Juno Sospita and the Chthonic Dragon
Lanuvium: the Sanctuary of Juno Sospita
“Cicero reports that Lanuvium was full of religious buildings and that the most important and most celebrated among them was certainly the temple of Juno Sospita. In turn, documents and archeological sources indicate that Lanuvium was the most famed center in Latium with regard to the cult of Juno.
Juno, or Iun, Iuno (young woman) was a very ancient Italic goddess related to the lunar cycle, worshipped by Etruscans, Sabines and Umbri. She took care of women life in every respect: maiden chastity, marriages, brides faithfulness and childbirth. Italic populations attributed her various qualities, from which as many appellatives originated: Iuno Moneta (the one who admonishes), Iuno Veridica (the one who says the truth), Iuno Sospita (the rescuer), and many others.
The Sanctuary dedicated to Juno Sospita was part of the acropolis of Lanuvium, an ancient town of Etruscan origin; it consisted of various monumental structures. Archeologic reconstructions suggest that the temple portico was composed of two floors, with vaults coated of precious mosaics. At the portico end a small passage gave access to the underground tunnels that led to the cave where the divine snake was guarded. In fact, it was told that a snake sacred to the Goddess resided in the Sanctuary cellars where, every year, a propitiatory rite took place, in order to have a good harvest.
Among the archaic cults of Latium, the one dedicated to Juno Sospita at Lanuvium held a special importance, as testified by the archeologic findings of the temple built with extreme care. On the other hand, Lanuvium had for a long time an important role in the area of Latin cultur, taking part also in the Latin League. In 338 b.P.E. the cult of Juno Sospita was officially introduced in Rome, more or less at the same time in which the Roman citizenship was awarded to Lanuvium inhabitants. Also after the Romanization of Lanuvium, the temple remained a destination for pilgrims.
From an iconographic point of view, as shown by contemporary coins, Juno Sospita of Lanuvium had quite peculiar characteristics, far from the florid and serene Roman model (which gave origin to the appellative “Junoesque”). Instead, she had a pugnacious appearance and was represented with helm and shield, in the act of throwing a spear, with a snake at her feet. Also her cult had quite peculiar and meaningful characteristics, being centered on the offer of food to a snake living in a cave not far from the temple. The rite was so complex that, according to the sources, a special college of priests was established.
We have two descriptions of the cult ceremonies, basically similar to one another.
Propertius (IV,8,3-14) tells that every year some virgins offered cakes to a snake, that lived at the bottom of the cave. The girls went down the way to the cave in solitude, carrying the food offers inside baskets. If the snake accepted the present one could expect a good harvest, otherwise the girl was sacrificed to avert the risk of famines.
Aelian (Animal history, I. 10,ch.16) specifies that the large and deep cave where the dragon lived was located in a wood. In the established days the sacred maidens entered the wood blindfold, carrying a cake in their hands. Guided by inspiration they arrived at the dragon without seeing it, and offered the food. The dragon accepted only that offered by a virgin, and refused otherwise.
The lack of purity of the girl was made known and was punished according to the law. The cake refused by the dragon was carried out of the wood by the ants, and in this way the place was purified.” Retrieved from: Juno, the temple and the cult of the snake.
This undergound (hypogean) water tunnel and rooms suggests it was a nymphaeum:
"In ancient Greece and Rome, a nymphaeum (from the Greek "nymphaîon," meaning "place sacred to nymphs") was a monument or sanctuary dedicated to water nymphs, often featuring fountains, statues, and plants, and serving as a place of rest and decoration."
As Porphyry says On Cult Images, Fr. 8,
Of the sweet waters the particular powers are called Nymphs,
and those of the sea-waters Nereids.
and, according to Salutius (chapter IV),
nymphs preside over generation;
for every thing in generation flows.
If the "The mother of the gods then is the vivific goddess, and on this account is called mother:" as Salutius says prior in chapter IV, it's no wonder that Juno, Demeter, Rhea and Hestia, despite being essentially alloted a supermundane hypostasis, all have "terrestrial" manifestations or correspondences. Just as Dionysus is the mundane demiurge, or "terrestrial" Zeus, so too there must be a terrestrial Juno, which is probably the case with the Dragon at the cave near Juno Sospita's temple.
"Augustine of Hippo wrote about Vaticanus:
8 - Vaticanus, who presides over the screaming of infants…
11 - One while let Jupiter be the soul of this corporeal world, who fills and moves that whole mass…let him open the mouth in the crying babe, and be called the god Vaticanus…
21 - What need was there to commend the children to the goddess Ops when they were being born; to the god Vaticanus in their birth-cry; (City of God, Book 4)." Etymology of Vatican
Although it's impossible to connect Juno Sospita with Vaticanus, and much less to the made-up etruscan goddess Vatika, which is a modern fictional goddess, still the Vatican Hill is in the Lazio, the italian region which was the home of the Etruscan civilization, and, having the romans adopted Haruspicy from the etruscans, it is likely that Vaticanus might have an etruscan origin.
