In ancient Roman religion and myth, Jupiter (Latin Iuppiter) or Jove is the king of the gods, and the god of the sky and thunder. He is the equivalent of Zeus in the Greek pantheon.
Jupiter may have begun as a sky-god, concerned mainly with wine festivals and associated with the sacred oak on the Capitol. If so, he developed a twofold character. He received the spolia opima and became a god of war; as Stator he made the armies stand firm and as Victor he gave them victory.[1] As the sky-god, he was the first resort as a divine witness to oaths.[2]
Jupiter's primary sacred animal is the eagle,[3] which held precedence over other birds in the taking of auspices.[4]
Jupiter was the central deity of the early Capitoline Triad of Roman state religion, comprising Jupiter, Mars and Quirinus, who each possessed some measure of the divine characteristics essential to Rome's agricultural economy, social organisation and success in war.[5] He retained this position as senior deity among the later Capitoline Triad of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva.
In the Greek-influenced tradition, Jupiter was the brother of Neptune and Pluto. Each of them presided over one of the three realms of the universe: sky, land, and underworld. Jupiter remained Rome's chief official deity throughout the Republican and Imperial eras, until displaced by the religious hegemony of Christianity.
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The Romans believed that Jupiter granted them supremacy because they had honored him more than any other people had. Jupiter was "the fount of the auspices upon which the relationship of the city with the gods rested."[6] He personified the divine authority of Rome's highest offices, internal organization, and external relations. His image in the Republican and Imperial Capitol bore regalia associated with Rome's ancient kings and the highest consular and Imperial honours.[7]
The consuls swore their oath of office in Jupiter's name, and honored him on the annual feriae of the Capitol in September. To thank him for his help, and to secure his continued support, they offered him a white, castrated ox (bos mas) with gilded horns.[8] A similar 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.[9]
Jupiter's association with kingship and sovereignty was reinterpreted as Rome's form of government changed. Originally, Rome was ruled by kings; after the monarchy was abolished and the Republic established, religious prerogatives were transferred to the patres, the patrician ruling class. Nostalgia for the kingship (affectatio regni) was considered treasonous. Those suspected of harboring monarchical ambitions were punished, regardless of their service to the state. In the 5th century BC, the triumphator Furius Camillus was sent into exile after he drove a chariot with a team of four white horses (quadriga)—an honour reserved for Jupiter himself. After the Gallic occupation ended and self-rule was restored, Manlius Capitolinus took on regal pretensions, and was executed as a traitor by being cast from the Tarpeian Rock. His house on the Capitoline was razed, and it was decreed that no patrician should ever be allowed to live there.[10] Capitoline Jupiter finds himself in a delicate position: he represents a continuity of royal power from the Regal period, and confers power on the magistrates who pay their respects to him; at the same time, he embodies that which is now forbidden, abhorred, and scorned.[11]
During the Conflict of the Orders, Rome's plebeians demanded the right to hold political and religious office. During their first secessio, similar to a general strike, they withdrew from the city and threatened to found their own.[12] Plebeians eventually became eligible for all the magistracies and most priesthoods, but the high priest of Jupiter (Flamen Dialis) remained the preserve of patricians.[13]
Jupiter was served by the patrician Flamen Dialis, the most senior of the flamines, a college of fifteen priests in the official public cult of Rome, along with his wife, the Flaminica Dialis. The couple were required to marry by the exclusive patrician ritual confarreatio, which included a sacrifice of spelt bread to Jupiter Farreus (from far, "wheat, grain").[14] The Flaminica had her own duties, and presided over the sacrifice of a ram to Jupiter on each of the nundinae, the "market" days of a calendar cycle comparable to a week.[15]
The office of Flamen Dialis was circumscribed by several unique ritual prohibitions, some of which shed light on the nature of the god himself.[16] For instance, the flamen may remove his clothes or apex (his pointed hat) only when under roof, in order to avoid showing himself naked to the sky—that is, "as if under the eyes of Jupiter" as god of the sky or heaven. Every time the Flaminica saw a lightning bolt, Jupiter's distinctive instrument, she was prohibited from carrying on with her normal routine until she placated the gods.[17]
Some privileges of the flamen of Jupiter may reflect regal origin: he had the use of the curule chair,[18] and was the only priest (sacerdos) who was preceded by a lictor[19] and had a seat in the senate.[20] Other regulations concern his ritual purity, and his separation from the military function, as he was forbidden to ride a horse or see the army outside the sacred boundary of Rome (pomerium). Although he served the god who embodied the sanctity of the oath, it was not religiously permissible (fas) for the Dialis to swear an oath.[21]
The fetials were a college of twenty men devoted to the religious administration of the international affairs of the state.[22] Their task was to preserve and apply the fetial law (ius fetiale), a complex set of procedures aimed at ensuring the protection of the gods in Rome's relations with foreign states. Iupiter Lapis is the god under whose protection they act and whom the chief fetial (pater patratus) invokes in the rite concluding a treaty.[23] If a declaration of war ensues, the fetial calls upon Jupiter, Juno (or Janus),[24] Quirinus, and the heavenly, earthly and chthonic gods to witness the violation of the ius. He can then declare war within thirty-three days.[25]
The action of the fetials falls under Jupiter's jurisdiction as the divine defender of good faith. Among the symbols of their office are the silex, the stone used for the sacrifice, and later the sceptre, both taken from the temple of Iuppiter Feretrius; and the vervain or sacred herbs (sagmina) from the nearby arx (citadel).[26]
A dominant line of scholarship has held that Rome lacked a body of myths in its earliest period, or that this original mythology has been irrecoverably obscured by the influence of the Greek narrative tradition.[27] After the Hellenization of Roman culture, Latin literature and iconography reinterpreted the myths of Zeus in depictions and narratives of Jupiter. In the legendary history of Rome, Jupiter is often connected to kings and kingship.
