Jupiter, in short, like Zeus,[1] appears not only as a sky-god, but also as a water-god and an earth-god. As Ovid[2] puts it,—
Jupiter
Rules heaven's height and the realms o' the threefold world.
Several extant works of art represent him in this triple capacity. A chalcedony scarab of Etruscan workmanship, formerly in the Dehn collection,[3] shows a naked male deity with a himation over his left arm in the act of stepping into a chariot. He grasps a thunderbolt in his right hand, a trident in his left; while at his feet is a dog. We can hardly be mistaken in regarding this singular figure as Jupiter in his threefold rôle: the thunderbolt marks him as a sky-god, the trident as a water-god, the dog (Cerberus?) and the chariot as an earth-god.[4] Again, at Albano was found a broken bas-relief of archaistic style thus described by Brunn:[5] "The central figure is a god, bearded and crowned, who by the attributes of a thunder-bolt and a trident on his right, and a cornucopia surmounted by an eagle on his left side is shown to be Jupiter conceived as lord of the sky, the sea, and the underworld." Similarly a tile found at Urbisaglia in Picenum[6] depicts Iove Iutor, "Jupiter the Helper," clad in
- ↑ Folk-lore, xv. 265–282.
- ↑ Ov. met. 15.858 f. Iupiter arces | temperat aetherias et mundi regna triformis.
- ↑ I have figured the gem in Class. Rev. xviii. 361 fig. 1 after J. Overbeck Griechische Kunstmythologie Zeus Gemmentaf. 3, 7; cp. F. Creuzer Symbolik und Mythologie³ iii. 1 pl. 6, 27, A. Furtwängler, Die antiken Gemmen pl. 18, 6.
- ↑ So Panofka ("Uber verlegene Mythen" in Abhandl. d. Berl. Akad. 1839 p. 35, pl. 1, 5) and Welcker (Griechische Götterlehre 1.162, n. 5), who call the god Zeus Triopas. Creuzer (Symbolik³ iii. 204) and Overbeck (Kunstmythologie, Zeus, p. 259) take the same view—"ein Zeus als Herrscher in den drei Reichen." Furtwängler (Ant. Gemm. ii. 87) thinks that the animal at the feet of the god is not a dog but "ein kleiner Seedrache."
- ↑ Bullettino dell' Instituto 1861 p. 86.
- ↑ I have reproduced this interesting tegula mammata in Class. Rev. xviii. 374 fig. 6 after J. Schmidt (Monumenti dell' Instituto Arch. xi. pl. 17, 1).
