s_[1383] are far less developed than the
Greek--their functions are simple, their mythological interest small.
The members of the group representing the productive power of the
earth--Bona Dea, Dea Dia, Libera, Fauna, Ceres, Proserpina,[1384] and
others--were not worked up by the Romans into great personalities.

+804+. Juno, an independent deity, originally not the wife of Jupiter,
is, in the developed cult, the special patron of the maternal side of
the life of women, and, as such, is a great domestic power, the
embodiment of a large part of family life. It was probably as great
sky-goddess that she attained this position--the chief female deity is
naturally the protector of women. The name came to designate the woman's
personality as childbearer, and more generally her inner essence or
self, as "genius" came to designate the male essence.[1385] Whether this
usage was simply an extension of the idea of 'protectress' to that of
'self,' an identification of woman with her specific function in the
family, or rested on some older conception, is not clear. However this
may be, she became a great goddess, in the later construction the wife
of Jupiter, and was identified with Hera, to whom in fact she is nearly
related in function and character. Though her name appears to contain
the same stem (_iu_) as 'Jupiter,' and her epithet 'Lucina' the stem
_luc_, 'to shine,' there is no proof that she was, in early times,
regarded as a light-deity, or particularly as moon-goddess. She was
sky-goddess, but not, for that reason, necessarily light-goddess.

+805+. The importance attached by the Romans to the family life is
expressed in the cult of Vesta, the guardian of the hearth as the center
of that life.[1386] The Penates, however, the divine protectors of the
household, were no less important in the family cult than she. The state
also had its Vesta and its Penates. To this character of sacredness
stamped on the life of the private family and the larger family, the
state, ethical significance and influence must doubtless be ascribed.

+806+. Diana appears to have originated in the time when life was spent
largely in forests, and trees were a special object of worship; she was
in historical times connected with groves.[1387] Her cult was widely
diffused in Italy, and she became (perhaps because she embodied the
common feature of the old life) the representative of Italian unity. As
great female deity she was the helper of women in