Deity

Jupiter

JOO-pih-ter

Roman Deities

As the face of the planet Jupiter, the Roman Jupiter embodies expansion, sovereignty, and meaning. Jupiter, also called Jove, is the supreme god of the Roman state, the god of the sky, thunder, and law, and the king of the gods. Worshipped on the Capitoline Hill as Jupiter Optimus Maximus alongside Juno and Minerva in the great Capitoline Triad, he was the guarantor of oaths, treaties, and the power of Rome throughout the Republic and the Empire. In legend he treats with Numa Pompilius, the second king, to establish the rites of Roman religion. He wields the thunderbolt, his bird is the eagle and his tree the oak, and he is the counterpart of the Greek Zeus. He gives his name to the planet and to the day Jove's-day, and he embodies authority, expansion, justice, and good fortune.

Facts

Status

Status Within the Tradition

Not formally addressed by this tradition 2

Cult

Principal Cult Centre

The temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitoline Hill at Rome 1

Attributes and Iconography

The thunderbolt, the eagle, the sceptre and the oak; enthroned and bearded. 1

Worship and Practice

The Ludi Romani, held each September, honored Jupiter Optimus Maximus at his temple on the Capitoline Hill with games and a formal procession, and every incoming Roman consul opened their year of office with a public vow made at that same temple, tying the highest civic office directly to Jupiter's own cult. 2

Practice

Lineage

Roman genealogy makes Jupiter a son of Saturn and Ops, brother to Neptune, Pluto, Ceres, Juno and Vesta, a family structure adapted directly from the Greek genealogy of Zeus and his Titan parents Cronus and Rhea. 2

Function

Domain / Function

Sky 1

Domain / Function

Storm and thunder 1

Domain / Function

Kingship and sovereignty 1

Domain / Function

Justice, law and oaths 1

Identity

Gender

Male 1

Attestation

Era of Attestation

600 BCE to 391 CE 1

Veneration Today

Historically attested; no continuous cult 1

Historicity

Not a historical person: a divine or other-than-human being 2

Belief

Theology

Polytheistic: many gods 2

Attributions

Mythic Association

Roman myth, following the Greek pattern it absorbed, held that Jupiter overthrew his own father Saturn to become king of the gods, a succession later softened in Roman memory into the idea that Saturn withdrew peacefully to rule a lost golden age in Italy rather than being violently deposed. 2

History

Historical Note

The temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on Rome's Capitoline Hill, traditionally dedicated in 509 BCE at the start of the Republic, stood as the central shrine of Roman state religion for nearly a thousand years, the site where consuls took office and triumphant generals ended their processions. 2

Origins

Origin of the Name

The name Jupiter descends from the Proto Italic Iovis pater, sky father, the same root that gives the Greek Zeus pater, making the two names etymological cousins rather than unrelated words. 2

Learn More

Optimus Maximus: The God of the Roman State

The Capitoline temple that gave Jupiter Optimus Maximus his central Roman home had a building history as turbulent as the Republic itself. Tradition credited its vow to king Tarquinius Priscus and its completion to Tarquinius Superbus, and later Romans dated its dedication to 509 BCE, the very first year of the Republic, as though the fall of the monarchy and the god's great house belonged to the same founding moment. Fire destroyed the temple during the civil war of 83 BCE, and Sulla rebuilt it; it burned again in 69 CE, during the fighting that made and unmade three emperors in a single year, and was rebuilt once more under Vespasian, only to burn a third time in 80 CE under Titus.

The final rebuilding, completed under Domitian at the end of the first century CE, was the most lavish of all, faced in white Pentelic marble with gilded roof tiles, and it stood as the temple that later visitors and ancient sources took as the definitive image of the sanctuary, even though nothing physical of any phase now survives above ground. That repeated cycle of destruction and ever more magnificent rebuilding across five centuries is itself a kind of monument to how central Jupiter's cult remained to Roman civic identity through the Republic and into the high Empire.