Jupiter was depicted as the twin of Juno in a statue at Praeneste that showed them nursed by Fortuna Primigenia.[28] An inscription, however, also from Praeneste, says that Fortuna Primigenia was Jupiter's first-born child.[29] Jacqueline Champeaux sees this contradiction as the result of successive different cultural and religious phases in which a wave of influence coming from the Hellenic world made of Fortuna the daughter of Jupiter. The childhood of Zeus is an important theme in Greek religion, art and literature, but there are only rare or dubious depictions of Jupiter as a child.[30]
Faced by a severe spell of bad weather that endangered the harvest during one early Spring king Numa resorted to the scheme of asking the advice of the god by evoking his presence. He succeeded through the help of Picus and Faunus whom he had caught prisoners though the stratagem of making them drunk. The two gods through a charm evoked Jupiter who was forced to come down onto Earth at the Aventine (hence named Iuppiter Elicius according to Ovid). After Numa had skilfully avoided the requests of the god for human sacrifices Jupiter agreed to condescend to his request of knowing the means by which lightningbolts are averted, asking only for the substitutions Numa had mentioned: an onion head, hairs and a fish. Moreover Jupiter promised that at the sunrise of the following day he would give to Numa and the Roman people sure pawns of the imperium. The following day after three throwing three lightningbolts in a clear sky Jupiter sent down from heaven a shield. Since this shield had no angles Numa named it ancile and because in it resided the fate of the imperium had many copies made of it in order to disguise the real one. He asked the smith Mamurius to make the copies and gave them to the Salii. As only reward Mamurius expressed the wish that his name were sung in the last of their carmina.[31] Plutarch gives a slightly different version of the story: he writes that the occasion of the miracolous dropping of the shield was a plague and does not say it was linked with the Roman imperium.[32]
King Tullus had throughout his reign sported a scornful attitude towards religion: his temperament was warlike and he disregarded religious rites and piety. After conquering the Albans by means of the duel between the Horatii and Curiatii he destroyed Alba Longa and deported its inhabitants to Rome. According to Livy's narration prodigia (a rain of stones) happened on Mons Albanus as a consequence of the fact that deported Albans disregarded their ancestral rites linked to the sanctuary of Jupiter: a voice was also heard requesting the Albans to perform the religious rites. Thereafter a plague ensued and at last the king himself was affected by a lingering decease. As a consequence the warlike character of Tullus broke down and he resorted to religion and superstitious practises, even of the petty type. At last he found a book by Numa in which a secret rite on how to evoke Iuppiter Elicius was recorded: the king set in to perform it, though since he executed the rite in an improper way (irritually) the god was so enraged as to throw a lightningbolt which caused the burning down of the king's house and the death of Tullus.[33]
While he was approaching Rome, town to which Tarquin was heading in order to try his good luck in politics after his unsuccessful attempts in his native Tarquinii, an eagle descended onto his cart and removed his hat, flew in circles around it a few times screaming and then replaced the hat on his head and flew away. Tarquin's wife Tanaquil interpreted this as a sign that he would become king, on the grounds of the bird, the quarter of the sky from which it came, the god who had sent it and the fact it had touched his hat, an item of clothing placed on a man's most noble part, the head.[34]
The sacrificial victims (hostiae) offered to Jupiter were the ox (castrated bull), the lamb (on the Ides, the ovis idulis) and the wether (on the Ides of January).[35] The animals were required to be white. The question of the sex of the lamb is debated as while the lamb is generally supposed to be a male, on the festival of vintage opening the flamen Dialis sacrificed a ewe lamb.[36] This rule seems to have seen many exceptions, as the sacrifice of a ram on the Nundinae by the flaminica Dialis shows.
During one of the crises of the Punic Wars, Jupiter was offered every animal born that year (see ver sacrum).[37]
The temple to Jupiter Optimus Maximus stood on the Capitoline Hill. 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, on September 13 509 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. [38] In or near the same temple was the Iuppiter Lapis or the Jupiter Stone, on which oaths could be sworn.
Jupiter's Capitoline Temple probably served as the architectural model for his provincial temples. When Hadrian built Aelia Capitolina on the site of Jerusalem, a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus was erected in the place of the destroyed Temple in Jerusalem.
