Plutarch's Romane Questions · Plutarch
77.
_Why think they the yeeres dedicated to_ Jupiter, _and the moneths to_ Juno? MAY it not be for that of Gods invisible and who are no other wise seene but by the eies of our understanding: those that reigne as princes be _Jupiter_ and _Juno_; but of the visible, the Sun and Moone? Now the Sun is he who causeth the yeere, and the Moone maketh the moneth. Neither are we to thinke, that these be onely and simply the figures and images of them: but beleeve we must, that the materiall Sun which we behold, is _Jupiter_, and this materiall Moone, _Juno_. And the reason why they call her _Juno_, (which word is as much to say as yoong or new) is in regarde of the course of the Moone: and otherwhiles they surname her also _Juno-Lucina_, that is to say; light or shining: being of opinion that she helpeth women in travell of child-birth, like as the Moone doth, according to these verses: _By starres that turne full round in Azur skie: By Moone who helps child-births right speedily._ For it seemeth that women at the full of the moone be most easily delivered of childbirth.
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