The current behavior is
julia> S
3×3 Symmetric{Int64, Matrix{Int64}}:
0 -8 -2
-8 -2 3
-2 3 8
julia> S^2
3×3 Symmetric{Int64, Matrix{Int64}}:
68 10 -40
10 77 34
-40 34 77
julia> S * S
3×3 Matrix{Int64}:
68 10 -40
10 77 34
-40 34 77
julia> transpose(S) * S
3×3 Matrix{Int64}:
68 10 -40
10 77 34
-40 34 77
julia> S .^ 2
3×3 Matrix{Int64}:
0 64 4
64 4 9
4 9 64