There were two temples in Rome dedicated to Iuppiter Stator: the first one was vowed and built in 294 BC by Marcus Atilius Regulus after the third Saamnite War. It was located on the Via Nova, below the Porta Mugonia, ancient entrance to the Palatine .[39] The annalistic tradition has attributed to Romulus its first founding.[40] Wissowa opines at best there may have been an earlier fanumshrine, as the cult of the god is attested epigraphically.[41] E. Aust claims June 27 given by Ovid is the day of the dedication of the temple after its restoration by Augustus on the grounds of the rule of the dedication on the Ides for the temples of Jupiter. This assumption might find support in the calendar of Philocalus which gives on the Ides of January (13): Iovi Statori c(ircenses) m(issus) XXIV. This date may be the original day of the dedication of the temple.[42]
A second temple of Iuppiter Stator was built and dedicated by Quintus Caecilus Metellus Macedonicus after his triumph in 146 BC near the Circus Flaminius. It was connected to the restored temple of Iuno Regina with a porch (porticus Metelli).[43]
Iuppiter Victor had a temple dedicated by Quintus Fabius Maximus Gurges during the third Samnite War in 295 BC: its location is unknown, it might be on the Quirinal on which an inscription reading D]iovei Victore[44] has been found or on the Palatine according to the Notitia in the Liber Regionum (regio X) reading: aedes Iovis Victoris. Either of them might have been dedicated either on April 13 or June 13, days of Iuppiter Victor and of Iuppiter Invictus respectively in Ovid's Fasti.[45]
Inscriptions of the imperial age have revealed the existence of an otherwise unknown temple of Iuppiter Propugnator on the Palatine.[46]
The Ides (the day that was the midpoint of any given month) was sacred to Jupiter, because on that day the heavenly light shines uninterrupted day and night.[47] Some, or possibly all Ides were Feriae Iovis, sacred to Jupiter.[48] On the Ides, a white lamb (ovis idulis) was led along Rome's Sacred Way to the Capitoline Citadel and sacrificed to him.[49] Jupiter's two epula Iovis festivals fell on the Ides, as did his temple foundation rites as Optimus Maximus, Victor, Invictus and possibly Stator.[50]
The nundinae recurred every ninth day. They divided the calendar into a market cycle analogous to a week. They gave the people of the countryside (pagi) the opportunity to hold markets in town and to be informed of religious and political edicts, which were posted in public for three consecutive days. According to tradition, these festival days were instituted by king Servius Tullius.[51] The high priestess of Jupiter (Flaminica Dialis) sanctioned their religious nature by conducting the sacrifice of a ram to Jupiter.[52]
During the Republican era, more fixed holidays on the Roman calendar were devoted to Jupiter than to any other deity.[53]
Festivals of viniculture and wine belonged to Jupiter, as grapes were particularly susceptible to vagaries of the weather.[54] Dumézil describes wine as a "kingly" drink with the power to inebriate and exhilarate, analogous with Vedic Soma. Three Roman festivals were connected with viniculture and wine.
The rustic Vinalia altera of August 19 asked for good weather for ripening the grapes before harvest.[55] When the grapes were ripe,[56] a sheep was sacrificed to Jupiter and the flamen Dialis cut the first of the grape harvest.
The Meditrinalia of October 11 marked the end of the grape harvest; new wine was pressed, tasted and mixed with old wine[57] to control fermentation. In the Fasti Amiternini this festival is assigned to Jupiter. Later Roman sources invented a goddess Meditrina, probably to explain the name of the festival.[58]
At the Vinalia urbana of April 23 the new wine was offered to Jupiter.[59] Large quantities of it were poured into a ditch near the temple of Venus Erycina, which was located on the Capitol.[60]
The Regifugium ("King's Flight")[61] on February 24 has often been discussed in connection with the Poplifugia on July 5, which was a day holy to Jupiter.[62] The Regifugium followed immediately on the festival of Iuppiter Terminus (Jupiter of Boundaries) on February 23. Later Roman antiquarians misinterpreted the Regifugium as marking the expulsion of the monarchy, but the "king" of this festival may have been the priest known as the rex sacrorum, who ritually enacted the waning and renewal of power associated with the New Year, March 1 on the old Roman calendar.[63] A temporary vacancy of power, construed as a yearly "interregnum", took place between the Regifugium on February 24 and the New Year on March 1, when the lunar cycle was thought to coincide again with the solar cycle and the incertitudes of change during the two winter months are over.[64] Not all scholars discount the traditional political significance of the day.[65]
The Poplifugia ("the Routing of Armies"[66]), a day sacred to Jupiter, may similarly mark the second half of the year, when before the Julian calendar reform the months were named numerically, Quintilis (the fifth month) to December (the tenth month).[67] The Poplifugia was a "primitive military ritual" for which the adult male population assembled for purification rites, after which they ritually dispelled foreign invaders from Rome.[68]
There were two festivals called epulum Iovis, "Feast of Jove". One was held on September 13, 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 November 13.[69] In the 3rd century BC, the epulum Iovis became similar to a lectisternium.
