The numerous epithets of Jupiter indicate the importance and variety of the god's functions in ancient Roman religion.
Capitoline cult Jupiter's most ancient attested forms of cult are those of the state. The most important of his sanctuaries in Rome were located on the Capitoline Hill (Mons Capitolinus), earlier . The Mount had two peaks, each devoted to acts of cult related to Jupiter. The northern and higher peak was the citadel (arx). On the arx was located the observation place of the augurs (the auguraculum), to which the monthly procession of the sacra Idulia was directed.Wissowa p. 108 citing Varro LL V 47and Festus p. 290 M. s.v. Idulia. On the southern peak was the most ancient sanctuary of the god, traditionally said to have been built by Romulus: this was the Temple of Jupiter Feretrius, which was restored by Augustus. The god here had no image and was represented by the sacred flintstone (silex).Wissowa p. 108 citing Paulus p. 92 M.; Servius Ad Aeneidem VIII 641. The most ancient known rites, those of the spolia opima and of the fetials, connect Jupiter with Mars and Quirinus, and are dedicated to Iuppiter Feretrius or Iuppiter Lapis.Wissowa p. 108 citing Festus p. 189 M. s.v. lapis; Polybius Historiae III 25, 6. According to Wissowa and Dumézil, Iuppiter Lapis seems to be inseparable from Iuppiter Feretrius, in whose tiny shrine on the Capitol the silex was lodged. From this earliest period, the concept of the sky god encompassed the ethical and political domain.
Lightning and rain ("Thundering Jove") was the aspect (numen) of Jupiter venerated in the Temple of Jupiter Tonans, which was vowed in 26 BCE by Augustus and dedicated in 22 on the Capitoline Hill; the Emperor had narrowly escaped being struck by lightning during the campaign in Cantabria.Suetonius, Vita Augusti 29.91, etc. See Samuel Ball Platner and Thomas Ashby, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, (London: Oxford University Press) 1929. On-line text) An old temple in the Campus Martius had long been dedicated to Juppiter Fulgens. The original cult image installed in the sanctuary by its founder was by Leochares,According to Pliny's Natural History, 39.79 a Greek sculptor of the 4th century BCE. The sculpture at the Prado is considered to be a late 1st-century replacement commissioned by Domitian. The Baroque-era restoration of the arms gives Jupiter a baton-like scepter in his raised hand.
Among Jupiter's most ancient epithets is , interpreted as referring to light (lux, lucis), specifically sunlight, by ancient and some modern scholars such as Wissowa.G. Wissowa p. 100. Etymologically, the 4th-century author Servius the Grammarian connects the epithet to the word , meaning "light."Servius the Grammarian. Commentary on the Aeneid. 9.567. Aulus Gellius, a 2nd-century CE Roman writer, claims that the titles and were applied to Jupiter because "he blesses and helps" individuals by means of "the day and the light, which are equivalent to life itself."Aulus Gellius. Attic Nights. 5.12. Another author, the 5th-century historian Macrobius, states that the Salii applied the epithet to Jupiter since he is regarded "as the source of light."Macrobius. Saturnalia. 1.15.14. Likewise, the 2nd-century grammarian Festus claims that others used to refer to Jupiter as because he was believed to be the cause of light.Festus. De Verborum Signifcatione. 82. According to Servius, the title was also used by the Oscan people to refer to Jupiter, although the epithet does not appear in known Oscan inscriptions. However, Oscan texts do contain the name (""), which may serve as a parallel to the Latin term. Another Italic parallel may derive from the Latin epithet , which was applied to the goddess Juno. More broadly, it is possible that this term is related to the title , a Gaulish epithet applied to Mars, and—according to the classicist Krzysztof Tomasz Witczak—it may connect to the Greek goddess Leucothea and the Lithuanian deity Laukpatis. The ultimate etymological source of the title is probably the Proto-Indo-European root ("light"), whence also perhaps Old Norse .
Another, similar epithet "" is mentioned in the works of the grammarian Quintus Terentius Scaurus, who writes ""Quintus Terentius Scaurus. De Orthographia. p. 2261. 62. P. Phonologically, this term is unusual, as it contradicts the otherwise well-established Proto-Italic sound shift of to . The linguist Michael Weiss notes that the scant attested forms in Old Latin showcasing all demonstrate the atypical feature after a coronal consonant, perhaps indicating that either some Latin dialects preserved the sequence after coronals or secondarily shifted to after such consonants. The manuscript version documented by Scaurus is likely corrupt, though the philologist Theodor Bergk has suggested a possible restoration based on another passage from Festus that reads "."Festus. De Verborum Significatione. P. 205. M. Utilizing this evidence, Bergk emended the text of Scaurus to "."
Despite the revision of Bergk, the philologist Martin Litchfield West still states that the text is only "half-intelligible," though he translates the sequence as "When you thunder, Leucesios, they tremble before thee, all who..." Alternatively, the historian Georges Dumézil translates the text as "When you thunder, oh God of light, they tremble before you! All gods beneath you have heard you thunder!" Based on this passage, Dumézil argues that the name most likely referred to the flash of the thunderbolts or lightning, rather than the concept of light itself as suggested by later Roman authors. West suggests that the epithet may more connect to an Indo-European tradition in which the thunderbolt of a sky god is cast as something to be feared. In support of this theory, West notes a verse from the Rigveda in which it is stated that "all things tremble" before the storm deity Indra and a passage from the Iliad in which it is stated that even the sea god Oceanus "has fear of the lightning of great Zeus."Rigveda. 8.97.14.Homer. Iliad. 21.198.
