Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

lupiter-Columns 6i
children with a third on her knee—middle bronze, broken), or holding in one hand
a swaddled infant, in the other a lily or possibly an iris (id. ib.- iii. 218 Lucilla no. 36
rev. IVNONI LVCINAE luno seated to left holding a flower and a swaddled infant—silver,
no. 37 IVNONI LVCINAE s • C • the same type— large bronze; id. ib.'^ iv. 1 13 lulia Domna
f. rev. IVNONI LVCINAE S • C • luno seated to left holding a flower and a swaddled
nos. 93
infant—large bronze, no. 95 rev. the same legend and type—middle bronze). These
coins date from approximately the same period as ihs Juppiter-
sdulen [supra p. 57)
; and the lily held by luno in the lastmentioned
type (fig. 25 is from a large bronze of lulia Domna,
after Overbeck Gr. Kiinstmyth. Hera p. 154 f. Miinztaf. 3, 13,
who notes that the type recurs on coins of lulia Mamaea,
[Cornelia Supera,] and Salonina inscribed IVNO avc.vstap:,
[IVNONI AVG,] and IVNO Avc; respectively— see Cohen yJ/(7////.
e7np. rom? iv. 493 nos. 32— 34, [v. 296 no. 3,] v. 502 no. 55)
recalls the myth of the Milky Way {supra i. 624, ii. 49 n. i).
Further, luno Luciiia might well be regarded as the goddess p- ^
of spring, for her chief festival at Rome was on iM arch 1
when spring began [Ox. fast. 3. 235 ff. : see W. H. Roscher luno und Hera (Studien zur
vergleichende Mythologie der Griechen und Romer ii) Leipzig 1875 P-
"^2 n. 25 and in
Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 584, 603, W. Warde Fowler The Roman Festivals London 1899
p. 38, Wissowa Kel. Knit. Kom." p. 184 f.). Finally, luno Lucina was a ' light '-goddess
(Mart. Cap. 149 sive te Lucinam quod lucem nascentibus tribuas ac Lucetiam convenit
nuncupare) and as such would be fittingly brought into connexion with the Germanic
lupiler : cp. the collocation in Corp. inscr. Lat. vi no. 357 = Dessau Inscr. Lat. sel.
no. 3101 (a bronze plate of Roman origin, part of which is extant at Bologna, the
remainder being known from an earlier transcript) [Iunon]e Loucinai |
[Diovis
c]astud
facitud, L. Savignoni and R. Mengarelli in the Not. Hcarii 1903 p. 2-i5ff. = C. Htilsen in
the liiim. Afitth. 1903 xviii. 338
the Museo delle Terme at Rome) P. Rutilius M. f. |
f. (a bronze plate found at Norba in Latium and now in
lunonei
Loucina |
dedit
meretod |
Diovos castud. The second of these inscriptions proves that in the first we should not
translate 'To luno Lucina., wife of lupiter' (so Th. Mommsen in the Corp. inscr. Lat,
vi no. 357 and H. Dessau loc. cit.), nor even 'property of lupiter' (so A. von Domas-
zewski Abhandlungen zur rbmischcn Religion Leipzig and Berlin 1909 p. 108), but rather
join Diovis with castud (Wissowa Rel. Kult. Rornl' p. 181 n. 3). Still, both inscriptions
warrant us in supposing that luno Lucina might reasonably appear in the entourage of
lupiter.
One detail remains to be cleared up. The object held by the luno of fig. 23 in her
right hand has been variously explained. Haug in the Westdeutsche Zeitschrift 1891
X. 146, 302 is content to cite the opinion of A. de Wiltheim Luciliburgensia Roiiiana
ed. A. Neyen Luxemburg 1842 p. 192 that we have here luno Pronuba (G. F. Prat in
his
the
Histoire d^Arlon Arlon 1873 ^^Y^ luno Cinxia) with her girdle:
marriage-Iuno see W. H. Roscher Luno und LLera (Studien
on these forms of
zur vergleichende
Mythologie der Griechen und Romer ii) Leipzig 1875 p. 67 and in Roscher Lex. Myth.
ii. 589, E. Aust in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. iii. 2563, Wissowa Rel. Kult. Rom.^ p. 186
with n. I and in his Gcsamnielte Abhandlungen zur romischen Religions- und Stadt-
geschichte Miinchen 1904 p. 320. If the attribute in question were anything of the sort,
I should prefer to regard it as the necklace of Fiija (J. Grimm Teutonic Mythology trans.
S. Stallybrass London 1882 i. 306 ff., K. Miillenhoff ' Frija und der Halsbandmythus
J.
in the Zeitschrift fiir deutsches Alterthum 1886 xxx. 217—260, R. M. Meyer Alt-
gerntanische Religionsgeschichte Leipzig 1910 p. 215). But F. Hertlein Die fuppiter-
gigantetisiiulen Stuttgart 19 10 p. 97 has made out a good case for viewing it as merely
another variety of torch, and ih. p. 144 n. 2 suggests that the goddess is engaged in
a ritual Fackelschwingen comparable with that of the modern Funkensonntag or jour des
brandons (cp. supra i. 286, 648, 650 with n. 4). Esperandieu Bas-reliefs de la Gaule Rom.
v. 355 f- no. 4238 ' peut-etre deux serpents.'