The most ancient Roman games followed after one day (considered a dies ater, "black day") the two Epula Iovis of September and November. The games of September were named Ludi Magni and originally were not held every year, later they became the yearly Ludi Romani [70] and were held in the Circus Maximus after a procession from the Capitol. Their establishment was attributed to Tarquinius Priscus[71] and linked to the cult of Jupiter on the Capitol Romans themselves acknowledged analogies with the triumph which Dumézil think can be explained with the common Etruscan origin: the magistrate in charge of the games dressed like the triumphator and the pompa circensis looked like a triumphal procession. Wissowa and Mommsen argue that they were a detached part of the triumph on the above grounds,[72] conclusion which Dumézil rejects.[73]
The Ludi Plebei took place in November in the Circus Flaminius.[74] Mommsen argued that the epulum of the Ludi Plebei was the model of that of the Ludi Romani, but Wissowa finds the evidence for this assumption insufficient.[75] The Ludi Plebei were probably established in 534 BC. The belonging of these to the cult of Jupiter is testified by Cicero In Verrem V 36 and Paulus s.v. ludi magni p. 122 M.
The feriae of December 23 were devoted to a major ceremony in honour of Acca Larentia or Larentina in which some of the highest religious authorities participated, probably including the Flamen Quirinalis and the pontiffs. The Fasti Praenestini marks the day as feriae Iovis, as does Macrobius.[76] It is unclear whether the rite of parentatio was itself the reason of the festival of Jupiter or if this was another festival that happened to fall on the same day. Wissowa excludes their identity, as Jupiter and his flamen might not be involved in any way with the Underworld or the deities of death, let alone be present to a funeral rite held at a grave site.[77]
The Latin name Iuppiter originated as a vocative compound of the Old Latin vocative *Iou and pater ("father") and came to replace the Old Latin nominative case *Ious. Jove[78] is a less common English formation based on Iov-, the stem of oblique cases of the Latin name. Linguistic studies identify the form *Iou-pater as deriving from the Indo-European vocative compound *Dyēu-pəter (meaning "O Father Sky-god"; nominative: *Dyēus-pətēr).[79]
Older forms of the deity's name in Rome were Dieus-pater ("day/sky-father"), then Diéspiter.[80] The 19th-century philologist Georg Wissowa asserted these names are conceptually and linguistically connected with Diovis and Diovis Pater, comparing the analogous formations Vedius-Veiove, fulgur Dium as opposed to fulgur Summanum (nocturnal lightningbolt) and flamen Dialis based on Dius dies.[81] The ancients later regarded them as entities separate from Jupiter. The terms are allied in etymology and semantics (dies meaning daylight and Dius daytime sky), but linguistically are different words. Wissowa cites here also the epithet Dianus as noteworthy.[82][83] Dieus is the etymological equivalent of ancient Greece's Zeus and of the Teutonics' Ziu, gen. Ziewes. The Indo-European deity thus would be the god from which Zeus and the Indo-Aryan Vedic Dyaus Pita are derived.
The Roman practice of swearing by Jove to witness an oath in law courts[84] is the origin of the common expression "By Jove!" still used as an archaism today. The name of the god was also adopted as the name of the planet Jupiter, and the adjective "jovial" originally described those born under the planet of Jupiter.[85] who were supposed by nature to be jolly, optimistic, and buoyant in temperament.
Jove was the original namesake of Latin forms of the weekday now known in English as Thursday[86] but originally called Iovis Dies in Latin, giving rise to jeudi in French, jueves in Spanish, joi in Romanian, giovedì in Italian, dijous in Catalan, Xoves in Galcian, Joibe in Friulian, Dijóu in Provençal.
The epithets of a Roman god indicate his theological qualities. The study of these epithets must take into consideration their origin, i.e. the historical setting of the source of the given epithet.
Some epithets describe a particular aspect of the god, or one of his functions.
Some epithets of Jupiter indicate his association with a particular place. Epithets found in the provinces of the Roman Empire may identify Jupiter with a local deity or site (see syncretism).
In addition, many of the epithets of Zeus can be found applied to Jupiter, by interpretatio romana. Thus, since the hero Trophonius, of Lebadea in Boeotia, is called Zeus Trophonius, this can be represented in English, as it would be in Latin, Jupiter Trophonius. Similarly, the Greek cult of Zeus Meilichios appears in Pompeii as Jupiter Meilichius. Except in representing actual cultus in Italy, this is largely nineteenth century usage; modern work will distinguish between Jupiter and Zeus.
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Marcus Aurelius (head covered) |
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Practices and beliefs
Imperial cult · festivals · ludi |
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Priesthoods
College of Pontiffs · Augur |
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Jupiter · Juno · Neptune · Minerva |
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Other deities
Janus · Quirinus · Saturn · |
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Related topics
Roman mythology |
Marcus Terentius Varro and Verrius Flaccus[97] were the main sources on the theology of Jupiter as well as archaic Roman religion in general. Varro was acquainted with the libri pontificum ("books of the Pontiffs") and their archaic classifications.[98] 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. Although a work of Christian apologetics, The City of God thus affords glimpses of Varro's theological system and of authentic Roman theological lore in general. According to Augustine,[99] Varro drew on the pontiff Mucius Scaevola's tripartite theology:
Georg Wissowa stressed the peculiarity of Jupiter as the only case in Indo-European religions in which the original heavenly god had preserved his name as well as his identity and prerogatives.[101] In his view Jupiter is the god of Heaven and keeps on its original conceptual identification with the sky in the conscience of Latin poets as his name is used as a synonym of sky.[102] In this respect he would be different from his Greek equivalent Zeus, who is considered a personal god, warden and dispenser of skylight. His name reflects this idea as it is a derivate of the Indo-European word for bright, shining sky. His residence is to be found on the tops of the hills of Rome and of mountains in general. As elsewhere in Italy his cult is present in Rome in high locations, on the top of the Hills.[103] Jupiter has taken up atmospheric qualities, being the wielder of lightning and the master of weather. However Wissowa does acknowledge that Jupiter is not just a naturalistic heavenly supreme deity but he is in continuous communication with man by means of thunder and lightning and the flight of birds, i.e. the auspices he sends. Through his vigilant watch he is also the guardian of public oaths and compacts, the guarantor of good faith in the State cult.[104] The cult of Jupiter was common to the Italic people under the name forms Iove, Diove (Latin) and Iuve, Diuve (Oscan, in Umbrian only Iuve, Iupater in the Iguvine Tables).
