Juventas

The personification of youth, the Roman equivalent of the Greek Hebe. At Rome the goddess was worshiped under the name of Juventas, and that at a very early time, for her chapel on the Capitol existed before the temple of Jupiter was built there; and she, as well as Terminus, is said to have opposed the consecration of the temple of Jupiter.1 Another temple of Juventas, in the Circus Maximus, was vowed by the consul M. Livius, after the defeat of Hasdrubal, in 207 BCE, and was consecrated 16 years afterwards.

Sacrifice was made to her when boys first donned the toga reserved for men. She was also protective of the contractual and marital relationships in Roman society.

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References

Notes

  1. Livy. The History of Rome v, 54.

Sources

  • Augustine. City of God iv, 23.
  • Dionysius, iv, 15, where a temple of Juventas is mentioned as early as the reign of Servius Tullius.
  • Livy. The History of Rome xxxvi, 36; comp. xxi, 62.
  • Pliny the Elder. Naturalis Historia xxix, 4, 14; xxxv, 36, 22.
  • Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.

This article incorporates text from Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) by William Smith, which is in the public domain.