15th March: Jupiter

The ides of every month were sacred to the god Jupiter in Ancient Rome, so, for the Ides of March, here are 10 facts about the god Jupiter:

1. Jupiter was the king of the gods - his equivalent in Greek mythology was Zeus. The Romans had more holidays dedicated to Jupiter than to any other god.
2. As well as the ides being sacred to him, a white lamb would be sacrificed to him on the nundinae, the "market" days of a calendar cycle, the equivalent of once a week, by his high priestess.
3. Jupiter had a high priest, or Flamen Dialis, who had a seat in the senate, and there were a number of things he was forbidden to do, which included taking his clothes off, or even his hat off, outdoors so Jupiter would never see him naked; he was not allowed to ride a Horse or see the army outside the sacred boundary of Rome, or to come into contact with corpses, funerals, funeral fires, or raw meat.
4. The Romans believed Jupiter granted them supremacy because they had honoured him more than any other race had done.
5. An alternative name for Jupiter was Jove, which is where the expression, "By Jove!" came from, when the consuls swore their oath of office in Jupiter's name. The name Jupiter evolved from The Latin name Iuppiter, meaning "Father Sky God".
6. Jupiter was the son of Saturn and the brother of Neptune and Pluto. When Saturn died, the world was divided up, apparently amicably, by the brothers. Pluto got the underworld, Neptune the sea and Jupiter the sky.
7. Jupiter was married to Juno but was a notorious womaniser. His legitimate children by Juno were Ares, Hebe and Hephaestus, but in addition he fathered Apollo and Diana (by Leto), Mercury (by Maia), Venus (by Dione), Hercules (by Alceme), Perseus (by Danae), Helen of Troy, Castor and Pollux (by Leda) and Minerva (who sprang out of his head).
8. The symbols of Jupiter are the Lightning bolt and the eagle. Roman coins often depicted an eagle with a lightning bolt in its talons. His sacred tree was the Oak.
9. Jupiter's name was adopted as the name of the planet Jupiter; the adjective "jovial" originally described people born under the planet. They were reputed to be jolly, optimistic, and buoyant in temperament.
10. In Latin languages, the word for Thursday, eg. jeudi in French, jueves in Spanish, are also derived from Jupiter.