Sculpture group representing the Capitoline Triad, dating to the II century A.D., now in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Trier, Germany. In the middle is the supreme god, Iuppiter, flanked by two female divinities: at his right Minerva and at his left Iuno. In the Archaic age, Iuppiter formed a triad with Mars, god of war, and Quirinus, divinity who was venerated on the Quirinalis Hill and who was identified with Romulus, turned into a god after his death. Subsequently to the two male gods were substituted by two goddesses: Minerva, who protected the intellectual and manual skills and was identified with the Greek goddess Athena, of whom she acquired the warrior attributes, and Iuno, goddess of fertility, who protected marriages and childbirths.
The name Iuno derives from a shortened form of iuven- , as found in iunior (“younger”) and iunix (“heifer”): the goddess personified creative youth and the power of all that is born (Schilling 2005a). she was called upon by women in labor as Iuno Lucina (“She who brings into light”), as protector of mothers in childbirth. Her cult generally fell on the Calends (the first day of the month). In 390 B.C., a war raid of Gauls was able to penetrate in the city of Rome, but the citizens were warned by the cackling of the geese of the Capitol, birds sacred to Iuno which were regarded as having ominous qualities. For this reason, Iuno received the epithet of Iuno Moneta (“She who warns”). Since near the sanctuary of the goddess was established a mint, the term moneta acquired the meaning of “money”, that it keeps still in Italian.


[Image: http://library.artstor.org/library/]