JUPITER. 



277 



gether the notables of the kingdom, under the title of 

 a junta, to the number of 150 members ; of whom 

 50 were to represent the spiritual, and 100 the secu- 

 lar interests of the country. Only ninety members, 

 in fact, appeared, and these without sufficient powers 

 a circumstance, however, which embarrassed him 

 little. The junta was organized June 15, 1808, under 

 the presidency of D'Aganze, minister of finance, and 

 unanimously accepted the new constitution. But 

 when king Joseph was obliged to leave Madrid, Au- 

 gust 1, a new junta was assembled, composed of the 

 principal leaders of the insurrection. It consisted at 

 first of twenty-six members. The count Florida 

 Blanca was its president. Its number was after- 

 wards fixed at forty-four. The advance of the 

 French drove this junta to Seville, whence they subse- 

 quently retired to Cadiz. Besides this central junta, 

 there was, in every province, not subjugated by the 

 French, a provincial junta, subordinate to it. See 

 Spam, 



In English, the word junto is used as a term of 

 reproach, for a cabal or faction. 



JUPITER (in Greek, Zius); son of Saturn and 

 Rhea. The Greek name of his father being Kgav*?, 

 he is sometimes called Kronion and Kronides. He 

 is the brother of Vesta, Ceres, Juno, Neptune, and 

 Pluto. In the different periods of Grecian history, 

 very different notions were entertained respecting this 

 god. The Pelasgi honoured him, from the most 

 remote times, as the symbol of nature. His oracle 

 was at Dodona, and hence he is called the Dodonian, 

 Pelasgic king. In the Orphic religion, Jupiter was 

 a physical symbol, and denoted the upper air, the 

 aether ; and Juno, the symbol of the lower air, was 

 connected with him as sister and wife. Hence the 

 following Homeric fable is explained. Juno, Nep- 

 tune, and Apollo wish to bind Jupiter ; but Thetis 

 calls the hundred-armed Briareus to his assistance, 

 who, by his mere presence, prevented the gods from 

 carrying their plot into execution (the contest of the 

 elements, in which the aether would have been in 

 danger of being overcome, had it not at length gained 

 the victory through its strength, Briareus). Thus 

 also we may explain, symbolically, the fable, that 

 Jupiter once boasted that he would let down a chain 

 from heaven, upon which all the gods might hang, 

 and still would not be able to drag him down ; but 

 he would draw them, together with the earth and sea, 

 up to himself, and then, winding the chain around 

 the top of Olympus, would leave them swinging in 

 the clouds (the combined efforts ofall the lower 

 elements are not sufficient to draw down the aether 

 from its seat). From the symbol of the aether was 

 evolved the poetic conception of Jupiter, as ruler of 

 the aether and the upper air. In reference to this, 

 he has the following surnames, the lightning-loving, 

 the cloud-collscting, the high-seated, the far-seeing, 

 the loud-thundering, the cloud-compelling. A higher 

 idea makes him the father of gods and men, as indeed 

 Homer calls him. Still this is not the idea of a 

 supreme being, the creator of the world, which first 

 arose at a later period. The more common idea, at 

 this time, was that of Jupiter Herceus, who, being 

 only the governor and protector of houses, families^ 

 and their possessions, or of a whole people and a 

 particular territory, was of course nothing more than 

 a local deity. He is also the _ruler and director of 

 the fates of men, and holds in his hand a balance, in 

 which he weighs out to each one his portion of good 

 and of evil. Two urns also stand in his palace ; in 

 one of which is evil, and the other good. Sometimes 

 he gives to mortals a lot mingled from both ; some- 

 times drawn from one alone. But, nevertheless, he 

 is himseif subject to Fate, an unknown being, 

 wrapped up in obscurity. He is the wisest of gods 



and men. Minerva sits ever at his side. lie forms 

 his purposes without the assistance of any one, and 

 to whomsoever he does not disclose them, they remain 

 inscrutable. He aids man with his counsel, and from 

 this is called MT<STJ? , the giver of good advice. He is 

 true; his promises are irrevocable and infallible. He 

 knows the fates of men. He hears those oaths of mor- 

 tals which they swear by him, and punishes perjury in 

 the severest manner. All injustice and cruelty is 

 hateful to him. Whoever will not listen to a sup- 

 pliant offender (Ixtms), and forgive him, him Jupiter 

 ( Ixirwrios) punishes. He is kind and benevolent, 

 and wishes men to be so likewise to each other. 

 Hence lie is called Jupiter Swos (the protector of 

 strangers). 



These ideas of Jupiter, which are found in Homer 

 and in the poets of his time, although as yet limited 

 by local circumstances, were in after times more fully 

 unfolded, in proportion as the intellectual cultivation 

 of the Greeks increased, and a purer philosophy 

 began to be diffused. With this are connected those 

 historical traditions, according to which Jupiter was 

 born and bred upon mount Ida, in the island of Crete; 

 for an oracle of Uranus and Terra had counselled 

 Rhea to bring forth her son upon that hill, lest he 

 should be devoured by Saturn. Different traditions 

 assign his birth to different places ; some say that it 

 occurred at Messene, others at Thebes, Olenus in 

 JEtolia, .(Egae in Achaia, upon the hill Lyctos or 

 Dictae in Crete, on mount Lycaeus in Arcadia (where 

 the cavern was shown in which his mother bore 

 him). Equally different are the accounts respecting 

 the place where he was educated. According to 

 Homer, Terra educated him, and concealed him 

 during the night, in a cave of the woody mountain 

 Argaeus ; doves brought ambrosia to him. The 

 Arcadians and Messenians say that he was educated 

 by the nymphs, who received him from the Curetes, 

 and bathed him in the fountain Clepsydra. Accord- 

 ing to other accounts, his mother intrusted the child 

 to the care of the Curetes, and these gave him to the 

 nymphs Ida and Adrastea, to nurse, whilst they 

 themselves, by a continual clashing of their shields, 

 prevented Saturn from hearing the cries of the child. 

 Instead of Jupiter, Saturn is said to have swallowed 

 a stone swathed in a goat's hide and anointed with 

 honey, which they gave him. According to others, 

 he was educated by the daughters of the Cretan 

 king Melissus, Amalthea, and Melissa, who nursed 

 him with the milk of the goat Amalthea, one of 

 whose horns Jupiter changed into the horn of plenty. 

 He grew very rapidly. Whilst he was yet but a 

 year old, he was already able to afford assistance in 

 the execution of a scheme which his mother had 

 formed against his father. From Metis (goddess of 

 wisdom), Jupiter received an emetic which he gave 

 to Saturn. The potion worked so well, that he threw 

 up all the children which he had swallowed, even to 

 the stone which he had swallowed last. This stone 

 Jupiter deposited at the foot of Parnassus, near 

 Pytho, for a memorial. He proceeded now to 

 dethrone his father. The oldest sons of Uranus and 

 Terra, the hundred-handed giants, and the Cyclops. 

 were fast bound in Tartarus, and the monstrous 

 Campe kept guard over the prisoners. Jupiter killed 

 the monster by the advice of Terra, and set free the 

 prisoners. Out of gratitude, they armed Jupiter with 

 the lightning, which, until that time, had lain con- 

 cealed in the earth ; Neptune with the trident ; and 

 to Pluto they gave a helmet which rendered the 

 wearer invisible. He then dethroned his father, and 

 castrated him with the same weapon which the former 

 had before used on Uranus for a similar purpose. 

 The Titans were not contented with this change of 

 government, and there arose a ten years' war between 



