Curiosities & wonders > History of the heathen gods and heroes of antiquity, very necessary for understanding the writings of the ancients, and the modern English poets

to THE HISTORY OF
CHAP. I.
JUPITER.
JUPITER is the father and king of gods and
men. He was reprefented fitting in a throne
of ivory and gold, holding thunder in his right
hand, and, in the left, a fceptre made of cyprefs;
which wood, being free from corruption, is a fym-
bn! of eternal empire. On this fceptre fits an ea¬
gle'; either becaufe he was brought up by it, or
that heretofore that bird, fitting upon his head,
portended his reign ; or becaufe in the war againft
the giants, it brought him the thunder, and thence
was called his armour-bearer. He had golden Ihoes,
and an embroidered cloak, adorned with various
flowers, and figures of animals. Rut he ufed to be
decked differently, for the variety of his names,
and of the people among whom he was worfhip-
ped. The Lacedemonians eredled a ftatue of him
without ears; but the Cretans gave him four.
Upon holidays his face was painted with vermilion,
as the images of the other gods were fmeared with
ointments, and drefled with garlands.
There were very many Jupiters, all fpning from
a different race. Varro reckons up three hundred,
and others many more; feeing there was no nation,
almoft, which did not worlhip a Jupiter, and fup-
pofe him to have been born among themfelves.
Tully fays, that there were three remarkable of
that name ; one begot of .dither, another of Coe-
lus, and thefe born in Arcadia : The third a Cre¬
tan, Son of Saturn and Ops, the moft famous of
all; to whom therefore are ufually afcribed all that
the poets feigned about the other Jupiters,
He