Jupiter
Jupiter was the chief of the gods for the Romans, the way Zeus was for the Greeks and Thor was for the Germans. In fact, they must have all originally been the same Indo-European sky god. Jupiter and Zeus really have the same name - Jupiter comes from Ju-pater, which means "Ju-the-father" in Latin. You can see that "Ju" is basically the same name as "Zeus". And all three of these gods use thunder and lightning as their weapons.
The Romans often thought of Jupiter as part of a group of three gods, Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. They seem to have gotten this idea from the Etruscans. Many Etruscan and Roman temples were dedicated to all three of these gods together.
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(a project)
Juno
Minerva
Venus
Zeus (Jupiter's Greek counterpart)
Main Roman religion page
Main Romans page
Cite this page: Carr, Karen. "" Kidipede - History for Kids. 2012. http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/romans/religion/jupiter.htm