Sky-Father, from Diespiter to Jove

Jupiter's public rites preserved a strange trace of very old belief: Pliny the Elder records that on the day of his triumph, a victorious general had his face painted red with minium so that he resembled, for that one day, the red terracotta cult statue of Jupiter housed in the Capitoline temple, paraded through the city in a chariot as though he were briefly the god's own image come to life. The practice had faded into a merely decorative memory by the late Republic, but ancient writers still connected it back to this identification between triumphator and god.

Jupiter's astrological and calendrical legacy long outlasted his temples. Ancient astrology gave him rulership of the largest planet and made him the great benefic, a reading of expansion and good fortune that Western astrology still uses; dies Iovis, Jove's day, survives as jeudi in French and giovedi in Italian, while English Thursday continues the same weekday but through the Germanic identification of Jupiter with Thor rather than with Jove directly, an equivalence based on their shared command of thunder rather than any borrowed name. Renaissance and Baroque painters, Correggio and Rubens among them, returned repeatedly to Jupiter's mythic love affairs, keeping the god visually present in European art long after his cult had ended.

Correspondences & Relations

Jupiter Optimus Maximus, head of the Capitoline triad, supplied the surviving name by way of the Greek identification with Zeus and the Babylonian one with Marduk. Rank, not any observed trait, drives the whole chain.

Connections

Addressed By

Lectisternium

Livy records the 217 BCE lectisternium after Lake Trasimene setting couches for six pairs of gods including Jupiter.

Source Ab Urbe Condita (The History of Rome), Books 21 to 30Livy (Titus Livius)

Associated With

Mashallah ibn Athari (Wikipedia)

This source names Jupiter directly: "the theory that conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn mark the timing of major terrestrial and historical change."

Source Mashallah ibn Athari (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Mysterium Cosmographicum

This source names Jupiter directly: "dodecahedron, Mars, tetrahedron, Jupiter, cube, Saturn."

Source Mysterium CosmographicumJohannes Kepler

Pallas

This source names Jupiter directly: "search for a planet between Mars and Jupiter; like the other early asteroid signs it is an attribute emblem of the deity whose name the body carries, and its origin is documented."

Source A History of Western AstrologyNicholas Campion

Pisces Fifth Term: Saturn

This source names Jupiter directly: "from most benefic to most malefic, run Jupiter or Venus first through Mars or Saturn last."

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

Pisces First Term: Venus

This source names Jupiter directly: "from most benefic to most malefic, run Jupiter or Venus first through Mars or Saturn last."

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

Pisces Fourth Term: Mars

This source names Jupiter directly: "from most benefic to most malefic, run Jupiter or Venus first through Mars or Saturn last."

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

Pisces Second Term: Jupiter

This source names Jupiter directly: "This term spans 12 to 16 degrees of Pisces and is ruled by Jupiter."

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

Pisces Third Term: Mercury

This source names Jupiter directly: "from most benefic to most malefic, run Jupiter or Venus first through Mars or Saturn last."

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

Sagittarius Fifth Term: Mars

This source names Jupiter directly: "from most benefic to most malefic, run Jupiter or Venus first through Mars or Saturn last."

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

Sagittarius First Term: Jupiter

This source names Jupiter directly: "This term spans 0 to 12 degrees of Sagittarius and is ruled by Jupiter."

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

Sagittarius Fourth Term: Saturn

This source names Jupiter directly: "from most benefic to most malefic, run Jupiter or Venus first through Mars or Saturn last."

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

Sagittarius Second Term: Venus

This source names Jupiter directly: "from most benefic to most malefic, run Jupiter or Venus first through Mars or Saturn last."

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

Sagittarius Third Term: Mercury

This source names Jupiter directly: "from most benefic to most malefic, run Jupiter or Venus first through Mars or Saturn last."

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

Saturn

This source names Jupiter directly: "The glyph of Saturn, like that of Jupiter, is an abbreviated Greek name rather than a picture."

