The gate of the year

Marble statue of Jupiter, from Smyrna (modern Izmir, Turkey), dating to about 250 A.D., now in the Louvre Museum, Paris.
The Roman god Iuppiter, generally rendered as Jupiter, is represented according to an iconographic pattern typical of the Greek Zeus. During the Republican and Imperial ages, in fact, the Roman divinities were identified with the Greek gods and goddesses with which they shared a certain number of traits, thus acquiring at the same time their iconography, the characteristics and the mythological attributes. The Roman gods originally lacked the mythological wealth characterizing the gods of Olympus, and were venerated mostly in aniconic form, in the woods, near springs or on mountaintops. As evidence of this attitude, it can be recalled Varro’s statement, according to which the ancient Romans “for more than a hundred and seventy years, worshipped the gods without an image. And if this custom could have remained till now, the gods would have been more purely worshipped” (Augustine, City of God, IV, 31).
The name Iuppiter derives from the Indo-European *dyeu- (“bright sky”), with the adjunct of the appellation pater (“father”), signifying a god manifesting himself in the heavenly light. Iuppiter was worshipped as a common divinity by all the ancient inhabitants of Latium, and had a cult place on the summit of the Alban Hills, near the city of Alba Longa, where every year were held celebrations in his honor, called Feriae latinae. In Rome, the god played always the role of a supreme deity, the sovereign god, master of the meteorological phenomena (as Iuppiter tonans or fulgur), and was the central figure of the oldest divine triad, together with Mars and Quirinus. Only after his identification with the Greek Zeus, Iuppiter took on more explicitly anthropomorphic and personal appearances. His cult was entrusted to the Flamen Dialis, the most prominent priest in ancient Rome. During the historical period, his official title was that of Iuppiter Optimus Maximus, with which he was venerated on the Capitolium. As god of heaven, Iuppiter protected all the Ides (at the middle of each month), the “days of full light”, so called because they were the days of full moon (Schilling-Guittard 2005a).

[Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jupiter_Smyrna_Louvre_Ma13.jpg]




Male Symbols

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Marble statue of Jupiter, from Smyrna (modern Izmir, Turkey), dating to about 250 A.D., now in the Louvre Museum, Paris. The Roman god Iuppiter, generally rendered as Jupiter, is represented according to an iconographic pattern typical of the Greek Zeus. During the Republican and Imperial ages, in fact, the Roman divinities were identified with the Greek gods and goddesses with which they shared a certain number of traits, thus acquiring at the same time their iconography, the characteristics and the mythological attributes. The Roman gods originally lacked the mythological wealth characterizing the gods of Olympus, and were venerated mostly in aniconic form, in the woods, near springs or on mountaintops. As evidence of this attitude, it can be recalled Varro’s statement, according to which the ancient Romans “for more than a hundred and seventy years, worshipped the gods without an image. And if this custom could have remained till now, the gods would have been more purely worshipped” (Augustine, City of God, IV, 31). The name Iuppiter derives from the Indo-European *dyeu- (“bright sky”), with the adjunct of the appellation pater (“father”), signifying a god manifesting himself in the heavenly light. Iuppiter was worshipped as a common divinity by all the ancient inhabitants of Latium, and had a cult place on the summit of the Alban Hills, near the city of Alba Longa, where every year were held celebrations in his honor, called Feriae latinae. In Rome, the god played always the role of a supreme deity, the sovereign god, master of the meteorological phenomena (as Iuppiter tonans or fulgur), and was the central figure of the oldest divine triad, together with Mars and Quirinus. Only after his identification with the Greek Zeus, Iuppiter took on more explicitly anthropomorphic and personal appearances. His cult was entrusted to the Flamen Dialis, the most prominent priest in ancient Rome. During the historical period, his official title was that of Iuppiter Optimus Maximus, with which he was venerated on the Capitolium. As god of heaven, Iuppiter protected all the Ides (at the middle of each month), the “days of full light”, so called because they were the days of full moon (Schilling-Guittard 2005a). [Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jupiter_Smyrna_Louvre_Ma13.jpg]