Patricia A. Johnston

Huc pater O Lenaee veni: The Cultivation of Wine in Vergil's Georgics

The second book of Vergils Georgics is dedicated to Bacchus, god of the winepress. Much of the book contains highly poetic instructions on the cultivation of the vine, and particularly of the vines of Italy. Included also in this book is the earliest extensive list of preferred wines in antiquity, many of them personified according to their special qualities. This paper examines Vergils list of wines and his method of conveying the individual personalities of the vine‐plants and their products.

Vergil’s use of saevus (vs. Homer’s ΔΕΙΝOΣ) to depict Juno

Vergil’s depiction of Juno as saeva does not correspond to Homer’s depiction of Hera, but rather to a combination of Homer’s Hera and Pallas. Vergil’s Juno, moreover, is far less subservient to Jupiter (who is not really as active in the Aeneid as Zeus is in the Iliad). While Homer frequently pairs Hera with Pallas Athena, Vergil’s Juno acts independently, while assuming in particular many of the traits of Homer’s Pallas Athena.

Hera and Juno: The Functions of the Goddesses in Prehistoric and Historic Greece and Rome: Introduction

On June 16–19, 2015, the Symposium Classicum Peregrinum met in Budapest, Hungary to discuss the topic, “Hera and Juno: The Functions of the Goddesses in Prehistoric and Historic Greece and Rome.” This Symposium was organized by Attilio Mastrocinque (Università di Verona), Patricia A. Johnston (Brandeis University) and László Takács (Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest). It was hosted by the Pázmány Péter Catholic University in Budapest. Our concerns centered on questions concerning the original functions of Hera, and how similar were the functions of this Greek goddess to those of Roman Juno. Although these goddesses have been extensively portrayed as jealous wives (Burkert describes Hera as “the termagant” of Homer1), what was the original function and what was the meaning of her jealousy? How was Hera related to the life of women and men? Did Hera interfere with family life? Hera may have been the first deity to whom the Greeks dedicated an enclosed roofed temple sanctuary, at Samos about 800 BCE. Votive offerings unearthed at Samos show that Hera was not just a local Aegean Greek goddess, for her sanctuary was at the crossroads of trade and cultural exchanges with Armenia, Babylon, Iran, Assyria, and Egypt. The earliest temple at Olympia was dedicated to Hera, to whom two early Doric temples at Paestum were also dedicated, and there were numerous early temples dedicated to her on Delos, Argos, etc. In Roman Religion, Juno’s function is perhaps even more complex and disputed. She had a large number of significant and diverse names and titles, reflecting her var-

Saevae memorem Iunonis ob iram Juno, Veii, and Augustus

A driving force in Vergil’s Aeneid is the hostility of Juno to the Trojans as they approach, and finally arrive in Italy. The epic in some ways mirrors the opposition encountered by Augustus as the new ruler of Rome. Juno’s opposition to the Trojans has its origin not only in Greek mythology, but in the history of the local peoples of Italy with whom early Romans had to contend. From the outset of the poem she becomes the personification of these opposing forces. Once the Trojans finally reach mainland Italy, she sets in motion a long war, although the one depicted in the Aeneid was not as long as the real wars Romans waged with the Latin League and with the many of the tribes of Italy, including the Veii. The reality of the wars Rome had to contend with are here compared to the relatively brief one depicted in the Aeneid, and the pacification of Juno reflects the merging of the different peoples of Rome with their subjugator.