But what does this have to do with Juno Sospita?
Proclus writes about the terrestrial Jupiter and Juno thus in P.T., 31
"But Theodorus, again dividing the life which animates the total in habitude, and forming it as he is accustomed to do into triads, calls Jupiter the power that governs the upper region as far as to the air; but Juno the power who is allotted the aerial part of the world; and the brethren of them those that give completion to the remaining parts. For Jupiter is the essential of the soul that subsists in a material habit, because there is nothing more vital than essence. But Juno is the intellectual part of such a soul, because the natures on the earth are governed by the productive principles proceeding from the air."
I.e, "Jupiter the power that governs the upper region", as Proclus says, connects with what Augustine said that "let Jupiter be the soul of this corporeal world, who fills and moves that whole mass".
which can be supported by what Proclus says in chapter 33, PT
"Orpheus therefore establishes one demiurgus of every divisible fabrication, analogous to the one father who generates the total fabrication, and from him produces the whole intellectual mundane multitude, the number of souls, and corporeal compositions. And this one demiurgus indeed (i. e. Bacchus) generates all these unitedly; but the Gods that surround him, divide and separate his fabrications."
Continuing with Proclus on chapter 31,
"But Jupiter adorning sensible and visible sections, gives a specific distinction to such beings in the sublunary region as are totally vital, and causes them to be moved. Since, however, these sensible forms which are generated and perfected, are multiformly evolved, being moved and changed according to all-various evolutions, on this account, the queen Juno is conjoined with Jupiter, giving perfection to this motion of visible natures, and to the evolution of forms. Hence fables represent her as at one time sending mania to certain persons, but ordering others to undergo severe labours, in order that through intellect being present with all things, and partial souls energizing divinely both theoretically and practically, every progression, and all the generation of the sublunary region may obtain complete perfection." Proclus, Platonic Theology, Book VII, Chapter 31
Thar is, just as the terrestrial Jupiter can have an expression in Vaticanus, so too the terrestrial Juno possibly found an expression through Juno Sospita, complementing the role of Vaticanus, one being the Soul or monad of "corporeal life", the other the duad expanding the seminal principle of the monad throughout the material realm, in the fashion of air above, and water below, because whereas the monad is moné, abiding, the duad is proodos, proceeding, and starting motion, thus being equated with Life and its expressions.
Since what is being described here is the role of the duad of Jupiter/Juno in the sublunary region, i.e., below the moon, which is the "underground" of the Celestial Earth, the Moon, according to Plutarch , it seems that all the representations of chthonic cultuses, such as the ritual in the cave of the serpent near the temple of Juno Sospita, the Avernos, Di Inferi, the Manes, etc.., appear inverted, i.e., the "Earth" is represented being underground, while the surface is the region of the Moon, reflecting the original state of the soul before descending into generation, but the underground may also represent the body, which is matter (mainly water), as the chthonic dwelling of the gods and the nymphs, since it is a product of the sublunary gods and daimons.
If Juno, in Proclus' systemic theology, causes the monad of Jupiter to proceed, or accomodates it to more partial natures, she can be seen, in the sublunary realm, as the womb in which the jovian monad expands. Proclus calls her domain the "air" below the moon, reflecting somewhat the womb she is as the World Soul, of which Olympus is the summit, the empyrean "air". Socrates in the Cratylus also points to this connection of Hera's name, ἭΡΑ with ΑHΡ, air.
If she is air above the earth, below she must water, in which the nymphs swim, because water also flows like air, and animates life that takes root under the earth.
As such, the serpent or dragon is Juno Herself, in total chthonic, sublunary manner, for as Juno above is the Mother of the gods, as the dragon she is the Mother of sublunary and corporeal life.
But why Sospita, Rescuer?
Because as a Mother she provides Existence, Life and Intelligence, whether in generation to the Nymph, or empyreally to the Psyché, whose being is ultimately pulled towards its own self-perfection and the ultimate Good.
Even the symbolic abduction of the future vestal virgin by the king reflects the abduction of Persephone by Zeus (or Hades), and if she thereafter symbolically represented the goddess Vesta (or greek Hestia), tending the fire on Earth, as Porphyry says:
"The ruling principle of the power of earth is called Hestia, of whom a statue representing her as a virgin is usually set up on the hearth; but inasmuch as the power is productive, they symbolize her by the form of a woman with prominent breasts. " Fr. 6
in which imagery we can also see the role of Àrtemis as the power "who presides over all the generation in nature, and is the midwife of physical productive principles, extends these (Bacchic) genitals, distributing as far as to subterranean natures, the prolific power of the God." (P.T., 33) in a sense, as the way that Juno accomodates the logoi spermatikoi or intellectual seeds of Jupiter, expanding and nurturing them, but Juno encompasses the whole atmospheric region above and the watery region below, whereas Diana distributes those seeds partially to partial life forms, "dionysically", titanically or dividedly, as Olympiodorus says further below.