Source The Heavenly Writing: Divination, Horoscopy, and Astronomy in Mesopotamian CultureFrancesca Rochberg

Scorpio Fifth Term: Saturn

This source names Jupiter directly: "from most benefic to most malefic, run Jupiter or Venus first through Mars or Saturn last."

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

Scorpio First Term: Mars

This source names Jupiter directly: "from most benefic to most malefic, run Jupiter or Venus first through Mars or Saturn last."

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

Scorpio Fourth Term: Jupiter

This source names Jupiter directly: "This term spans 19 to 24 degrees of Scorpio and is ruled by Jupiter."

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

Scorpio Second Term: Venus

This source names Jupiter directly: "from most benefic to most malefic, run Jupiter or Venus first through Mars or Saturn last."

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

Scorpio Third Term: Mercury

This source names Jupiter directly: "from most benefic to most malefic, run Jupiter or Venus first through Mars or Saturn last."

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

Taranis

This source names Jupiter directly: "Taranis as the Gaulish match for Jupiter."

Source The DruidsRonald Hutton

Taurus Fifth Term: Mars

This source names Jupiter directly: "from most benefic to most malefic, run Jupiter or Venus first through Mars or Saturn last."

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

Taurus First Term: Venus

This source names Jupiter directly: "from most benefic to most malefic, run Jupiter or Venus first through Mars or Saturn last."

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

Taurus Fourth Term: Saturn

This source names Jupiter directly: "from most benefic to most malefic, run Jupiter or Venus first through Mars or Saturn last."

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

Taurus Second Term: Mercury

This source names Jupiter directly: "from most benefic to most malefic, run Jupiter or Venus first through Mars or Saturn last."

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

Taurus Third Term: Jupiter

This source names Jupiter directly: "This term spans 14 to 22 degrees of Taurus and is ruled by Jupiter."

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

The Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in Medieval Jewish Thought

This source names Jupiter directly: "Jewish astrologers who applied Saturn-Jupiter conjunction theory to Jewish history: Abraham bar Hiyya's Megillat HaMegalleh, which held that a conjunction occurring in Pisces signaled calamity for..."

Source The Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in Medieval Jewish ThoughtJeremy Brown

Tin

This source names Jupiter directly: "antiquity, and in alchemy the metal of Jupiter, marked with a symbol resembling the numeral four."

Source Nature's Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the ElementsJohn Emsley

Virgo Fifth Term: Saturn

This source names Jupiter directly: "from most benefic to most malefic, run Jupiter or Venus first through Mars or Saturn last."

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

Virgo First Term: Mercury

This source names Jupiter directly: "from most benefic to most malefic, run Jupiter or Venus first through Mars or Saturn last."

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

Virgo Fourth Term: Mars

This source names Jupiter directly: "from most benefic to most malefic, run Jupiter or Venus first through Mars or Saturn last."

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

Virgo Second Term: Venus

This source names Jupiter directly: "from most benefic to most malefic, run Jupiter or Venus first through Mars or Saturn last."

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

Virgo Third Term: Jupiter

This source names Jupiter directly: "This term spans 17 to 21 degrees of Virgo and is ruled by Jupiter."

Source TetrabiblosClaudius Ptolemy

Zibelthiurdos

This source names Jupiter directly: "names him under the Latinized gloss Jupiter Urius rather than his own Thracian name, evidence the identification with the Greco-Roman sky father was already standard well before the Roman conquest..."

Source The Thracians (Hoddinott)R. F. Hoddinott

Showing 51 to 83 of 83 in Associated With, page 2 of 2.

Children

Apollo

Apollo's own description: "He is the son of Jupiter (Zeus) and Leto." Distinct Jupiter entity; Leto side already exists.

Source Religions of Rome, Volume 1: A HistoryMary Beard, John North and Simon Price

Mercury

Mercury's own description names him son of Jupiter and the Titan-daughter Maia; no honest edge target exists for Maia.

Source The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th editionSimon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth and Esther Eidinow (eds.)

Vulcan

Vulcan's own description article: "he was reckoned a son of Jupiter and Juno."