To the same atmospheric complex belongs the epithet : while the ancient erudites thought it was connected to lightning, it is in fact related to the opening of the reservoirs of rain, as is testified by the ceremony of the , meant to propitiate rainfall and devoted to Jupiter.Petronius Satyricon 44. and the ritual of the lapis manalis, the stone which was brought into the city through the Porta Capena and carried around in times of drought, which was named .Paulus s. v. p. 94 L 2nd; p. 2 M; Tertullian Apologeticum 40. Other early epithets connected with the atmospheric quality of Jupiter are Pluvius, Imbricius, Tempestas, Tonitrualis, tempestatium divinarum potens, Serenator, SerenusApuleius DeMundo 37; cf. Iuppiter Serenus CIL VI 431, 433; XI 6312; Iuppiter Pluvialis CIL XI 324.Iuppiter Serenus has been recognized as an interpretatio of the Phocean god Ζευς Ούριος: F. Cenerini above p. 104 citing Giancarlo Susini "Iuppiter Serenus e altri dei" in Epigraphica 33 1971 p. 175-177. and, referring to lightning, ,Vitruvius I 2, 5; CIL I 2nd p. 331: sanctuary in the Campus Martius, dedicated on October 7 according to calendaries. Fulgur Fulmen,CIL XII 1807. later (as nomen agentis) Fulgurator, Fulminator.CIL VI 377; III 821, 1596, 1677, 3593, 3594, 6342 cited by Wissowa above p. 107. The high antiquity of the cult is testified by the neuter form Fulgur and the use of the term for the bidental, the lightning well dug on the spot hit by a lightning bolt.Festus s. v. provorsum fulgur p. 229 M: "...; itaque Iovi Fulguri et Summano fit, quod diurna Iovis nocturna Summani fulgura habentur." as cited by Wissowa above p. 107.
Agriculture and war A group of epithets has been interpreted by Wissowa (and his followers) as a reflection of the agricultural or warring nature of the god, some of which are also in the list of eleven preserved by Augustine.Augustine De civitate Dei (hereafter CD) VII 11. Pecunia is tentatively included in this group by Wissowa above p. 105 n. 4. Cfr. Augustine CD VII 11 end and 12.Frugifer CIL XII 336. Apuleius De Mundo 37. The agricultural ones include Opitulus, Almus, Ruminus, Frugifer, Farreus, Pecunia, Dapalis,Cato De Agri Cultura 132; Paulus s. v. p. 51 M. Epulo.CIL VI 3696. Augustine gives an explanation of the ones he lists which should reflect Varro's: Opitulus because he brings opem (means, relief) to the needy, Almus because he nourishes everything, Ruminus because he nourishes the living beings by breastfeeding them, Pecunia because everything belongs to him.Wissowa above p. 105 n. 4 understands Pecunia as protector and increaser of the flock.
Dumézil maintains the cult usage of these epithets is not documented and that the epithet Ruminus, as Wissowa and Latte remarked, may not have the meaning given by Augustine but it should be understood as part of a series including Rumina, Ruminalis ficus, Iuppiter Ruminus, which bears the name of Rome itself with an Etruscan vocalism preserved in inscriptions, series that would be preserved in the sacred language (cf. Rumach Etruscan for Roman). However many scholars have argued that the name of Rome, Ruma, meant in fact woman's breast. Diva Rumina, as Augustine testifies in the cited passage, was the goddess of suckling babies: she was venerated near the ficus ruminalis and was offered only libations of milk.N. G. L. Hammond & H. H. Scullard (Eds.) The Oxford Classical Dictionary Oxford 1970 s. v. p. 940. Here moreover Augustine cites the verses devoted to Jupiter by Quintus Valerius Soranus, while hypothesising Iuno (more adept in his view as a breastfeeder), i. e. Rumina instead of Ruminus, might be nothing else than Iuppiter:
In Dumézil's opinion Farreus should be understood as related to the rite of the confarreatio the most sacred form of marriage, the name of which is due to the spelt cake eaten by the spouses, rather than surmising an agricultural quality of the god: the epithet means the god was the guarantor of the effects of the ceremony, to which the presence of his flamen is necessary and that he can interrupt with a clap of thunder.Servius IV 339.
The epithet Dapalis is on the other hand connected to a rite described by Cato and mentioned by Festus.Cato De Agri Cultura 132; Festus s. v. daps, dapalis, dapaticum p. 177-8 L 2nd. Before the sowing of autumn or spring the peasant offered a banquet of roast beef and a cup of wine to Jupiter; it is natural that on such occasions he would entreat the god who has power over the weather, however Cato's prayer is one of sheer offer and no request. The language suggests another attitude: Jupiter is invited to a banquet which is supposedly abundant and magnificent. The god is honoured as summus. The peasant may hope he shall receive a benefit, but he does not say it. This interpretation finds support in the analogous urban ceremony of the epulum Iovis, from which the god derives the epithet of Epulo and which was a magnificent feast accompanied by flutes.Epulo CIL VI 3696.
Epithets related to warring are, in Wissowa's view, Iuppiter Feretrius, Iuppiter Stator, Iuppiter Victor and Iuppiter Invictus.Wissowa above p. 105-108. Feretrius would be connected with war by the rite of the first type of spolia opima which is in fact a dedication to the god of the arms of the defeated king of the enemy that happens whenever he has been killed by the king of Rome or his equivalent authority. Here too Dumézil notes the dedication has to do with being regal and not with war, since the rite is in fact the offer of the arms of a king by a king: a proof of such an assumption is provided by the fact that the arms of an enemy king captured by an officer or a common soldier were dedicated to Mars and Quirinus respectively.