Juno Februata

A festival said to be of Juno Februata or Juno Februa, though it does not appear in Ovid's "Fasti" was described by Alban Butler, famous as the author of "Butler's Lives of Saints", who presented an aspect of the Roman Lupercalia as a festival of a "Juno Februata", under the heading of February 14:

:"To abolish the heathens lewd superstitious custom of boys drawing the names of girls, in honour of their goddess Februata Juno, on the fifteenth of this month, several zealous pastors substituted the names of saints in billets, given on this day." [Butler, "Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints" London, 1756-59, quoted in Jack B. Oruch, "St. Valentine, Chaucer, and Spring in February", "Speculum" 56.3 (July 1981, pp. 534-565), p 539.]

Jack Oruch, who noted Butler's inventive confusion, ["Butler's ideas were prompted, in all probability, by a confused knowledge of the date of this isolated event; a less charitable explanation would attribute his remarks to wishful or pious fantasy." (Oruch 1981:539).] noted that it was embellished by Francis Douce, in "Illustrations of Shakespeare, and of Ancient Manners", new ed. London, 1839, p 470, who took such a festival for the Lupercalia, which was celebrated, he asserted,:"during a great art of the month of February.... in honour of Pan and Juno... On this occasion, amidst a variety of ceremonies, the names of young women were put into a box, from which they were drawn by the men as chance directed." Douce repeated Butler's description of the attempt to substitute saint's names, and concluded that "as the festival of the "Lupercalia" had commenced about the middle of February, [the Christians] appear to have chosen Saint Valentine's day for celebrating the new feast; because it occurred nearly at the same time" [Also quoted in Oruch 1981.]

The connection thus begun has been uncritically repeated to the modern day: but see Valentine's Day and Saint Valentine.

The epithet or divine cognomen of Juno Purified and Purifying, "Juno Februata, Februlis, Februta" or "Februalis" is noted in William Smith, (1870) 1898. "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology" [Vol. 2, p 658 [http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/1766.html On-line text] .] with a reference to Sextus Pompeius Festus "Februarius", to Ovid's poem on the Roman festivals, "Fasti", ii.441, which however refers to Juno Lucina in the context of restoring the fertility of Roman women [Ovid, "Fasti", ii ( [http://www.theoi.com/Text/OvidFasti2.html on-line text] ).] and to Arnobius' sarcastic fourth-century attack on pagan customs, "Adversus Nationes" [Arnobius, iii.30, noted in Smith 1898: sub "Februus".] The adjective "februata" is unusual and highly specific, unlike broader, more familiar Latin terms: Ovid was at pains to elucidate "februa" in "Fasti". "The narrowness of meaning in "febrare", no synonym of "purgare" or even of "lustrare"suggests borrowing, an importation which never had a place in the popular language," Joshua Whatmough remarked, [Joshua Whatmough, "The Calendar in Ancient Italy outside Rome," "Harvard Studies in Classical Philology" 42 (1931, pp. 157-179) p. 171 ] and he noted that Varro ["De lingua latina" vi.12.] considered it Sabine in origin.

This "Juno Februata" is well entrenched in Neo-Pagan culture: "Invoke Juno Februa for fertility and sex magic", Internet surfers are urged. [ [http://www.open-sesame.com/Juno.html Open-sesame.com] .]

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