The-mythology-of-ancient-greece-and-italy-thomas-keightley

xi*
"JUNONI JuNL« C. SlLANI F. ToRQUATiB SACERDOTI VESTALI
ANNIS LXIIII. MELESTI PATRON.S AcTIUS L."
The practice of swearing by the Juno is alluded to by Juvenal ;
when, lashing the unnatural effeminacy of some of the Roman nobles,
he says (ii. 98), "Et per Junonem domini jurante ministro."
The name Juno is contracted from Jovino, as prudens is from pro
videns.
Page 517.—It appears to us to be quite erroneous to suppose that
the Ceres, Liber and Libera of the Romans were the Demeter, Dionysos
and Kora of the Greeks, by whom Dionysos does not seem to
have been united with the two goddesses, as Liber was at Rome.
We would propose the following hypothesis on the subject.
The temple usually called that of Ceres at Rome was in reality
one of the three conjoined deities (Liv. iii. 55. Dionys. vi. 17. 44.
Tac. Ann. ii. 49). It stood at the foot of the Aventine and belonged
to the plebeians, to whom it seems to have been what the Capitoline
temple was to the patricians. In this latter was worshiped a Tri
ad,—Minerva, Jovis, Jovino (Juno), i. e. Wisdom, and the God and
Goddess Kar i^o^tiv ; in the latter there was also adored a Triad,—
Ceres, Liber, Libera. May we not then suppose, that as the priestly
nobles, the patricians, adored a triad of celestial or mental deities,
so the agricultural plebeians worshiped a triad of deities presiding
over the fruits and products of the earth ? From the employment
of the plural (vawv, vaovs) by Dionysius we may further infer that
the temple at the Aventine contained three cella like that on the
Capitoline.
Page 522.—The critics seem to be unanimous in regarding the Pater
Matutinus of Horace (Serm. ii. 6, 20) as Janus ; for which they are
certainly not to be blamed, the poet himself having set them the
example. To us however this appears to be an error, though as we
see a very ancient one. The Latin language abounds above all others
in adjectival terminations (see Hist, of Rome, p. 4), many of which
are perfectly equivalent. Such were those in us and inus. Libertus
and Libertinus were, there is no doubt, originally the same. Valerius
was Corvus or Corvinus ; Postumius was Albus or Albinus ; the cognomina
Luscinus, Graecinus, Calvinus, Longinus, Laevinus, etc., were
probably equivalent to Luscus, Graecus, Calvus, etc. In the latter
centuries of the republic the preference seems to have been given to
the termination in inus, and hence we meet with Censorinus and
Marcellinus. If these observations be correct, Matutinus is the
same as Matutus, and is not Janus, i. e. the Sun, but a male deity
answering to Matuta, the goddess of the dawn.