Monday, May 12, 2008

God of the Week: Jupiter


While wandering the Louvre yesterday, it occurred to me that I don't know who at least half of the Greek and Roman gods were, nor about two-thirds of the saints. Since I hope to teach Western Civ in the future, I'm going to start trying to learn them. I'll post some here too, since I like to think of this blog as just a more obscene version of Wikipedia!

Jupiter

There are a number of statues of Jupiter in the Louvre. Apparently, he was one of the patron gods in the Roman state. Jupiter presided over law and order and held the same position in the Roman pantheon as Zeus did in the Greek pantheon. He was the King of the Gods in Rome.

He was the father of Mars, and therefore the grandfather of Romulus and Remus. In the Capitoline Triad- the three supreme dieties in Rome, worshipped in a temple on the Capitoline Hill- Jupiter was the head god, along with his wife (and sister) Juno and daughter Minerva.

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