<P> Like Ares who was the son of Zeus and Hera, Mars is usually considered to be the son of Jupiter and Juno . However, in a version of his birth given by Ovid, he was the son of Juno alone . Jupiter had usurped the mother's function when he gave birth to Minerva directly from his forehead (or mind); to restore the balance, Juno sought the advice of the goddess Flora on how to do the same . Flora obtained a magic flower (Latin flos, plural flores, a masculine word) and tested it on a heifer who became fecund at once . She then plucked a flower ritually using her thumb, touched Juno's belly, and impregnated her . Juno withdrew to Thrace and the shore of Marmara for the birth . </P> <P> Ovid tells this story in the Fasti, his long - form poetic work on the Roman calendar . It may explain why the Matronalia, a festival celebrated by married women in honor of Juno as a goddess of childbirth, occurred on the first day of Mars' month, which is also marked on a calendar from late antiquity as the birthday of Mars . In the earliest Roman calendar, March was the first month, and the god would have been born with the new year . Ovid is the only source for the story . He may be presenting a literary myth of his own invention, or an otherwise unknown archaic Italic tradition; either way, in choosing to include the story, he emphasizes that Mars was connected to plant life and was not alienated from female nurture . </P> <P> The consort of Mars was Nerio or Neriene, "Valor ." She represents the vital force (vis), power (potentia) and majesty (maiestas) of Mars . Her name was regarded as Sabine in origin and is equivalent to Latin virtus, "manly virtue" (from vir, "man"). In the early 3rd century BC, the comic playwright Plautus has a reference to Mars greeting Nerio, his wife . A source from late antiquity says that Mars and Neriene were celebrated together at a festival held on March 23 . In the later Roman Empire, Neriene came to be identified with Minerva . </P> <P> Nerio probably originates as a divine personification of Mars' power, as such abstractions in Latin are generally feminine . Her name appears with that of Mars in an archaic prayer invoking a series of abstract qualities, each paired with the name of a deity . The influence of Greek mythology and its anthropomorphic gods may have caused Roman writers to treat these pairs as "marriages ." </P>

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