The odd child was immediately brought before Rome’s most esteemed diviners who sacrificed a bull and inspected its entrails to discern the will of the gods. “This child must be placed in a wooden chest, carried out to sea, and drowned,” one diviner said.
The priests of Rome, knowing the anger of the gods was great to have spawned such an oddity, claimed this was not enough; they demanded more be done. They ordered an elaborate procession be held in honor of Rome’s deities. Twenty-seven maidens would lead the march, their voices sending praises up to the heavens to the beat of their pattering feet, as the citizens of Rome followed in tow carrying incense to please divine senses.
As the maidens rehearsed their song, each one bringing a unique tone to the chorus, a violent bolt of lightening struck the towering temple of Juno, causing a massive outcry that reverberated throughout the city. With urgency, the city’s priests gathered within the temple, dotted with marvelously carved statues of Juno in terra-cotta, cypress wood, and marble.
“The displeasure of the gods is even greater than we imagined!” one priest cried.
“The lightening reigned down on this temple, the temple of Juno,” another noted. “Perhaps it is she that holds some grudge.”
The priests paced back and forth, held their heads between their hands, and looked to the heavens time and time again in search of answers.
“Behold!” one priest shrieked. “Queen Juno’s eyes have turned black!” he gasped, pointing to a statue of Juno that had been carried to Rome from the Etruscan city of Veii a century before. Her eyes, once bright, had turned as dark as night.
“Perhaps she received greater attention in Veii and is unsatisfied with her new seat in Rome,” the priest said.
One hundred years before, the Roman dictator Camillus had besieged the walled city of Veii, situated just north of Rome. Before sending his soldiers into battle, Camillus uttered an evocation to lure the city’s highest-ranking deity over to the side of the Romans.
“Queen Juno! The great goddess who, in this city, is also called Uni! I beseech you: Follow us to the city of Rome where you will receive a temple worthy of your majesty, a temple much grander than your seat here. Cease your protection of Veii and lend your support to the troops of Rome, so that we may conquer and bestow upon you gifts of plenty.”
With this prayer, Camillus had performed the ritual of evocation, asking the deity of a besieged city to withdraw their divine protection in order that Rome may conquer, offering in return a more splendid temple in Rome where the deity would be seated and worshipped by a better-endowed cult. Similar strings of words had been uttered many times before, by many Roman generals, in many enemy cities. And in this way, Rome became full of divine statues carried in from foreign cities, each deity having agreed to abandon their post to take seat in Rome.
“Queen Juno! I beseech you!” Camillus had yelled before motioning his troops to take up their swords. In a short amount of time, Veii’s city gates were pried open, and the Roman army conquered the city.
After Rome’s soldiers had plundered the goods of man, they approached Juno’s temple. They did so with upmost respect, not as plunderers, but as devotees. Camillus had selected a group of soldiers who, after performing ablutions and dressing themselves in white vestments, entered her sanctuary and, with bowed heads and reverent hands placed on her feet, asked, “Art though willing, Juno, to go to Rome?” A soft whisper bounced around the walls as Juno assented, “I am willing.”
The soldiers gently removed her from her pedestal, her statue light as a feather despite her figure being cast of stone. They carried her to Rome with ease, as if she were moving on her own accord. She was placed within the temple dedicated to Juno, which stood on top of Rome’s Aventine Hill, where she sat content until a hermaphroditic birth and a bolt of lightening announced otherwise.
Having surmised that Juno was not receiving the honors she was promised by Camillus’ evocation, the priests planned a lavish ceremony in her honor. They ordered all the maidens of Rome, and those living within ten miles of the city, to bring a donation from their dowries to the temple. From their riches, a most beautiful gold basin was crafted, processed by twenty-seven virgins in long robes singing hymns, and gifted to Juno. Two white cows of the finest stock were sacrificed in addition. When the diviners, after carefully inspecting their intestines and livers, announced that the bovine entrails told of contentment, priests and worshippers alike threw their hands to the heavens and shouted with joy. “Queen Juno once again smiles upon Rome!”
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