At length Juno, unable to bear the many injuries her love had sustained,
left Jupiter, and retired to the Isle of Samos, announcing, at the same
time, that she should return no more to the court of the King of Heaven.
The latter, not disheartened, dressed a statue as Queen of Olympus, placed
it in his chariot, and declared it should be the future wife of the ruler
of the Gods. This induced Juno to quit her hiding place; for, unable to
restrain her jealousy, she rushed back with all speed, destroyed the
statue, laughingly acknowledged her error, and was reconciled to her
husband.
The wife of Jupiter is always represented as superbly arrayed, in a chariot
drawn by two peacocks, where she sat with a sceptre in her hand, having
always a peacock beside her. She was adored above all at Argos, where her
feasts were celebrated by the sacrifice of a hundred bulls. At Rome, hers
were the Lupercalian feasts. She was believed to preside over the
birth-pangs of the Roman women, and the priests, to render the time
fruitful, struck these grave matrons with a portion of the skin of a kid,
which they asserted had formed one of the vestments of the Goddess.
In the spirit of a high mythology, Juno may be considered as representing
the sublunary atmosphere; and, as opposed to Jupiter, the active origin and
organizer of all, she is of a passive nature. These ideas are allied with
those of Hymen, who is called Juno, the virtuous wife.