Introduction | Fastorum Liber Sextus: Iunius
VI.1-100, Ovid seeks the etymology of 'June' and converses with Juno.
Hic quoque mensis habet dubias in nomine causas:
quae placeat, positis omnibus ipse leges.
facta canam; sed erunt qui me finxisse loquantur
nullaque mortali numina visa putent.
est deus in nobis; agitante calescimus illo: 5
impetus hic sacrae semina mentis habet.
fas mihi praecipue voltus vidisse deorum,
vel quia sum vates, vel quia sacra cano.
est nemus arboribus densum, secretus ab omni
voce locus, si non obstreperetur aquis. 10
hic ego quaerebam, coepti quae mensis origo
esset, et in cura nominis huius eram.
ecce deas vidi, non quas praeceptor arandi
viderat, Ascraeas cum sequeretur oves,
nec quas Priamides in aquosae vallibus Idae 15
contulit: ex illis sed tamen una fuit.
ex illis fuit una, sui germana mariti;
haec erat (agnovi) quae stat in arce Iovis.
horrueram tacitoque animum pallore fatebar;
tum dea, quos fecit, sustulit ipsa metus. 20
namque ait “o vates, Romani conditor anni,
ause per exiguos magna referre modos,
ius tibi fecisti numen caeleste videndi,
cum placuit numeris condere festa tuis.
ne tamen ignores volgique errore traharis, 25
Iunius a nostro nomine nomen habet.
est aliquid nupsisse Iovi, Iovis esse sororem:
fratre magis, dubito, glorier, anne viro.
si genus aspicitur, Saturnum prima parentem
feci, Saturni sors ego prima fui. 30
a patre dicta meo quondam Saturnia Roma est:
haec illi a caelo proxima terra fuit.
si torus in pretio est, dicor matrona Tonantis,
iunctaque Tarpeio sunt mea templa Iovi.
an potuit Maio paelex dare nomina mensi, 35
hic honor in nobis invidiosus erit?
cur igitur regina vocor princepsque dearum?
aurea cur dextrae sceptra dedere meae?
an facient mensem luces, Lucinaque ab illis
dicar et a nullo nomina mense traham? 40
tum me paeniteat posuisse fideliter iras
in genus Electrae Dardaniamque domum.
causa duplex irae: rapto Ganymede dolebam,
forma quoque Idaeo iudice victa mea est.
paeniteat, quod non foveo Carthaginis arces, 45
cum mea sint illo currus et arma loco:
paeniteat Sparten Argosque measque Mycenas
et veterem Latio supposuisse Samon:
adde senem Tatium Iunonicolasque Faliscos,
quos ego Romanis succubuisse tuli. 50
sed neque paeniteat, nec gens mihi carior ulla est:
hic colar, hic teneam cum Iove templa meo.
ipse mihi Mavors ‘commendo moenia’ dixit
‘haec tibi. tu pollens urbe nepotis eris.’
dicta fides sequitur: centum celebramur in aris, 55
nec levior quovis est mihi mensis honor.
nec tamen hunc nobis tantummodo praestat honorem
Roma: suburbani dant mihi munus idem.
inspice, quos habeat nemoralis Aricia fastos
et populus Laurens Lanuviumque meum; 60
est illic mensis Iunonius. inspice Tibur
et Praenestinae moenia sacra deae;
Iunonale leges tempus. nec Romulus illas
condidit: at nostri Roma nepotis erat.”
finierat Iuno. respeximus: Herculis uxor 65
stabat, et in voltu signa vigoris erant.
“non ego, si toto mater me cedere caelo
iusserit, invita matre morabor” ait.
“nunc quoque non luctor de nomine temporis huius:
blandior et partes paene rogantis ago 70
remque mei iuris malim tenuisse precando,
et faveas causae forsitan ipse meae.
aurea possedit socio Capitolia templo
mater et, ut debet, cum Iove summa tenet.
at decus omne mihi contingit origine mensis: 75
unicus est, de quo sollicitamur, honor.
quid grave, si titulum mensis, Romane, dedisti
Herculis uxori, posteritasque memor?
haec quoque terra aliquid debet mihi nomine magni
coniugis; huc captas appulit ille boves, 80
hic male defensus flammis et dote paterna
Cacus Aventinam sanguine tinxit humum.
ad propiora vocor. populum digessit ab annis
Romulus, in partes distribuitque duas:
haec dare consilium, pugnare paratior illa est; 85
haec aetas bellum suadet, at illa gerit.
sic statuit mensesque nota secrevit eadem:
Iunius est iuvenum; qui fuit ante, senum.”
dixit. et in litem studio certaminis issent,
atque ira pietas dissimulata foret: 90
venit Apollinea longas Concordia lauro
nexa comas, placidi numen opusque ducis.
haec ubi narravit Tatium fortemque Quirinum
binaque cum populis regna coisse suis
et lare communi soceros generosque receptos, 95
“his nomen iunctis Iunius” inquit “habet.”
dicta triplex causa est. at vos ignoscite, divae:
res est arbitrio non dirimenda meo.
