Juno, << JOO noh, >> was the sister and wife of Jupiter, king of the gods of Roman mythology. As Jupiter’s wife, she was queen of the gods and the most powerful goddess. She played the same role in Roman mythology as the goddess Hera did in Greek mythology.
Roman women especially worshiped Juno. She was the goddess of marriage, and, by the Latin name Juno Lucina (Juno Who Brings to Light), she was the goddess of childbirth and perhaps originally of the moon. The Romans dedicated Juno’s principal temple to her under the name Juno Moneta (Juno Who Gives Counsel). The Romans originally coined their money near this temple, and the words money and mint come from moneta. Juno, along with Jupiter and Minerva, was one of the three deities enshrined in temples on the Capitoline Hill. The hill was the religious center of ancient Rome. The three gods became known as the Capitoline triad.
Jupiter and Juno had a stormy marriage. Juno was jealous of Jupiter’s love affairs with other goddesses and with mortal women, and she persecuted his mistresses.
In the Aeneid, an epic poem by the Roman author Virgil, Juno was the enemy of Aeneas, a Trojan hero. After Greek armies destroyed Troy, Aeneas wandered for many years until he established a nation in Italy. The descendants of this nation founded Rome. At the end of the Aeneid, Jupiter won Juno’s support for Aeneas by promising Rome would rule a great empire in which Juno would be especially honored.
