By Jove, Biggles!: Life of Captain W.E.Johns

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The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus stood on the Capitoline Hill in Rome. [63] Jupiter was worshiped there as an individual deity, and with Juno and Minerva as part of the Capitoline Triad. The building was supposedly begun by king Tarquinius Priscus, completed by the last king ( Tarquinius Superbus) and inaugurated in the early days of the Roman Republic (September 13, 509 BC). It was topped with the statues of four horses drawing a quadriga, with Jupiter as charioteer. A large statue of Jupiter stood within; on festival days, its face was painted red. [64] In (or near) this temple was the Iuppiter Lapis: the Jupiter Stone, on which oaths could be sworn.

Optimus is a superlative formed on ops [ability to help], the ancient form is optumus from opitumus, cf. the epithet Opitulus [The Helper].

5. “My giddy aunt!”

Jupiter Solutorius, a local version of Jupiter worshipped in Spain; he was syncretised with the local Iberian god Eacus. Venus and the Graces, by Jove!’ exclaimed Sir Sampson.” (From Marriage, 1818, by Susan Edmonstone Ferrier.) G. Wissowa advanced the hypothesis that Semo Sancus is the genius of Jupiter. [208] W. W. Fowler has cautioned that this interpretation looks to be an anachronism and it would only be acceptable to say that Sancus is a Genius Iovius, as it appears from the Iguvine Tables. [212] Henri Le Bonniec Le culte de Cérès á Rome Paris 1958 p. 348, developing Jean Bayet Les annales de Tite Live (Titus Livius AUC libri qui supersunt) ed. G. Budé vol. III Paris 1942 Appendix V pp. 145–153. Jupiter Centumpeda, literally, "he who has one hundred feet"; that is, "he who has the power of establishing, of rendering stable, bestowing stability on everything", since he himself is the paramount of stability.

The Ides (the midpoint of the month, with a full moon) was sacred to Jupiter, because on that day heavenly light shone day and night. [87] Some (or all) Ides were Feriae Iovis, sacred to Jupiter. [c] On the Ides, a white lamb ( ovis idulis) was led along Rome's Sacred Way to the Capitoline Citadel and sacrificed to him. [88] Jupiter's two epula Iovis festivals fell on the Ides, as did his temple foundation rites as Optimus Maximus, Victor, Invictus and (possibly) Stator. [89] Nundinae [ edit ] Shakespeare used this expression in Love’s Labors Lost in 1588: “By Jove, I always took three threes for nine.”More recently Dario Sabbatucci has given a different interpretation of the meaning of Stator within the frame of his structuralistic and dialectic vision of Roman calendar, identifying oppositions, tensions and equilibria: January is the month of Janus, at the beginning of the year, in the uncertain time of winter (the most ancient calendar had only ten months, from March to December). In this month Janus deifies kingship and defies Jupiter. Moreover, January sees also the presence of Veiovis who appears as an anti-Jupiter, of Carmenta who is the goddess of birth and like Janus has two opposed faces, Prorsa and Postvorta (also named Antevorta and Porrima), of Iuturna, who as a gushing spring evokes the process of coming into being from non-being as the god of passage and change does. In this period the preeminence of Janus needs compensating on the Ides through the action of Jupiter Stator, who plays the role of anti-Janus, i.e. of moderator of the action of Janus. [161] Epithets denoting functionality [ edit ] A temple was dedicated to the goddess afterwards on the Palatine, testifying to her high station in the Roman mind. When Hieron of Syracuse presented a golden statuette of the goddess to Rome, the Senate had it placed in the temple of Capitoline Jupiter among the greatest (and most sacred) deities. [277] [278] It is unclear whether Minerva was a war goddess and / or a craftswoman before her identity was merged with Athena. Beard, North & Price (1998), pp.32–36, Vol. 1: the consecration made this a "Sacred Spring" (ver sacrum). The "contract" with Jupiter is exceptionally detailed. All due care would be taken of the animals, but any that died or were stolen before the scheduled sacrifice would count as if already sacrificed. Sacred animals were already assigned to the gods, who ought to protect their own property.