ite pares a me. perierunt iudice formae
Pergama: plus laedunt, quam iuvat una, duae. 100
1 The explanations of this month’s name also are doubtful. I will state them all, and you shall choose which one you please. I’ll sing the truth, but some will say I lied, and think that no deities were ever seen by mortal. There is a god within us. It is when he stirs us that our bosom warms; it is his impulse that sows the seeds of inspiration. I have a peculiar right to see the faces of the gods, whether because I am a bard, or because I sing of sacred things. There is a grove where trees grow thick, a spot sequestered from every sound except the purl of water. There I was musing on what might be the origin of the month just begun, and was meditating on its name. Lo, I beheld the goddesses, but not those whom the teacher of ploughing beheld when he followed his Ascraean sheep1; nor those whom Priam’s son compared in watery Ida’s dells;2 yet one there was of these. Of these there was one, the sister of her husband: she it was, I recognized, who stands within Jove’s citadel. I shivered, and, speechless though I was, my pallid hue betrayed my feeling; then the goddess herself removed the fears she had inspired. For she said, “O poet, minstrel of the Roman year, thou who hast dared to chronicle great things in slender couplets, thou hast won for thyself the right to look upon a celestial divinity by undertaking to celebrate the festivals in thy numbers. But lest thou should be ignorant and led astray by vulgar error, know that June takes its name from mine. It is something to have married Jupiter and to be Jupiter’s sister. I know not whether I am prouder of him as brother or as husband. If descent is considered, I was the first to call Saturn by the name of father: I was the first child whom fate bestowed on him. Rome was once named Saturnia after my sire: this land was the next he came to after heaven. If the marriage-bed counts for much, I am called the consort of the Thunderer, and my temple is joined to that of Tarpeian Jupiter. If a leman could give her name to the month of May, shall a like honour be grudged to me? To what purpose, then, am I called Queen and chief of goddesses? Why did they put a golden sceptre in my right hand? Shall the days (luces) make up a month and I be called Lucina after them, and yet shall I take a name from not a single month? Then indeed might I repent of having loyally laid aside my anger at the offspring of Electra and the Dardanian house.3 I had a double cause of anger: I fretted at the rape of Ganymede, and my beauty was misprized by the Idaean judge. It might repent me that I cherish not the battlements of Carthage, since my chariot and arms are there.4 It might repent me that I have laid Sparta, and Argos, and my Mycenae, and ancient Samos, under the heel of Latium; add to these old Tatius,5 and the Faliscans, who worship Juno, and whom I nevertheless suffered to succumb to the Romans. Yet let me not repent, for there is no people dearer to me: here may I be worshipped, here may I occupy the temple with my own Jupiter. Mavors himself hath said to me, ‘I entrust these walls to thee. Thou shalt be mighty in the city of thy grandson.’ His words have been fulfilled: I am celebrated at a hundred altars, and not the least of my honours is that of the month (named after me). Nevertheless it is not Rome alone that does me that honour: the inhabitants of neighbouring towns pay me the same compliment. Look at the calendar of woodland Aricia, and the calendars of the Laurentine folk and of my own Lanuvium; there, too, there is a month of June.6 Look at Tibur and at the sacred walls of the Praenestine goddess: there shalt thou read of Juno’s season. Yet Romulus did not found these towns; but Rome was the city of my grandson.”
65 So Juno ended. I looked back. The wife of Hercules stood by, and in her face were signs of vigour.7 “If my mother were to bid me retire from heaven outright,” quoth she, “I would not tarry against my mother’s will. Now, too, I do not contend about the name of this season. I coax, and I act the part almost of a petitioner, and I should prefer to maintain my right by prayer alone. Thou thyself mayest haply favour my cause. My mother owns the golden Capitol, where she shares the temple, and, as is right, occupies the summit along with Jupiter. But all my glory comes from the naming of the month; the honour about which they tease me is the only one I enjoy. What harm was it if thou didst, O Roman, bestow the title of a month upon the wife of Hercules, and if posterity remembered and ratified the gift? This land also owes me something on account of my great husband. Hither he drove the captured kine8: here Cacus, ill protected by the flames, his father’s gift, dyed with his blood the soil of the Aventine. But I am called to nearer themes. Romulus divided and distributed the people into two parts according to their years. The one was readier to give counsel, the other to fight; the one age advised war, the other waged it. So he decreed, and he distinguished the months by the same token. June is the month of the young (iuvenes); the preceding is the month of the old.”9
89 So she spoke, and in the heat of rivalry the goddesses might have engaged in a dispute, wherein anger might have belied natural affection. But Concord came,10 at once the deity and the work of the pacific chief, her long tresses twined with Apollo’s laurel. When she had told how Tatius and brave Quirinus, and their two kingdoms and peoples, had united in one, and how fathers-in-law and sons-in-law were received in a common home, “The months of June,” quoth she, “gets its name from their junction.”11
97 Thus were three causes pleaded. But pardon me, ye goddesses; the matter is not one to be decided by my judgement. Depart from me all equal. Pergamum was ruined by him who adjudged the prize of beauty: two goddesses mar more than one can make.
Hesiod of Ascra: Theogonia 22.
The Judgement of Paris, on “many-fountained Ida,” Ἴδη πολυπῖδαξ. This una is Juno, “Iovis et soror et coniunx,” Virg. Aen. i. 46. The great temple on the Capitol contained three shrines, dedicated to Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. Compare 11, 52, 73, below.
Dardanus, son of Electra, by Zeus.
Virgil, Aen. i. 12–18 “hic illius arma, hic currus fuit.”
He alludes to Juno Curitis, Curritis, or Quiritis, whose worship Titus Tatius, Sabine king, is said to have introduced at Rome, setting up a table in her honour in each curia.
Called Junonius at Aricia and Praeneste.
Hebe, daughter of Zeus and Hera, whom he thinks of by the Latin name Iuventas.
Compare v. 59.
See i. 637–650.
See iii. 195–228.