Wissowa considered Jupiter also a god of war and battle and of agriculture, beside his political role as guarantor of good faith public and private as Iuppiter Lapis and Dius Fidius respectively. His view is grounded on the sphere of action of the god, who intervenes in battle and influences the outcome of the harvest through weather.[105]
In Georges Dumézil's view the theology of Jupiter, as well as that of his homologous sovereign gods in the religion of other Indo-European ethnicities, offers an instance of evolution from a naturalistic supreme uranic god identified also by his name as Heaven, to a sovereign god who is wielder of lightningbolt, master and protector of the community. In other words, of the passage from a sheerly naturalistic approach to the world of the divine to one that is mainly a social and political one.[106]
In Vedic religion Dyaus Pitar remained confined to his distant, removed, apparently inactive role and the place of sovereign god was occupied by Varuna and Mitra. In Greek and Roman religion instead the homonymous gods *Diou-, Δι(digamma)-, underwent a shift and an enrichment that made of them also atmospheric deities, who by their mastership on thunder and lightning expressed themselves and made their will known to the community. In Rome, Jupiter sent also signs to the leaders of the state under the form of auspices, i. e. through birds besides thunder. The art of augury was considered regal by ancient Romans: by sending his signs Jupiter, the sovereign of Heaven communicates his advice to his terrestrial colleague, the king (rex), or his successor magistrates. The encounter of the heavenly and political, legal aspect of the deity are well represented by the prerogatives, privileges, functions and taboos proper to his flamen, the flamen Dialis and his wife, the flaminica Dialis.
Dumézil maintains Jupiter is not in himself a god of war and agriculture even though his action and interest may extend to these spheres of human behaviour. His view is based on the methodological assumption that the correct criterion in studying a god's nature is not primarily to consider his field of action but instead the quality, way and features of his action. Consequently the analysis of the type of action performed by Jupiter in all the domains in which he operates allows him to understand that Jupiter is a sovereign god who may act in the field of politics as well as agriculture and war in his capacity as such, i.e. in a way and with the features proper to a king: sovereignty is expressed through the two aspects of absolute, magic power epitomised and represented by Vedic god Varuna and lawful right by Vedic god Mitra.[108] However sovereignty is highly peculiar in that it allows action in every field, other it would lose its essential quality. As a further proof of his view Dumézil cites the story of Tullus Hostilius, the most belligerent of the Roman kings, who was killed by Juppiter with a lightningbolt, fact which purports he did not enjoy the god's favour.
Varro's definition of Jupiter as the god who has under his jurisdiction the full blown stage of expression of every being (penes Iovem sunt summa) reflects indeed the sovereign nature of the god as opposed to the jurisdiction of Janus, god of passages and change, on their beginning (penes Ianum sunt prima).[109]
The so-called Archaic Triad is a theological structure or system made up by the gods Jupiter, Mars and Quirinus. It was first described by Wissowa,[110] and the concept developed further by Dumézil. The three-functional hypothesis of Indo-European society advanced by Dumézil holds that in prehistoric times society was divided into three classes— the priests, the warriors, and the craftsmen and merchants—which had as their religious counterpart the divine figures of the sovereign god, the warrior god and the civil god. The sovereign function, embodied by Jupiter, entailed omnipotence, thence a domain extended over every aspect of nature and life. The colour of the sovereign function is white.
The three functions are interrelated with one anther and overlap to some extent: particularly the sovereign function, even though being essentially religious in nature, is involved in many ways in areas pertaining to the other two. So Jupiter is the almighty magic player in the founding of the Roman state and the fields of war, agricultural plenty, human fertility and welfare.
The Capitoline triad was introduced to Rome by the Tarquins. Scholars think it might have been an Etruscan or even local creation, on the basis of Vitruvius' treatise on architecture, in which the three deities are associated as the most important. It is possible that the Etruscans gave particular relevance to Menrva (Minerva) as a goddess of destiny beside the royal couple Uni (Juno) and Tinia (Jupiter).[111] In Rome, Minerva later took on more military connotations under the influence of Athena Pallas (Polias). Dumézil argues that with the advent of the Republic, Jupiter becomes the only king of Rome, no longer just the first of the great gods.