Vesta then in the sublunary realm tends the fire that illuminates sublunary natures, progressions and souls from the monad, in the cave that is the sublunary region, and also in the body, which is also a cave and an underground in a more partial manner, metaphorically.
And who is the keeper of celestial fire in the body if not the rational part of the Soul itself?
As to the ritual perfomed in the cave as described by Propertius and Aelian, one could draw more understanding by comparing it to the cult of Proserpina.
If, as Olympiodorus says in his commentary on the Phædo of Plato,
"The soul," says he, "descends Corically, or after the manner of Proserpine, into generation, but is distributed into generation Dionysiacally"
meaning, she descends into generation and matter or body in the same way as Persephone is taken by Hades into his kingdom, then she is rightly called the Queen of the Dead and Hell, as she was suplicated in ancient times.
If that is the case, and the soul in the mortal, bodily condition is the "queen of hell", then why worship her? What is the point?
Precisely because as Juno, Proserpina becomes a Mother in Hades, reflecting her mother's powers and role.
As such, acknowledging Proserpina is acknowledging her as the chthonic Juno, and acknowledging a terrestrial Juno, is to acknowledge that there is a celestial origin of her, and that everything is connected, that everything proceeds from the intelligible divinity and returns to the intelligible divinity by acknowledgement, contemplation, ritual, sacrifice, and ultimately, death or epistrophé, returning to the Source.
As such, as described by Propertius and Aelian, a girl would take an offering to the serpent in the cave, the Mother in the cave, and she was judged to be pure or impure. Pure, because although Persephone, as the soul in matter and generation, is mingled and "corrupted" by it, in a more essential manner, the soul even while incarnated remains pure and afar, represented by Àrtemis, She of the Distance, as Proclus teaches in Book VI, chapter XI, since the Kore or Maiden is threefold, abiding on high as Àrtemis, proceeding as Persephone, and returning or withdrawing as Athená, meaning that even in the sublunary region, the Kore only partially descends into matter in the manner of Persephone, because the Kore being a unified triad, in reality she also remains pure and unmingled because her unmoving part, Àrtemis, cannot be separated from it, nor Athená from it.
In this wholistic manner, the triad of the Kore also reflects the Mother somehow, for whereas the Mother physically begets, proceeding from virginity, and retuning to its unmingled original state internally, in a more essential manner she always remains there in the virginal state, while at the same time being the provider, nurturer, and guiding vehicle for Life and life animating forms that request her support to evolve, whether physicaly or spiritually, just like a mother gives birth to a child, nurtures it physicaly, but also intellectually as it grows and is able to receive more subtle kinds of nurture. This reflects the interaction of Juno and its offspring the Soul or Kore, whether providing it with material means of growth as the underground Juno, or psychical and intellectual sustenance as the Celestial Juno, Mother of the gods.
Thus, being deemed "pure", the girl in the cave is acknowledging the supernal state of the Soul and of the Mother, Juno, and recollecting its parts into the original whole, while being deemed impure is the same as the worshiper separating the parts, or not being able to connect the parts into its original, supernal whole, thus worshiping her expressions, Juno, Diana, Prosepina, Minerva, etc..., as if they were unrelated to each other, not connecting the unifying thread, not being able to understand and rise intellectually and spiritually, remaining impure and "in hell" as Proserpina.
As Servius Honoratus wrote in his commentary on Virgil's Aeneid,
"Luna in Heaven, Diana on Earth, Proserpina in Hell"
or the coric monad which is extended triadically or participated throughout the sublunary realm, which is characterized by division and separateness, but whose Kore, or Anima, Soul, is essentially One nonetheless, even though as Olympiodorus said, is distributed dionysically, i.e., partially.
As such, Juno Sospita as the serpent in the cave provides the necessary knowledge or theological background, of which the serpent is a symbol, as well as of Proserpina, from Pro serpens, "to crawl forth", since knowledge of the gods must also be a continuous transformative labour of inner intellectual and spiritual insight, of arriving at clearer insights, like a snake that sheds its previous skin to exhibit a new one, for the Mother, as an hypogean, telluric dragon, is also a reflection of the All-embracing Mother on high, to which she is bound and tied to by the chains of necessity and the Will of Zeus. The only difference is that now She is occult, hidden beneath the Earth and from understanding, but always waiting to be known and revealed.
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