Hercules

Nearly sixty years ago Reifferscheid,' when making a study of the cults of Juno and Hercules, noted that women swore by Juno, men by Hercules; women were excluded from the cult of Hercules at the Ara Maxima and men were excluded from the the rites of Bona Dea, who was very similar to Juno; a lectus was spread in the atrium for Juno and a mensa for Hercules at the birth of a child; the bride's girdle, sacred to Cinxia, was tied in a knot called nodus herculaneus. With these facts in mind, he examined several Etruscan or early Italian works of art2 and thought that they threw new light on the religious rites; for on certain mirrors, vases, rings, et cetera Hercules now appears in bitter opposition to Juno and again in peaceful union. On an Etruscan mirror, for instance, Jupiter seems to give Juno in marriage to Hercules. Reifferscheid, relying on the fact that the Genius of a woman was called a Juno, decided that Juno represented the female principle of life and that Hercules, who is equivalent to Semo Sancus or to Dius Fidius, is the Genius Iovis.

Schmidt,3 who made a special study of the Roman birthday, likewise thought that the Genius of a man was sometimes called Hercules because of a mythical marriage connection between Hercules and Juno; but he admits that the name seems not to have spread very widely.

There is some inscriptional evidence which might, on the contrary, lead one to think that Hercules was originally a sort. of Zeus; for Hercules Iovius is read on several inscriptions, one of them very old, and Q. Baronius erected on the island of Issa a temple and altars Iovi Hercli. Also, the fact on which Reiffer

1 Ann. d'Instit. di Corresp. arch. 1867, pp. 352 ff.

2 See Reifferscheid, l.c., for descriptions; also R. Peter, Roscher's Lex. I, 2259 ff.; Hild, Daremberg et Saglio, III, 690; Warde Fowler, Rom. Fest. pp. 142-3.

Geburtstag im Altertum, p. 23.

Roscher's Lex. I, 2258 ff.

'C.I.L. IX, p. 324,3414=Dessau, 3431; Roscher's Lex. I, 2255, 2946, 3007. C.I.L. III, p. 393, 3075; A. B. Cook, C. R. XX (1906) p. 416.

scheid relied, that the Genius of a woman was called a Juno, may not have been true of the earliest Roman religion. Besides, Wissowa is right in declaring that it is not permissible to draw conclusions from monuments of Ionic-Etruscan origin, none of which has the slightest relation to Roman cult. If accepted, these representations would bring to expression mythological relations of Italian deities, which he is very much inclined to discredit. Neither is it wise to draw very many inferences about Juno's earliest character from connections with Hercules, for he is one of the di novensides. He is, after all, Herakles of the Greeks, though his cult probably made its way to Rome through Oscan Campania.

Dümmler is led to believe from the contest between Juno and Hercules on a vase described by Furtwängler,1o that Juno Sospita also probably goes back to Greek cult for its origin. The word Sospita" has been considered a derivative of owšelv and Fick-Bechtel12 relate "Hows, "Hpa, and 'Hpakλns to the old verb-root ser-, "to protect, guard". At any rate there seems to be no doubt that whatever relation exists between the two arose from Greek ideas.

Sam Wide, 13 who also connects "Hpa and "Hpws etymologically, thinks they may be the Greek equivalent of Genius and Juno; but Wissowa1 rightly pronounces such similarity an ingenious fancy. A. B. Cook 15 offers perhaps the most rational explanation of the hostile attitude assumed by Juno and Hercules on some works of Greek art to which reference has been made.16 He believes that a patriarchal tribe worshipping Zeus and Dia

7 Op. cit. pp. 227 and 280-1; Warde Fowler, Relig. Exper. of the Rom. People, p. 17.

8 Wissowa, op. cit. p. 272.

Kl. Schr. III, p. 254, note 2.

10 Berl. arch. Gesellschaft, 1 Nov., 1887, vase no. 10 and Ant. Gemmen, III, p. 88.

11 Infra p. 67.

12 Gr. Personennamen, pp. 361 and 440. Prellwitz, Etym. Wörterb. p. 177, relates them to sara-s, -m, "strength", Latin serius, "earnest, sober".

13 Archiv für Religionswissenschaft, X (1907) p. 262; Zielinski, Philol. N.F. XVIII (1905) p. 20.

14 Op. cit. p. 182, note 4.

15 C. R. XX (1906) p. 378. See p. 376 for examples of contention between Hercules and Juno.

16 Supra p. 41.

(or Dione) was, by invasion or otherwise, amalgamated with a matriarchal tribe worshipping Hera and Herakles. There was a fusion of cults. Cook thinks he sees Hercules represented as the enemy of the cult of Juno Sospita. In this theory, the notions about male and female principles of life are disregarded.