The relation of Jupiter to Janus is problematic. Varro defines Jupiter as the god who has potestas ("power") over the causes by which anything happens in the world. Janus, however, has the privilege of being invoked first in rites since in his power are the beginnings of things (prima).[112]
The Latins considered Saturn to be the predecessor of Jupiter. Saturn had reigned in Latium during a mythical Golden Age that was reenacted every year on the festival of the Saturnalia. Saturn also retained primary functionality in matters of agriculture and money. Unlike the Greek tradition of Cronus and Zeus, the usurpation of Saturn as king of the gods by Jupiter was not viewed by the Latins as violent or hostile. Saturn continued to be revered in his temple at the foot of the Capitol Hill, which continued to have the alternative name Saturnius into the time of Varro.[113]
The abstract personification Fides ("Faith, Trust") was one of the most ancient gods associated with Jupiter. As guarantor of public faith, Fides had her temple on the Capitol, in the close proximity of that of Capitoline Jupiter.
Dius Fidius is sometimes considered a theonym for Jupiter,[114] and sometimes a separate entity, known in Rome also as Semo Sancus Dius Fidius. Wissowa argued that while Jupiter is the god of the Fides Publica Populi Romani as Iuppiter Lapis, by whom the most important oaths are sworn, Dius Fidius is a peculiar deity established for the everyday use, and was in charge of the protection of good faith in private affairs. Dius Fidius would thus correspond to Zeus Pistios.[115] The association with Jupiter may be a matter divine filiation; some scholars see him as a form of Hercules.[116]) Both Jupiter and Dius Fidius are wardens of oaths and wielders of lightning bolts, and both require an opening in the roof of their temples.[117]
The functionality of Sancus occurs consistently within the sphere of fides, oaths and respect for contracts and of the divine sanction guarantee against their breach. Wissowa suggested that Semo Sancus is the Genius of Jupiter,[118] but the concept of the Genius of a deity is a development of the Imperial period.[119]
Some aspects of the ritual of the oath for Dius Fidius, such as the proceedings under the open sky or in the compluvium of private residences and the fact the temple of Sancus had no roof, may suggest that the oath sworn by Dius Fidius predated that for Iuppiter Lapis or Iuppiter Feretrius.[120]
Augustine quotes Varro as explaining the Genius as "the god who is in charge and has the power of the generating everything" and "the rational spirit of everyone, thence everybody has his own". Augustine concludes that Jupiter should thence be considered the Genius of the universe.[121]
The god of nocturnal lightning has been interpreted as an aspect of Jupiter, either a chthonic manifestation of the god or an independent god of the underworld. A statue of Summanus stood on the roof of the Temple of Capitoline Jupiter, and Iuppiter Summanus is one of the epithets of Jupiter.[122] G. Dumézil sees the opposition Dius Fidius Summanus as complementary interpreting it in the light of his theory of an original ambiguity of the sovereign god, exemplified in the opposition of the couple Mitra-Varuna in Vedic religion.[123] The complementarity of the epithets is shown in inscriptions often found on a puteal or bidental reciting either fulgur Dium conditum[124] or fulgur Summanum conditum.[in English?][125] This fact tallies also with the supposed etymology of Summanus as deriving from sub and mane, i.e. denoting the time before the morning.
Iuppiter had an association with Liber through his epithet of Liber, association which has not yet been fully explained by scholars owing to the scarceness of early documentation.
In the past it has been maintained that Liber was nothing else than a progressively detached hypostasis of Jupiter and consequently that the festivals of vintage were to be attributed only to Iuppiter Liber.[126] Such a hypotheseis has been rejected by Wissowa as groundless even though he himself has been a supporter of the jovian origin of Liber.[127] Olivier de Cazanove[128] opines it is very difficult to admit that Liber, who is present in the most ancient calendars, that of Numa, in the Liberalia and in the month of Liber at Lavinium[129] be a derivation from another deity. Moreover such a derivation would find support only in epigraphic documents mainly from the Osco-Sabellic area: the association Iuppiter Liber is testified first in Oscan and Sabellic territory:[130] Wissowa sets the position of Iuppiter Liber within the frame he draws of an agrarian Jupiter. The god had a temple under this name also on the Aventine in Rome which was restored by Augustus and dedicated on September 1. Here the god was sometimes named Liber[131] sometimes Libertas.[132] Wissowa opines the relationship should be sought in the concept of creative abundance through which the supposedly severed Liber might have been connected[133] to Greek god Dionysos, even though both deities might not have been since the beginning related to viticulture.
