Jupiter (god)
The Latin name Iuppiter originated as a vocative compound of the Old Latin vocative Iou and pater, meaning father. This form replaced the earlier Old Latin nominative case Ious. Linguistic studies identify the root *Djous Patēr from Proto-Italic day and sky combined with father. The Indo-European deity is the god from which the names Zeus and Dyaus Pita derive or have developed. Older forms of the deity's name in Rome were Dieus-pater and Diespiter. Georg Wissowa asserted these names are conceptually and linguistically connected to Diovis and Diovis Pater. The Roman practice of swearing by Jove to witness an oath in law courts is the origin of the expression by Jove! The name of the god was also adopted as the name of the planet Jupiter. The adjective jovial originally described those born under the planet of Jupiter.
Jupiter was the chief deity of Roman state religion throughout the Republican and Imperial eras until Christianity became dominant. Romans believed that Jupiter granted them supremacy because they had honoured him more than any other people had. He personified the divine authority of Rome's highest offices internal organization and external relations. The consuls swore their oath of office in Jupiter's name and honoured him on the annual feriae of the Capitol in September. To thank him for his help and to secure his continued support they sacrificed a white ox with gilded horns. A similar sacrificial offering was made by triumphal generals who surrendered the tokens of their victory at the feet of Jupiter's statue in the Capitol. Some scholars have viewed the triumphator as embodying or impersonating Jupiter in the triumphal procession. Originally Rome was ruled by kings but after the monarchy was abolished religious prerogatives were transferred to the patres. Nostalgia for the kingship affectatio regni was considered treasonous. In the 5th century BC the triumphator Camillus was sent into exile after he drove a chariot with a team of four white horses an honour reserved for Jupiter himself. When Marcus Manlius whose defense of the Capitol against the invading Gauls had earned him the name Capitolinus was accused of regal pretensions he was executed as a traitor.
The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus stood on the Capitoline Hill in Rome. Jupiter was worshiped there as an individual deity and with Juno and Minerva as part of the Capitoline Triad. The building was supposedly begun by king Tarquinius Priscus completed by the last king Tarquinius Superbus and inaugurated in the early days of the Roman Republic the 13th of September 509 BC. It was topped with the statues of four horses drawing a quadriga with Jupiter as charioteer. A large statue of Jupiter stood within; on festival days its face was painted red. In or near this temple was the Iuppiter Lapis the Jupiter Stone on which oaths could be sworn. There were two temples in Rome dedicated to Iuppiter Stator the first one built and dedicated in 294 BC by Marcus Atilius Regulus after the third Samnite War. It was located on the Via Nova below the Porta Mugonia ancient entrance to the Palatine. Augustus constructed the Temple of Jupiter Tonans near that of Jupiter Capitolinus between 26 and 22 BC. Iuppiter Victor had a temple dedicated by Quintus Fabius Maximus Gurges during the third Samnite War in 295 BC.
The Ides the midpoint of the month with a full moon was sacred to Jupiter because on
that day heavenly light shone day and night. Some or all Ides were Feriae Iovis sacred to Jupiter. On the Ides a white lamb ovis idulis was led along Rome's Sacred Way to the Capitoline Citadel and sacrificed to him. The nundinae recurred every ninth day dividing the calendar into a market cycle analogous to a week. Market days gave rural people pagi the opportunity to sell in town and to be informed of religious and political edicts which were posted publicly for three days. According to tradition these festival days were instituted by the king Servius Tullius. The high priestess of Jupiter Flaminica Dialis sanctified the days by sacrificing a ram to Jupiter. There were two festivals called epulum Iovis Feast of Jove. One was held on the 13th of September the anniversary of the foundation of Jupiter's Capitoline temple. The other and probably older festival was part of the Plebeian Games Ludi Plebei and was held on the 13th of November. In the 3rd century BC the epulum Iovis became similar to a lectisternium.
Marcus Terentius Varro and Verrius Flaccus were the main sources on the theology of Jupiter and archaic
Roman religion in general. Varro was acquainted with the libri pontificum books of the Pontiffs and their archaic classifications. On these two sources depend other ancient authorities such as Ovid Servius Aulus Gellius Macrobius patristic texts Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Plutarch. One of the most important sources that preserves the theology of Jupiter and other Roman deities is The City of God against the Pagans by Augustine of Hippo. Augustine's criticism of traditional Roman religion is based on Varro's lost work Antiquitates Rerum Divinarum. According to Augustine Varro drew on the pontiff Mucius Scaevola's tripartite theology: The mythic theology of the poets useful for the theatre; The physical theology of the philosophers useful for understanding the natural world; The civil theology of the priests useful for the state. Jovian theology stressed Jupiter's uniqueness as the only case among Indo-European religions in which the original god preserved his name his identity and his prerogatives. His residence is
found atop the hills of Rome and of mountains in general.
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Common questions
What is the origin of the name Jupiter?
The Latin name Iuppiter originated as a vocative compound of the Old Latin vocative Iou and pater, meaning father. This form replaced the earlier Old Latin nominative case Ious.
When was the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus inaugurated?
The building was supposedly begun by king Tarquinius Priscus completed by the last king Tarquinius Superbus and inaugurated in the early days of the Roman Republic the 13th of September 509 BC.
Who were the main sources on the theology of Jupiter?
Marcus Terentius Varro and Verrius Flaccus were the main sources on the theology of Jupiter and archaic Roman religion in general. On these two sources depend other ancient authorities such as Ovid Servius Aulus Gellius Macrobius patristic texts Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Plutarch.
Why was the Ides sacred to Jupiter?
The Ides the midpoint of the month with a full moon was sacred to Jupiter because on that day heavenly light shone day and night. Some or all Ides were Feriae Iovis sacred to Jupiter.