JUNO, The Queen of The Gods
Fierce Juno’s hate, Added to hostile force, shall urge thy fate.
Juno is a Roman goddess, the queen of the gods and protectress of women, mother to Mars and the wife of Jupiter. She was believed to watch over and guard the life of every woman from her birth to her death. Juno was apart of the Capitoline Triad alongside Jupiter and Minerva, and the three deities were regarded as guardians of the state.
Juno has many epithets and an extensive history of worship in Rome. She was widely worshiped among the Romans and her cult was also important among the Etruscans. The first days of each Roman month, the kalends, were sacred to Juno, as was the month of June, which is named after her. As she is the Roman goddess of marriage, it is no coincidence that June is still considered the proper month for weddings.
The principal temples dedicated to her were in Rome, one being erected on the Aventine Hill and the other on the Capitoline, which she shared with Jupiter and Minerva. She had also a temple on the Arx, in which she was worshiped as Juno Moneta (“the Warner”). Adjacent to this shrine was the public mint. On the first of March, a grand annual festival called the Matronalia was celebrated in her honor by all the married women of Rome. This religious institution was accompanied with much solemnity.
Much like her Greek aspect, Juno is very much into the idea of a perfect family and the protection of her Olympian family. She is also very sure of herself. She is still bitter toward most heroes, because her faithfulness to her husband, meaning she can’t have any demigod children. She says she and Hera and just choose to handle matters with very different strategies.
In The Lost Hero, Juno appeared mostly in black robes and a goat skin cloak, carrying a Roman gladius with her before giving it to Jason. While her eyes couldn’t be seen, they glowed in the darkness.
When she appeared at Camp Jupiter, Juno stood at about seven feet tall, while her face was stern and stately. She was dressed in a blue dress with a cloak made of goat skin, which hung over her shoulders, and her hand held a staff with a white lotus flower on top.
Juno is generally pictured like a matron, with a grave and majestic air, sometimes with a scepter in her hand, and a veil on her head. Homer represents her in a chariot adorned with gems, having wheels of ebony, nails of silver, and horses with reins of gold, though more commonly her chariot is drawn by peacocks, her favorite birds. Hera is represented also with a spear in her hand and sometimes with a patĕra, as if she were about to sacrifice. On some medals she has a peacock at her feet, and sometimes holds the Palladium. The most obvious character of Juno and that which we are apt to imbibe the most early of any, from the writings of Homer and Virgil, is that of an imperious and haughty wife. In both of these poets’ works we find her much more often scolding Jupiter than caressing him, and in the tenth Aeneid in particular, even in the council of the gods, we have a remarkable instance of this.
— Juno
