I’ve talked about Juno Sospita on this blog and in my 2021 coin book, because she appears regularly on republican coins. The ritual of her cult is interesting to be sure. And her iconography with a goat horn headdress distinctive. Very popular in central Latium and surrounding regions as a antefix (architectural terracotta) motif. (Louvre example left, Berlin example right)
TIL about this fantastic black figure amphora in the BM from c. 530-520 BCE and likely found at Cerveteri or Vulci. At first glance (from another angle) I thought it might be Apollo and Hercules fighting over the tripod for control of Delphi, but then I looked closer. Definitely Juno Sospita. For me, I”m not used to thinking of indigenous Italic gods as having their own legendary adventures or how they might intersect with those of ‘Greek Heroes’. I teach the ancient Mediterranean as one deeply interconnected world with many points of exchange and yet this blending of traditions still arrested my attention.
Equally I find it interesting that in the late republic Sospita always has a figure-eight shield and curved shoes. Neither are represented here. They may be archaizing elements of her iconography to make later representations feel older.
I wonder if I’ve written before about how Sospita’s shield on the coins may recall the shape of the Numa’s ancilia!? One post on these shields and a short follow up. The figure eight shield clear was one the Roman associate with antiquity and religious traditions.
Liv Mariah Yarrow 