🔘 WHY DO THE ROMANS BELIEVE THAT THE YEAR BELONGS TO JUPITER, BUT THE MONTHS TO JUNO
“Is it because Jupiter and Juno rule the invisible, conceptual deities, but the sun and moon the visible deities? Now the sun makes the year and the moon the months; but one must not believe that the sun and moon are merely images of Jupiter and Juno, but that the sun is really Jupiter himself in his material form and in the same way the moon is Juno. This is the reason why the Romans apply the name Juno to our Hera, for the name means "young" or "junior," so named from the moon. And they also call her Lucina, that is "brilliant" or "light-giving"; and they believe that she aids women in the pangs of childbirth, even as the moon:
On through the dark-blue vault of the stars, Through the moon that brings forth quickly;
for women are thought to have easiest travail at the time of the full moon.”
Plutarch, Roman Questions
