Sospita

"Saving goddess." That is, the "saving goddess," was a surname of Juno at Lanuvium and at Rome, in both of which places she had a temple. Her worship was very ancient in Latium and was transplanted from Lanuvium to Rome. The name is connected with the verb σώζειν, but the ancient Romans called her Sispita, and so her name appears in inscriptions, just as Jupiter also is called Sispes instead of Sospes.1

The annexed coin of L. Thorius Balbus contains on the obverse the head of Juno Sospita with the letters I. S. M. R. (that is, Iunonis Sospitae magnae reginae).

❧

References

Notes

  1. Festus, p. 343 (ed. Müller).

Sources

  • Cicero. On the Nature of the Gods i, 29; De Divinatione i, 2.
  • Livy. The History of Rome viii, 14; xxiv, 10; xxvii, 3; xxix, 14; xxxi, 12; xxxii, 30; xl, 19.
  • Ovid. Fasti ii, 56.
  • Silius Italicus, viii, 362; xiii, 346.
  • 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.