Even though the origins of Hercules are undoubtedly Greek his figure underwent an early assimilation into Italic local religions and might even preserve traces of an association to Indoiranian deity Trita Apya that in Greece have not survived. Among other roles that Juno and Hercules share there is the protection of the newborn. Jean Bayet, author of "Les origines de l'Arcadisme romain", has argued that such a function must be a later development as it looks to have superseded that of the two original Latin gods Picumnus and Pilumnus.