JUPITER. 



air tlial fm-roiinds O'.ir cartli. Tbofc wlio refj;u-(lwl Iiim as 

 an animated god, or one of thofe men, wlio, for their iiluf- 

 trious aclions or ufeful inventions, were raifed to divine 

 honours, after having- conlidered him as the fovcreign of gods 

 «ind men, or as an ahnighty god, who, by the mere move- 

 ment of one of his eye-brows, made Olympus tremble, de- 

 •graded him afterwards by afcribing to him the mod unwor- 

 thy actions and the; mo*t enormous crimes ; he is, according 

 ,to them, guilty of inced and adultery, an ungrateful fon, a 

 faithlefs hufband, choleric, paffioiiate, and revengeful. 

 .■\Vhence, we may naturally inquire, did the Greeks and 

 Romans, renowned for their genius and philofophy, derive 

 •fuch ideas of their lupreme divinity ? Tliey were the poets, 

 it is faid, who gave fuch a reprefentation of their Jupiter ; 

 but they mud have borrowed it from the prevalent theology 

 of the times. Hov>-ever, the hiilory •( this god is per- 

 plexed by the number and variety of perfons, to whom the 

 name has been applied. We may obferve, that the liillory 

 of Jupiter, who was beft known, is that of him, « ho had 

 ^leen king of Crete, and this hiilory is filled up with the ad- 

 ventures of all the relt. The ancients are not agreed v.'ith 

 refpeft to the number of thofe, to whom the appellation of 

 Jupiter was applied. Diodorus Siculus reckons only two ; 

 one, who was the prince of the Atlantidae, and the other, 

 fuppofed to be his nephew, who became much more famous, 

 and was king of Crete, the hmits of whofe empire extended 

 to the extremities or Europe and Africa. Cicero admits 

 three ; two from Arcadia, one the fon of ^thcr, and father 

 of Proferpine and Bacchus, and the other, the fon of Cxlus, 

 and father of Minerva, who is faid to have invented war, and to 

 i\ive prefided over it ; and a third, the fon of Saturn, born in 

 -Crete, where, fays Cicero, his tomb is ilill to be fcen. The 

 jHoit ancient of thefe, v.lio bore the name of Jupiter, is faid 

 .to have been Jupiter Ammon of the Lybians. (See Am- 

 ilON.) Jupiter Serapis, worthipped alfo in Egypt, is very 

 .ancient. (See SEU.\ri.s.) Jupiter Belus claims high anti- 

 ■quity ; he is faid to have had a temple at Babylon, and was, 

 according to Herodotus, the Jupiter of the Affyrians. 

 (See Bki.us.) Jupiter of Thebes has been fuppofed by 

 fome to have been Ammon, and by others O.lris. (See 

 OsiRl.s.) The Scythians, tlie Ethiopians, and feveral other 

 nations, had their refpective Jupiter. Indeed, it is impofiible 

 .to give a compleat lill of all who bore that name, fince, ac- 

 cording to Varro and Eufebius, they amounted to 300. Be- 

 fides, all the gallantries that are afcribed to Jupiter of Crete, 

 and which, according to the poets, lalled 4C0 years, cannot 

 belong to one and the fame perfon. Jupiter of Crete, having 

 baniflied his father Saturn, and overthrown the Titans and 

 ■Giants, determined to make his fubjedls happy. According 

 to Hefiod, he was feven times married, and the lall 

 of his wives was Juno. His true name is faid to have been 

 " Joii," fignifying young, to which was afterwards added 

 the appellation of " Pater," father, whence was derived 

 Joupater and Jupiter. Others derive Jupiter from Juvan, or 

 Juvaiis Pater. The Greeks call this god Zeus, The deilg- 

 -natioM of father was intended to point out his fupcriority over 

 .the other gods, which was alio exprefled by the epithets 

 ." Optimus Maxiinus." Jupiter, having become mailer of 

 a vail empire, married his filler, named by the Latins Juno, 

 and by the Greeks Hera ; and as he found it difficult to go- 

 vern dominions of fo wide an extent, he diflribntcd tliem into 

 different provinces. Accordingly we learn from Diodorus 

 iJicuUis, that Atlas governed tjie frontiers of Africa. The 

 ancients alfo inform us, tliat Pluto was appointed governor of 

 the wellcrn parts of the empire of the Titans, of the Gauls, 

 and Spain ; which government was afterwards transfrrred, 

 .(ipon Pluto's death, to Mercury^ who, having fignalized 

 Vol. XJX. 



himfclf, bccnm? the groat diviiiityof lliC Cehx. Jupiter' 

 referved to himfelf the whole eall ;;.that is, Greece, the I lies. , 

 and that part of Afia whence his anccilors had fprr.ng. 

