Jupiter (mythology)

Etymology

The name Jupiter probably comes from a deterioration of Jupaterus , Ju- Lord's Prayer , literally “Father of the skies”, Indo-European root *Dyēus patēr (" god of the ciel" , " god suprême"). The Accusatif Jovem gave the adjectives jovial , jovien and also the substantive Thursday or “day of Jupiter” ( Jovis dies ). The word francoprovençal Joux which one often finds in alpine toponymy could derive from it.

Mythology

A difficult beginning

Jupiter (or Zeus in Greek), says the poets, is the father, the king of the gods and the men; he reigns on the Olympe, and, of a sign of head, shakes the Universe. He was the son of Rhéa and Saturn who devoured his children as they came in the world. Already Vesta, his/her oldest daughter, Cérès, Pluto, Neptune had been devoured, when Rhéa, wanting to save his/her child, took refuge in Crete, in the cave of Dictated, where it gave the day, at the same time, in Jupiter and Junon. This one was devoured by Saturn. As for the Jupiter young person, Rhéa made it nourish by Adrastée and Ida, two nymphs of Crete, which one called Melissas, and recommended its childhood to the Curètes, former inhabitants of the country. However, to mislead his/her husband, Rhéa made him swallow a emmaillotée stone. Melissas nourished Jupiter with the goat's milk Amalthée and the honey of the mount Ida of Crete.

Become adolescent, it joined the goddess Métis, i.e. Prudence. It was by the council of Mongrel which it made take with Saturn a beverage of which the effect was to make him vomit the stone firstly that it had swallowed, and then all the children absorbed in his center.

With the assistance of his brothers, Neptune and Pluton, he proposed initially to détrôner his father and to banish the Titans, this branch rival which made obstacle with its royalty. He thus declared the war like with Saturn to them. The Earth predicts a complete victory to him, if it could deliver the Cyclops (Giant in only one eye) and the Hécatonchires (Giant with hundred arm and fifty heads) that his/her father held locked up in the Tartar , and committed them to fight for him. He undertook it, and came to end, after having killed Campé, the geôlière, who had the guard of these Giants in the Hells.

At this point in time the Cyclops gave to Jupiter the the lightning composed of the thunder, the flash and the lightning, in Pluton the Kunée, and in Neptune the three-pronged fork. With these weapons, the three brothers overcame Saturn, drove out it throne and company of the gods, after him to have made undergo cruel tortures. The Titans which had helped Saturn to fight were precipitated in the depths of the Tartar under the guard of Hécatonchires.

After this victory, the three brothers, seeing main world, shared it between them: Jupiter had the Sky, Neptune the Sea, and Pluto the Hells.

But the war of the Titans succeeded the revolt of the Géants, children of the Ciel and the Ground. Of a monstrous size and a proportioned force, they had the legs and the feet in the shape of snake. Solved with détrôner Jupiter, they piled up the Mont Os on the Mont Pélion, and the Mont Olympe on OS from where they tried to climb the sky. They launched against the gods of the rocks of which the ones, falling into the sea, became islands, and the others, falling down to ground, formed mountains.

Jupiter was in great concern, because an old oracle announced that the Giants would be invincible, unless the gods did not call a mortal with their help. Having defended with the Dawn, the the Moon and the Sun to discover its intentions, it preceded the Earth which sought to help his/her children; and, by the opinion of Pallas, or Minerve, it made come Hercules which, in concert, with the other gods, helped it to exterminate the Giants Encelade, Polybétès, Alcyonée, Porphyrion, both Aloades Éphialte and Otus, Eurytus, Clytius, Tityus, Pallas, Hippolytus, Agrius, Thaon and frightening the Typhon which, only, gave more sorrow to the gods than all the others. After having demolished them, Jupiter precipitated them until the bottom of the Tartar, or, following other poets, it buried them alive, the ones in a country, the others in another. Encelade was buried under the Etna mount. It is him whose set ablaze breath, said Virgile, exhales fires which lance the volcano; when it tries to be turned over, it makes tremble Sicily, and a thick smoke darkens the atmosphere. Polybétès was buried under the island of Lango, Otus under the island of Crystallized, and Typhoon under the island of Ischia.

