Jupiter summary

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Below is the article summary. For the full article, see Jupiter.

Jupiter, or Jove, Chief god of ancient Rome and Italy. Like his Greek counterpart, Zeus, he was worshiped as a sky god. With Juno and Minerva he was a member of the triad of deities traditionally believed to have been introduced into Rome by the Etruscans. Jupiter was associated with treaties, alliances, and oaths; he was the protecting deity of the republic and later of the reigning emperor. His oldest temple was on the Capitoline Hill in Rome. He was worshiped on the summits of hills throughout Italy, and all places struck by lightning became his property. His sacred tree was the oak.

Venus Summary

Venus, ancient Italian goddess associated with cultivated fields and gardens and later identified by the Romans with the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite. Venus had no worship in Rome in early times, as the scholar Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 bce) shows, attesting that he could find no mention

Roman religion Summary

Roman religion, beliefs and practices of the inhabitants of the Italian peninsula from ancient times until the ascendancy of Christianity in the 4th century ce, during a period known as Classical antiquity. The Romans, according to the orator and politician Cicero, excelled all other peoples in the

myth Summary

Myth, a symbolic narrative, usually of unknown origin and at least partly traditional, that ostensibly relates actual events and that is especially associated with religious belief. It is distinguished from symbolic behaviour (cult, ritual) and symbolic places or objects (temples, icons). Myths are