 Thofe of t!ie ancients who wrote tlie hiilory of Crete, ex- 

 tolled Jupiter for his prudence, valour, and julliee, andl')r 

 other civil and military virtues ; and from lis-re hiitoriaiu-, 

 whofe works are now loll, the Greek authors are faid to li.'.v- 

 taken the accounts they have given us of this prince. Ou- 

 preffed with old age, after many adventiires wiiich oug]|t to 

 have been afcribed to other princes who bore his name, he 

 died in Crete, where iiis tomb was, for a long time, fern 

 near Gnoffiis, one of the principal cities of the ifland, wi-h 

 this epitaph, " Here lies Zan wlio v.as ci.ded Jupiter." lie 

 lived to I 20 year;;, having reigned 62 years from the defeat 

 of the Titans and the death of Saturn. Banter reckons his 

 reign to have begun 1 842 years B.C., and to h;rv'e terminated 

 at his death 17 So years B.C. After liis deatli his domi- 

 nions were divided into feveral petty kingdoms ; of which 

 we have no account. The poets embelUftied the aixient tra- 

 ditions, probably in part true, and in part falfe, wivii a 

 great variety of fabulous circumllances, which bell fuited 

 the age and country in which they lived, and the purpofcH 

 for which they wrote ; and it would be endlefs to give a mi- 

 nute detail of the various fables which their luxuriant fancy 

 created. Perhaps, in the better and more ajjprovcd mytho- 

 logy, Jupiter might reprefent the fuprenie god, who governed 

 at once heaven, earth, and hell. (See Paufanias in Corinth, 

 c. 24.) Tlie various names by which this deified Jupiter, 

 who was the great divinity of the Pagan world, and who was 

 univerfally worihipped from Egypt to the centre of Spain, 

 was diiliiiguiflied, were derived from the places where he 

 was worihipped, or from fome circumllances that gave rife 

 to the temples, chapels and altars that were confecrated to 

 him ; but it is needlefs to recount them. Many of them 

 occur in the fequelof this article, and make feparate heads iu 

 the Cyclopedia. Of all the gods of Pagauifm, whether 

 they were derived from tl;e elements of nature or from lonie 

 eminent perfons, who were raifed to this rank, the Jupiter 

 feems to have been pre-eminent, and of courfe his worfoip 

 was the moft folemn, and attended with the gieatell variety 

 of ceremonies. The mod common victims offered to this 

 god were the Ihe-goat, the fltcep, and tlie white bull, wlioff 

 horns they took care to gild. In feveral cafes they had no 

 vidim, but made him an offering of flour, fait, and incenfc, 

 efpecially at Rome ; at Athens, they facri.lccd an ox ; and 

 when he reprefented Jupiter the avenger, the facritice ol 

 atonement prefented to him was a flie-goat. He had a tem- 

 ple at Rome, under that name, near the Capitol, wh?ie he 

 was reprefented with arrows in his hand, to denote that hs 

 was ready to execute vengeance upon crimes. Among the 

 trees, the oak and the olive were confecrated to him. None 

 worihipped iiim more religioufly, if we may believe Cicero, 

 than tlie Roman ladies; "A Matroiiis Romanis cailillima 

 cultus". fays that author. (Do Nat. Deor. 1. i.) Jupiter's 

 three orac'es, tiiat of Dodona, that of Trophonius, and that 

 which he had in Libya, were famous. See Ok.acle. . 



As mankind are directed by an internal ipirit or mind, 

 the univerfe alto is governed by an over-ruling intelligence,; 

 wliich, as the caufe and prcfervcr of all aiiiuul beings, v.as 

 c&Wciilfj.: a Zo;;. See- God. 



The heathrns in general believed that there was but one 

 fuprcme God ; but when they foafidercd this cne gnat 

 being as influencing the affairs cf the world, thi y gave h:m 

 as many different names ; and hence proceeded Uieir variety 

 of nominal gods. When Jie thundered or lightened, they 

 called him JvtjjUer ; when lie calmed tlie fea, Neptune ; whew 

 he guided their councils, Minerva ; iuid \shen he gave them 

 J 1 Uraig'k 