Other scholars opine that there was no other Liber than a god of wine since the most ancient times.[134] O. de Cazanove[135] has argued that the domain of the sovereign god Jupiter was that of sacred, sacrificial wine (vinum inferium[136]), while that of Liber and Libera was confined to profane wine (vinum spurcum[137]), obtained through two distinct fermentation processes. The offer of wine to Liber was made possible by naming the mustum (grape juice) stored in amphors sacrima.[138] Sacred wine was obtained by the natural fermentation of the juice of grapes that were absolutely free from flaws of any type, either religious (e. g. those striken by lightningbolts, come into contact with corpses or wounded people, coming from an undressed grapryard) or other, by only cutting it with old wine, profane wine might be obtained through many kinds of manipulation (e.g. by adding honey mulsum, using raisins passum, by boiling defrutum) however the sacrima used at the time of the offer to the two gods for the conservation of grapeyards, vessels and wine itself after the pressing[139] was obtained only by pouring the juice into amphors.[140] The mustum was considered spurcum dirty, and as such not usable in sacrifices.[141] The amphor, itself not an item of sacrifice, allowed the presentation of the content on atable or could added to asacrifice; this happened at the auspicatio vindamiae for the first grape[142] and for ears of corn of the praemetium on a dish (lanx) at the temple of Ceres.[143]
Dumézil on the other hand sees the relationship between Jupiter and Liber as grounded in the social and political relevance of the two gods, who were both considered patrons of freedom: the Liberalia of March were since the earliest times the occasion for the ceremony of the wearing of the toga virilis or libera, which marked the acquiring of the status of adult citizens by the youngsters. Augustine relates that these festivals had a particularly obscene character: a phallus was taken to the fields on a cart and then back in triumph to town. In Lavinium they lasted a whole month during which everybody uttered baudry jokes. The most honest matronae were supposed to publicly crown the phallus with flowers in order to ensure a good harvest and repeal the fascinatio (evil eye).[144] In Rome in the temple of the couple Liber Libera were placed representations of the sex organs. The couple in fact presided over the male and female components of generation and the liberation of the semen.[145] This complex of rites and beliefs shows the divine couple's jurisdiction extended over fertility in general and not only that of grapes. The etymology of Liber (archaic form Loifer, Loifir) was explained by Émile Benveniste as formed on the IE theme *leudh- plus suffix -es-: its original meaning is "the one of germination, he who ensures the sprouting of crops".[146]
The relationship of Jupiter with freedom was however a common belief of all the Roman people as is proved by the dedication of the Mons Sacer to the god after the first secession of the plebs. Later inscriptions also show the unabated popular belief in Jupiter as bestower of freedom in the imperial era.[147]
Scholars have always been puzzled by Ve(d)iove (or Veiovis or Vedius) and unwilling to discuss his identity, claiming our knowledge of this god is insufficient.[148] Most do agree though that Veiove is a sort of anti-Iove or an underworld Jupiter, on the basis of the information given by Gellius,[149] who states his name is made up by adding the prefix ve, here denoting deprivation or negation, added to Iove , whose name in turn Gellius supposes to be rooted in verb iuvo, I benefit. Dario Sabbatucci has stressed the feature of bearer of instability and of antithesis to the cosmic order of this god, who threatens the kingly power of Jupiter as Stator and Centumpeda and whose presence occurs side by side with Janus's on January 1. Preller ha dsuggested the hypothesis Veiovis might be the sinister double of Jupiter.[150]
In fact the god, under the name Vetis, is placed in the last case (no. 16) of the outer rim of the Piacenza Liver, before Cilens (Nocturnus) who ends (or in the Etruscan vision begins) the disposition of the gods. In Martianus Capella's division of Heaven he is to be found in region XV (together with the dii publici): as such he numbers among the infernal or antipodal gods. The location of his two temples in Rome, near those of Jupiter (one on the Capitoline Hill, in the low between the arx and the Capitolium, between the two groves where the asylum founded by Romulus stood, the other on the Tiber Island near that of Iuppiter Iurarius, later also known as temple of Aesculapius)[151] may be significant in this respect along with the fact that he is considered the father[152] of Apollo, perhaps because he was depicted carrying a bunch of arrows. He is also considered to be the unbearded Jupiter.[153] The date of his festivals seems to support the same complex, as they fall on January 1,[154] March 7[155] and May 21,[156] the first date being the recurrence of the Agonalia dedicated also to Janus, that were celebrated by the king with a sacrifice of a ram. The question of the sacrifice to the god too is debated: Gellius states capra she goat, some scholars though think it should be a ram. This sacrifice happened rito humano which may mean with the rite proper to a human sacrifice.[157] Gellius concludes his passage stating this god is one of those who receive sacrifices in order to obtain their refraining from causing harm.
The arrow was an ambivalent symbol as it was used in the ritual of the devotio: the general who vowed himself had to stand on an arrow.[158] It is on the grounds of the character of the arrow that Gellius considers Veiove as a god who must receive worship to obtain his abstention from doing harm, along with Robigus and Averruncus.[159] Maurice Besnier has remarked that a temple to Iuppiter was vowed by praetor Lucius Furius Purpureo before the battle of Cremona against the Celtic Cenomani of Cisalpine Gaul.[160] An inscription found at Brescia in 1888 shows that Iuppiter Iurarius was worshipped there[161] and one found on the south tip of Tiber Island in 1854 that there was a cult to the god on the spot.[162] Besnier speculates that L. Furius had evocated the chief god of the enemy and built a temple to him in Rome outside the pomerium. The Fasti Praenestini too on January 1 record the festivals of Aesculapius and Vediove on the Island while Ovid in the Fasti speaks of Jupiter and his grandson.[163] Livy records that in 192 BC duumvir Q. Marcus Ralla dedicated to Jupiter on the Capitol the two temples promised by L. Furius Purpureo, one of which was that vowed during the war against the Gauls.[164] Besnier would accept a correction to Livy's passage proposed by Jordan so as to read aedes Veiovi in aedes duae Iovi 's stead. Such a correction though concerns the temples dedicated on the Capitol and does not bear on the question of the dedication of the temple on the Island, which is the vexed point since the place is attested as dedicated to the cult of Iuppiter Iurarius and also of Vediove in the Fasti Praenestini epigraphically and to Jupiter in Ovid's words. It looks that the two gods may have been seen as equivalent: Iuppiter Iurarius is a sort of awesome and vengeful god, parallel to the Greek Zeus Orkios, the avenger of perjury.[165]
Victoria was a personified entity strictly connected to Iuppiter Victor in his role of bestower of military victory. Jupiter as the sovereign god was naturally considered as having the power of conquering anybody and anything in a supernatural, magic wise, wherefore his contribution to military victory was different from that of Mars, god of military valour . Victoria appears first on the coins of the first Punic War on the reverse of coins representing Venus, driving the quadriga of Jupiter, with her head crowned and with the palm in her hand. Sometimes she is also represented walking and carrying a trophy.
