Note 85 — FIRST SECTION.
Reading edition
Juno was not merely the Patron goddess of the birth-hour, but also of fornication. Comp. Dousa, Praecidan. pro Tibullo, ch. 18.—Politian, Miscell. ch. 89. Hence also “filles de joies” used to swear by Juno, as we see from Tibullus, Bk. III. Eleg. 4.,
Esto perque suos fallax iuravit ocellos, Junonemque suam, perque suam Venerem,
(Be it so, she said, and the deceiver sware it by her own eyes, and by Juno and by Venus, her patron goddesses). Bk. IV. Eleg. 18.,
Haec per sancta tuae Junonis nomina iuro, Quae sola ante alios est mihi magna Deos.
(This by the holy divinity of Juno, thy goddess, I swear, who alone before other deities is great in my eyes); and also from Petronius, who (Satir. ch. 25.) makes a “fille de joie” declare: Junonem meam iratam habeam, si unquam meminerim virginem fuisse (Juno my patron goddess be wroth with me, if ever I remember to have been a maid). According to Lucian, De Syra Dea ch. 16., Bacchus dedicated to Juno noverca (stepmother) divers Phalli.