning "beautiful". This automatically made me think of the character of the Evil Queen in Once Upon a Time...who actually has a lot in common with Juno!
She is also sometimes associated with the moon, considered a light deity. Her sacred animal was the peacock - in fact, most images of her show her either accompanied by the bird or holding one of its feathers.
Of course, Juno isn't all sweet motherly affection. The Roman epic The Aeneid refers to her as "baleful Juno in her sleepless rage", and it is accurate. When vexed, Juno is the embodiment of wrath. They say that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and Juno is the proof of that!
The Roman equivalent of the Greek Hera, Juno shares her counterpart's vengeful schemes against her husband's mistresses. However, Juno is also shown to seek revenge on those who have wronged her in other ways...and once her anger is provoked, it takes a lot to quell it.
I'll use the Aeneid as my example for this post.
The story of the Aeneid follows the Greek epic of The Iliad, which covers the events of the Trojan War. The war began when a man named Paris was told to choose which of three goddesses was the most beautiful. In the Greek Iliad, the goddesses are Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena. Each goddess promised him great rewards if he chose her, and in the end Paris picked Aphrodite, for she had promised him the most beautiful woman in the world - Helen.
Now, most mortal women would be angry at a man who said another woman was more beautiful than they. Take that anger and put it in godly proportions. Hera was pissed, and she swore revenge upon Paris and all of his people. Those people happened to be the Trojans, and her anger caused many problems throughout the Trojan War.
In fact, those problems persisted even after the end of the war. The Aeneid follows a survivor of Troy, Aeneas, as he desperately tries to lead his people to safety and start a new home. Aeneas was destined to settle a new home in Italy for his people, who would be the ancestors of Rome. Hera's anger continues in her counterpart, Juno, who knows of his destiny but is determined to fight it out of spite for Aeneas.
His adventures are very long, and the trials Juno puts him through many. She calls in a favor from a wind god and blows his ships far off course; she teams up with Venus, goddess of love, to make Aeneas fall for and 'marry' a queen in hopes of keeping him from making it to Italy; she incites thoughts of war in both his people and those already in the land he hopes to settle. There's a lot more problems Juno sends his way, but you get the idea. She made his life as miserable as she possibly could.
Eventually, Juno accepts the fact that she cannot change destiny. She dissolves her grudge against Aeneas, on the condition that his people adopt a new name for themselves in their new land, therefore abolishing all traces of Troy and the Trojan people.
Her wish is granted. Aeneas' descendants (including Romulus and Remus) go on to settle the land, found the city of Rome, and become the Roman people.
What do you guys think of Juno? I find her dual loving/vengeful nature to be very interesting!
I'll end with this picture. While it's actually of Zeus and Hera, not Jupiter and Juno, it was just too gorgeous to not share.
Take care, and I'll talk to you guys next week!
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