Source The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th editionSimon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth and Esther Eidinow (eds.)

Depicted In

Pillar of the Boatmen

Source Pillar of the Boatmen, Wikipedia

Identified with (Interpretatio)

Ame-no-Minakanushi

Ame-no-Minakanushi is the Japanese face of Jupiter, set alongside the Roman Jupiter in the shared astrological figure of the ordering center and expansive, governing meaning.

Source KojikiDonald L. Philippi (translator)

Brihaspati

Brihaspati is the Hindu face of the planet Jupiter, set alongside the Roman Jupiter and Greek Zeus in the shared astrological figure of expansion and wisdom.

Source Encyclopedia of HinduismDenise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.)

Tai Sui

Tai Sui is the deified spirit of the planet Jupiter and of the year, set alongside the Roman Jupiter in the shared astrological figure of expansive governance.

Source The Encyclopedia of TaoismFabrizio Pregadio (ed.)

Thor

Interpretatio germanica: Thunor/Thor equated with Jupiter the thunderer; dies Iovis calqued as Thunresdaeg (Thursday).

Source GermaniaPublius Cornelius Tacitus

Zeus

Interpretatio romana: Greek sky-father Zeus identified with Roman Jupiter.

Source Religions of Rome, Volume 1: A HistoryMary Beard, John North and Simon Price

Sacred to This Deity

Baalbek

Roman Heliopolis (Baalbek) built its great temple to Jupiter Heliopolitanus, syncretizing an older Baal cult with Roman Jupiter.

Source The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th editionSimon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth and Esther Eidinow (eds.)

Rome

Jupiter, head of the Capitoline Triad, was worshipped at Rome's central state temple.

Source Religions of Rome, Volume 1: A HistoryMary Beard, John North and Simon Price

Sibling Of

Juno

Juno's own description article: "the consort and sister of Jupiter."

Source The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th editionSimon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth and Esther Eidinow (eds.)

Neptune

Neptune is brother to Jupiter and Pluto, the three presiding over the heavens, the earthly world and the underworld.

Source The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th editionSimon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth and Esther Eidinow (eds.)

Worshipped In

Ancient Romans

Jupiter Optimus Maximus, Best and Greatest, headed the Capitoline triad and received the triumphs of Rome.

Source Religions of Rome, Volume 1: A HistoryMary Beard, John North and Simon Price

Capitoline Hill

Worshipped here at the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, Roman religion's largest and most important temple.

Source Religions of Rome, Volume 1: A HistoryMary Beard, John North and Simon Price

Roman Religion

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Sources

1. The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th edition

Simon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth and Esther Eidinow (eds.), Oxford University Press, 2012s.v. JupiterView the Source

2. Religions of Rome, Volume 1: A History

Mary Beard, John North and Simon Price, Cambridge University Press, 1998View the Source

Greek Religion

Walter Burkert, Harvard University Press, 1985the Indo-European sky-fatherView the Source

Encyclopedia of Religion

Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005s.v. JupiterView the Source

Essays About This Entity (3 essays)

A Roster of the Powers

Jupiter, the Roman sky god the planet is named for.

Read the Essay

One Power, Many Pantheons

Jupiter, Zeus's Roman counterpart.

Read the Essay

In the Atlas, One Planet Wears Five Faces

Five names for the largest planet, from Zeus to Brihaspati

Read the Essay

Take a Related Quiz

Gods of Ancient Rome: BeginnerIncludes a question about Jupiter.
Gods of Ancient Rome: ExpertIncludes a question about Jupiter.
Gods of Ancient Rome: IntermediateIncludes a question about Jupiter.

Comments (0)

No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.

Reader Challenges (0)

No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

Switch Atlas

The Inner World

The Civil World

The Natural World

Jupiter

Archetypes

Pantheons

Planetary Faces

Addressed By

Associated With

Children

Depicted In

Identified with (Interpretatio)

Sacred to This Deity

Sibling Of

Worshipped In

Take a Related Quiz