Gruppe1 raises the objection that mythology refutes Cook's theory of the marriage of Hera and Herakles. Perhaps it is better to consider that when the hostile pair reached foreign soil, Juno assumed the rôle of Hera because of her connection with Jupiter, which was somewhat analogous to that of Hera and Zeus. This might assist in explaining the presence of Jupiter between Hercules and Juno on the Etruscan mirror. The skygod is perhaps trying to bring about a reconciliation of the hostile pair.

The fact that a lectus to Juno was placed beside a mensa to Hercules at the birth of a child obviously indicates a mingling of Roman and Greek rites. When we compare this with the custom of placing a lectus to Picumnus and Pilumnus (di coniugales) at the birth of a living child, we see that we are probably dealing in the case of Juno and Hercules with a later and imitative custom. As Wissowa18 says, we are not justified in drawing from this rite the conclusion that Juno and Hercules were di coniugales.

Cinxia, though the name may have become later an epithet of Juno as goddess of marriage, seems to have been an independent deity, one of the Indigitamenta denoting special acts, like Opigena, Rumina, Ossipago, Educa, etc. Her connection, therefore, with the nodus herculaneus need not necessarily have indicated a special relation between Juno and Hercules.

Reifferscheid's second point, that women were excluded from the cult of Hercules at the Ara Maxima and men were excluded from the rites of Bona Dea, a goddess similar to Juno, is a very weak one, as has been pointed out by Warde Fowler;19 for Bona Dea was not more closely related to Juno than were some other divinities. Warde Fowler does not feel sure that Juno is not as much an intrusion here as Hercules and thinks the female counterpart of Genius was perhaps a nameless numen

17 Pauly-Wissowa, Supplementband, III, 1098.

18 Op. cit. p. 281.

19 Op. cit. p. 142, note 5.

like Bona Dea. He adds that perhaps the rise of the cult of Juno Lucina20 (who seems to have been especially concerned with childbirth) may have caused this intrusion.

In regard to Reifferscheid's first observation, Warde Fowler21 says that the oaths me dius fidius and me hercule are synonomous. But he thinks that almost undoubtedly the former was the older, and that the origin of the latter must be found in the union of the characteristics of the Greek god with those of the native Dius Fidius; moreover it is worth noting that for both these oaths it was customary to go out in the open air. "Here," he says, "is a point at which both Hercules and Dius Fidius seem to come into line with Jupiter; for the most solemn oath of all was per Iovem (lapidem), also taken under the light of heaven."

The identity of Dius Fidius himself is extremely puzzling. Stilo, according to Varro, believed him to be the Sabine Semo Sancus and the Greek Hercules; and Verrius Flaccus, as quoted by Festus, considered these three identical.22 Wissowa23 is very positive that originally Dius Fidius was nothing else than Jupiter himself in his rôle as protector of fides. His full name was Semo Sancus Dius Fidius. Warde Fowler24 also believed that Dius Fidius as Semo Sancus is connected with Jupiter, the god of the heavens and thunder, and that as Hercules he is closely related to the same god as seen in a different aspect.

Hercules and Juno were the two most important deities of Tibur, but no special connection of their cults seems to have existed in that town;25 nor does there seem to have been a close relation between the cults of Hercules Victor and Jupiter Praestes, 26 though it was supposed that the temple was dedicated to the latter by Hercules. A situation analogous to this existed in Rome;27 for near the Ara Maxima was an altar of Jupiter Inventor, which according to legend was erected by Hercules himself. In this connection it is interesting to observe that

20 Infra pp. 57-8.

21 Op. cit. p. 138.

22 Varro, L.L. V, 66; Festus p. 276 L.

23 Op. cit. pp. 129-30.

24 Op. cit. p. 139.

25 Wissowa, op. cit. p. 273, note 1.

26 C.I.L. XIV, 3555.

27 Dionys. Hal. I, 39, 4; Solin. I, 71.

Hercules is several times called Primigenius, as Fortuna is called Primigenia.28

Somewhere not far from the shrine of Hercules at Surrentum29 stood Juno's sanctuary. In fact the latter afforded an easy view of the temple of Hercules; but here he was worshipped as a maritime deity and had nothing to do with the cult of the goddess.

28 Infra pp. 46 and 48.

29 R. M. Petrseon, Cults of Campania, pp. 312-3.