Family

Family ties

Wire of Saturn and Rhea
Brother of Neptune
Brother of Pluto
Brother of Junon
Brother of Cérès
Brother of Vesta
Brother of Héra

Its love affairs

With goddesses

With mortals

Emblems

a flash

Attributes

the Sceptre
the the lightning, beam of darts in the form of zigzag representing the the lightning
the Throne

Favorite animal

the eagle

Field

the skies because he is the Master of the sky.

Epithet

Jupiter Caelestis (" céleste")
Jupiter Fulgurator (" foudre")
Jupiter Latarius (" God of the Latium ")
Jupiter Lucetius (" lumière")
Jupiter Pluvius (" who sends the pluie") ; to also see Pluvius
Jupiter Stator (of stare meaning " being held debout")
Jupiter Terminus or Jupiter Terminalus (which defends the borders); to also see Terminus
Jupiter Tonans (" tonnant")
Jupiter Victor (" who directs the armies romaines")
Jupiter Summanus (" who sends the tonnere nuit")
Jupiter Feretrius
Jupiter Optimus Maximus (best and the largest)
Jupiter Homoscus Maximus
Jupiter Latiaris , adored on the Mount Albain
Jupiter Capitolin , adored on the Capitole in the Temple of Jupiter Capitolin

Caption

When he married Junon, Jupiter invited to its weddings all the gods, all the men and all the animals. All the guests came to the festival, except a named girl Chélone. This one dared to scorn the orders of the king of the gods, going even until making fun of the divine marriage. She was well punished by it: Jupiter ordered in Mercure to change it into tortoise.

Worship

Among the divinities, Jupiter always held the first rank; and its worship was most solemn and most universally widespread. Its three more famous oracles were those of Dodone, Libya and Trophonius. The most ordinary victims that one immolait to him were the goat, the ewe and the white bull which one had had care to gild the horns. One did not sacrifice human victims to him; often one was satisfied to offer flour, salt and incense to him. The eagle, which planes in top of the skies and bottom like the lightning on its prey, was its favorite bird. The Thursday , day of the week, was devoted to him ( Jovis dies ).

Temples

On the Capitole in Rome (Jupiter Capitolin)

Priests

The Flamine of Jupiter was known as flamen dialis .

Artistic representation

In the fable, the Jupiter name precedes that by many of other gods, even of kings: Jupiter-Ammon in Libya, Jupiter-Sérapis in Egypt, Jupiter-Bélus in Assyrie, Jupiter-Apis, king d' Argos, Jupiter-Astérius, king de Crète, etc

Most usually it is represented under the figure of a majestic man, with beard, an abundant hair, and sat on a throne. Right hand it holds the lightning illustrated in two manners: either by a blazing firebrand of the two ends, or by a pointed machine on the two sides and army of two arrows. Left hand it holds a Victoire, and with its feet an eagle with the spread wings is which removes Ganymède. The upper part of the body is naked, and the covered lower part.

But this manner of representing it was not uniform. The imagination of the artists modified his image or its statue, according to the circumstances and the place even where Jupiter was honoured. Crétois represented it without ears, to mark its impartiality; Lacédémoniens, on the contrary, gave him four of them, to show that it is in a position to hear all the prayers. Beside Jupiter one often sees Justice, the Graces and the Hours.

The Jupiter statue, by Phidias, was of gold and ivory: the god appeared sitted on a throne, having on the head a crown of olive-tree, holding of the left hand a Victoire also of gold and ivory, decorated strips and crowned. Line it held a sceptre on the end of which a resplendent eagle of the glare of all kinds of metals rested. The throne of the god was encrusted with gold and precious stones: the ivory and ebony made there by their mixture a pleasant variety. With the four corners there were four Victories which seemed to give each other the hand to dance, and two others with the feet of Jupiter. At the highest place of the throne, above the head of the god, one had placed on a side the Graces, other the Hours, the ones and the others like Jupiter girls.

Equivalences

the Greek god Zeus (in Fulmen)
Gallic gods Taranis (in Esses), Ésus and Sucellos (with the Mallet)
the Germanic god Thor (with the Hammer)
the Indian god Indra (in Vazra)
the Egyptian god Re or Râ

External bonds

the representation of Jupiter on the currencies of the Roman empire

Nds-nl: Jupiter (god) Simple: Jupiter (mythology)

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