Like it's Juno's bitch animal. The goose has interesting aspects used as a metaphore for life's mysteries. The symbolic characteristics are known as:
Bravery
Communication
Confidence
Determination
Faithful
Fellowship
Loyalty
Protection
Teamwork
Valor
The goose never leaves a comrade behind. They are always faithful. That is the motto. During a migration, if a goose somehow becomes injured, another goose will fly down to it and stay until the injured one has recovered or dies.
Mother goose is well known as an extension of nature and indeed of life itself.
We also have it show up in interesting changes over time.
Therianthropy refers to the metamorphosis of humans into animals. The term therianthropy comes from the Greek theríon, θηρίον, meaning "wild animal" or "beast" (impliedly mammalian), and anthrōpos, άνθρωπος, meaning "human being". It was used to refer to animal transformation folklore of Asia and Europe
Therianthropes are said to change forms via shapeshifting. Therianthropes have long existed in mythology, appearing in ancient cave drawings such as the Sorcerer at Les Trois Frères.
Therianthropy was also used to describe spiritual belief in animal transformation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The...
Berthe pied d'oie ("Goose-Foot Bertha"), called in the Midi the Reine Pedauque who, according to Thomas, is often referred in French legends as spinning incredible tales that enraptured children.
There also is the goose footed Queen of Sheba at Dijon which is the fourth statue.
Juno also seems associated with purification and fertility but especially in February. This is also connected for is after running through the Greek stories if valentines and love. The renewal of spring. Life and love will make it.
When I had a goose. It was better than our watch dogs. She trumpeted at any threat. And yet she loved to be petted and scratched. Very protective.
Written 29 Aug, 2014 • View Upvotes • Asked to answer by Ivan Gautama
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Stephen Tempest
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I'm not sure we know. A lot of Roman religion remains obscure, perhaps because the people writing about it back then didn't bother to explain 'obvious' things that 'everybody knew'. One thing to note, though, is that statements such as "Juno was the goddess of marriage" or "Mars was the god of war" are over-simplifications. Gods often had multiple attributes, and people prayed to them for different reasons.
In the case of Juno, to be specific: yes, she was the goddess who presided over the Matronalia festival each year in honour of marriage. In many ways she was the women's goddess: Livy's history of Rome mentions several situations where Rome's men made a sacrifice or conducted a ceremony in honour of Jupiter while the city's women made a similar sacrifice to Juno. People also made offerings to her to give thanks for the birth of children.
However, Juno was also noted for giving warnings and sending prophecies. She had the epithet 'Moneta', whose origin is uncertain but was believed by the Romans themselves to derive from the verb monere, 'to give advice, to warn'. Cicero relates an account of how the goddess was heard speaking in her temple in a disembodied voice warning of a coming earthquake, which gave the citizens time to evacuate the city safely. A shiny new temple to Juno Moneta was built in consequence, to thank her.
Also, during the Punic Wars - according to Livy - the Romans observed many dire portents and threatening omens, such as showers of stones, lightning striking people, or animals behaving in an unnatural fashion. They believed that these were sent by Juno, and made a public sacrifice at her temple both to thank her for the warning and ask her to avert the danger. Unfortunately the sacrifices were evidently insufficient to satisfy her, because the Romans lost the Battle of Cannae soon afterwards.
The goddess Juno with her husband (Jupiter) and daughter (Minerva). The bird by her feet is a peacock, not a goose.
So what about the geese? Well, one possibility is that a bird notable for giving loud warning of any approaching danger would seem like a very appropriate symbol for a goddess whose functions included warning her worshippers of approaching dangers. However while that's a logical inference, I haven't found any original sources to support it directly.
It is, of course, possible that a temple might keep a flock of sacred geese around for other reasons than symbolism. The Romans were very keen on using the activities of birds to foretell the future - the word 'auspices' literally derives from the Latin for 'looking at birds'. Seeing the direction they flew across the sky, seeing whether they ate or refused the food offered to them, or seeing what their entrails looked like when they were killed, were all well-respected methods of fortune telling. Alternatively, offering animal sacrifices to the gods was a standard method of worship, and perhaps the geese were held on hand for this purpose. While, again, I've not seen any specific references to geese in particular being used for these purposes, it's not impossible.
There is another alternative, of course, which is that cause and effect might be reversed. Maybe there was simply a flock of geese owned by Juno's priests to provide them with eggs, roast goose dinners, and feathers for their pillows. When those geese called out loudly and alerted the Romans that the Gauls were launching a surprise attack, then afterwards, the priests might well have argued that this was a miracle. Juno Moneta used the geese to warn her loyal worshippers of their danger. As a result of this, the goose might have become a sacred animal to Juno afterwards, to commemorate the night they saved Rome.
Bear in mind that our main sources for the legend of the Capitoline Geese are from Livy and Plutach, and they were writing three or four centuries later than the events they describe. That's plenty long enough for a historical event to pass into folklore and myth.