A temple was afterwards dedicated to the goddess on the Palatine, testifying her high station in the Romans's mind. When Hieron of Syracuse presented a golden statuette of the goddess to Rome the senate had it placed in the temple of Capitoline Jupiter, among the highest and most sacred deities.[166]
Even though Victoria played a foremost role in the religious ideology of the late Republic and of the Empire she is not attested in earlier times. A function similar to hers might have been played by the little known Vica Pota.
Juventas and Terminus were the gods that according to legend[167] refused to be exaugurated and to leave their sites on the Capitol when the construction of the temple of Jupiter was undertaken. Thence they had to be reserved a sacellum within the new temple. Their stubbornness was considered a good omen as it would guarantee youth, stability and safety to Rome on its site.[168] This legend is generally thought by scholars to reflect their strict connexion with Jupiter. In Fact an inscription has been found near Ravenna reading Iuppiter Ter.,[169] showing Terminus is nothing else than an aspect of Jupiter, i. e. the affinity between the boundary stone and the god.
Terminus is usually considered the god of boundaries public and private and he is so portrayed in literature. The religious value of the boundary stone is well expounded by Plutarch[170] who ascribes to king Numa the construction of temples to Fides and Terminus and the delimitation of the Roman territory. Ovid gives a vivid description of the rural rite at the boundary of fields of neighbouring peasants on February 23, the day of the Terminalia.[171] On that day the Roman pontiffs and magistrates held a ceremony at the sixth mile of the Via Laurentina, ancient border of the Roman ager, which preserved a religious value.
However this festival marked in fact the end of the year and as such was linked to time more directly than to space, fact testified by Augustine's apologetical discussion of the role of god Janus in respect to endings.[172] Dario Sabbatucci and has underlined the temporal affiliation of Terminus of which a reminder should be found in the rite of the regifugium.[173]
G. Dumézil on the other hand views the function of this god as associated to the legalistic aspect of the sovereign function of Jupiter: Terminus would be the counterpart of Vedic minor sovereign god Bagha, who oversees the just and fair division of goods (flock) among citizens.[174]
Along with Terminus Iuventas (also known as Iuventus and Iuunta, archaic) should represent an aspect of Jupiter, as the legend of her refusal to leave the Capitol Hill shows. Her name has the same root of Juno (from Iuu-, young, youngster) and in fact the ceremonial litter bearing the sacred goose of Juno Moneta stopped before her sacellum on the festival of the goddess. Later she was identified with Greek Hebe. The fact that Jupiter himself is strictly related with the concept of youth is shown by his epithets Puer, Iuuentus and Ioviste (interpreted as the youngest by some scholars). Dumézil remarked the presence of the two minor sovereign deities Bagha and Aryaman beside Vedic sovereign gods Varuna and Mitra, though more associated with Mitra: this couple would be reflected in Rome in Terminus and Iuventas. Aryaman is in fact the god of the young soldiers: similarly the function of Iuventas is that of protectress of the iuvenes, the novi togati of the year, who are required to go and offer a sacrifice to Jupiter on the Capitol[175] and also the Roman soldiers, function later attributed to Juno. King Servius Tullius in reforming the Roman social organisation required that every adolescent upon entering the class of the adults to offer a coin to the goddes of Youth.[176]
In Dumézil's analysis the function of Iuventas, personification of youth, was thence be the control of the entranc e of young men in society and their protection til they are in the age of iuvenes or iuniores, i. e. of serving the state as soldiers.[177]
A temple of Iuventas was vowed in 207 BC by consul Marcus Livius Salinator and dedicated in 191 BC [178]
Arnobius citing Caesius states the Etruscan Penates were named Fortuna, Ceres, Genius Iovialis and Pales, but also that according to Nigidius Figulus they included those of Jupiter, Neptune, of the infernal gods and of mortal men.[179] This complex conception is reflected in Martianus Capella 's division of Heaven found in book I of his work De Nuptiis Mercurii et Philologiae who places the Di Consentes Penates in region I along with the Favores Opertanei, in region V Ceres and Genius, in region VI Pales, Favor and Genius again, in region VII Secundanus Pales, in region XI Fortuna and Favor Pastor. The disposition of these divine entities and their repetitions in different locations might be due to the fact that Penates belonging to different categories (heavenly in region I, earthly in region V, human and of the underworld) or are intended. Favor(es) may be an Etruscan male equivalent of Fortuna.[180]
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