Roman God Jupiter, King of the Roman Gods and Goddesses
The Roman god Jupiter is considered a crucial figure in the Roman pantheon.
As in with other cultures, there was always a god that was considered the most important, the father or the king of gods. In the Roman culture, this role was taken by the god Jupiter.
What is Jupiter the god of?
Jupiter was the Roman god of the sky and thunders. He had a prominent role in the pantheon of the ancient Roman religion since he was considered the king of the gods.
Together with his sister and wife Juno and with his daughter Minerva he formed the Capitoline Triad, which took its name from a temple situated on the Capitoline Hill in Rome.
During the centuries, many other sanctuaries, called Capitolia, dedicated to this group of deities were built, testifying the importance they had for ancient Romans.
A statue of Jupiter Roman god
The Roman god Jupiter was the counterpart of the Etruscan divinity Tinia and was identified, since early times, with the Greek god Zeus.
Jupiter the Roman god inherited the main attributes and symbols from Zeus: the thunder, the oak tree, and the eagle. The latter, at a certain point, became the symbol of the Roman army.
Roman god Jupiter: the Origin of the Name
It seems that the name of the Roman god Jupiter was obtained joining the proto-italic word “djous”, whose meaning would have been “day” or “sky”, to the Latin term “pater”, which meant “father”.
According to this interpretation, “Jupiter” would therefore mean “sky father”.
History of Jupiter the Roman god and Most Important Myths Related to Him
As we said, the Roman god Jupiter had been identified since early times with the Greek deity Zeus, which also was the principal god of the Hellenic pantheon.
As a consequence, the enormous amount of stories regarding Zeus were transferred to the Roman god Jupiter. Among these, the story of his birth and of his come to power is of particular importance.
After the events described in this cycle of myths, the god Jupiter would have ruled the Universe for the rest of time and would have therefore been the main character of many other stories.
Most of them tell of his many affairs with a great number of goddesses and women, and of all the children they would have given him.
The Roman god Jupiter was said to have used many tricks to seduce and win his mistresses: he would have taken the form of a bull to kidnap Europa, of a golden rain to reach Danae in her prison, of a swan to sleep with Leda.
He also recurred to disguise in order to achieve the love of Alcmene, which otherwise she would have never given to him, allowing the greatest hero of the Roman-Greek mythology, Heracles, to be conceived. Let’s see some of these stories in greater detail.
A representation of Jupiter, the Roman god of sky and thunder
Birth and Come to Power of the Roman god Jupiter
Jupiter was the son of the Titans Saturn and Ops. Saturn had taken the place of his father Caelus, and a prophecy had been pronounced according to which he would have been usurped in turn by one of his sons.
To avoid this, he developed the habit of devouring them as soon as they were born. The famous Spanish painter Goya immortalized this terrible scene in his well-known picture Saturn Devouring His Son.
Saturn devouring his son – A painting from Goya
The Roman god Jupiter would have been saved by his mother Ops and given the possibility to grow up and become strong and powerful. Ops would have therefore helped him setting free his brothers so that he could guide them against Saturn, putting an end to his reign.
At this point, Jupiter the Roman god, and his brothers, Neptune and Pluto, were in command of the Universe. They split it into three parts so that each could be the king of one: Neptune would have inherited the Sea, Pluto would have been the lord of the Underworld, while the god Jupiter would have governed the sky, and earned the title of king of the gods.
The Roman god Jupiter and Alcmene
Alcmene was said to be the daughter of Electryon, the king of Tiryns and Mycenae, and of Anaxo. She was the tallest and most enchanting woman on earth, whose charm could compete with that of Venus.
She was also said to be incredibly faithful to her husband Amphitryon. To win her reluctance, the Roman god Jupiter would have therefore taken the features of Amphitryon himself spent the night with Alcmene, and conceived Heracles.
The Roman god Jupiter powers
As the king of the gods, Jupiter was considered the most powerful among them. Being associated with the sky, he was thought in particular to be in charge of natural events as storms and thunders.
The ability to generate thunders was seen as his most distinctive trait. According to the myth, the thunder would have been donated to the Roman god Jupiter by the Cyclopes, giant creatures with only one eye generated by Caelus and Terra, that would have stood with Jupiter and his brothers at the time of his fight against Saturn and the other Titans.
Jupiter the Roman god represented with a thunder in his hand
Symbols of Jupiter god and Their Meanings
As we said, the principal symbols of the Roman god Jupiter were the thunder, the oak tree, and the eagle.
It seems that their meanings were those of communication devices, which enabled Jupiter to talk to humans. Let’s see this aspect in detail.
Jupiter god symbol: The Thunder
A thunder, for ancient Romans, was considered to be a sign by their Roman god Jupiter, usually one of good omen.
This belief arrived at the point that people struck by lightning were thought to have been blessed by Jupiter, and taken by him to the Elysian Fields, a sort of Paradise in ancient Roman religion.
Jupiter god symbol: The Eagle
Ancient Romans had the habit of divining the will of the gods by observing the flight and the behavior of birds. A particular class of priests, called augurs, presided over this activity. The eagle, considered a messenger of the Roman god Jupiter, was thought to be the most reliable bird by augurs.
The eagle, one of Jupiter god symbols
Jupiter god symbol: The oak Tree
Like eagles, also the oak trees were used by priests for divination. Usually, this required interpreting the rustling of their leaves.
Additional Jupiter god Facts
So far, we have mostly talked about the myths and features of the Roman god Jupiter that are derived from the Greek tradition, an inevitable fact considering that they constitute the most important traits of his figure.
Anyway, most peculiarly Roman stories can be told about him. For example, he was said to have often contacted the early, legendary kings of Rome.
The second of them, Numa, was considered to be particularly religious and devoted. It was said that he had once summoned Jupiter and obtained from him a pawn of the imperium, which was a term to refer to the power of Rome, in the form of a shield, which Numa called ancile.
To prevent it from being stolen, Numa ordered many copies of it to be made and scattered around the city, so that no one could know where the true one was.
