Jupiter

Jupiter was the chief of the gods for the Romans, the way Zeus was for the Greeks. In fact, they must have originally been the same Indo-European sky god. They really have the same name - Jupiter comes from Ju-pater, which means "Ju-the-father" in Latin. You can see that "Ju" is basically the same name as "Zeus".

The Romans often thought of Jupiter as part of a group of three gods, Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. They seem to have gotten this idea from the Etruscans. Many Etruscan and Roman temples were dedicated to all three of these gods together.

Juno
Minerva
Venus
Zeus (Jupiter's Greek counterpart)
Main Roman religion page
Main Romans page

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