Juno and fertility at the sanctuary of tas-Silg, Malta

Abstract

The attribution of the temple at Tas-Silg in Malta to the divinity of Juno was established bv 1963 when the Missione Archeologica Italiana excavated the site which had been known for some centuries to have been a temple of some sort.' The remains of the temple itself and the inscriptions leave no doubt that it was goddess Juno who was venerated there. To put it briefly, three main conclusions were reached by the archaeologists: that a neolithic temple whose remains can still be seen had preceded in existence the Roman one; that goddess Juno was originally venerated as the neolithic Mother Goddess at the same site, transformed intermediately into Astarte by the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians; and that a male but subordinate divinity was venerated along with the Mother Goddess/ Astarte/ Juno. In my view, this last point was not fully developed, and is very important in throwing more light on the question of the fertility cult in Juno.