Jupiter and his adherents fought from Olympus, the Titans from the opposite mountain of Othrys. Thenceforward the victor shared the empire of the world with his two brothers, Poseidon and Hades. The former he made ruler of the ocean and waters, the latter he set over the infernal regions. This new order of things, however, was by no means at once securely established. The resentment of Gea led her to produce a younger and most powerful son, the great Typhœus, a monster with a hundred fire-breathing heads, whom she sent to attack the thunder-bearer. A great battle took place which shook heaven and earth, but Jupiter, by means of his crushing thunderbolts, at length overcame his antagonist, and cast him into Tartarus, or, according to others, buried him beneath Mount Ætna, in Sicily, whence at times he still breathes out fire and flames toward heaven.
“Some tell of another rebellion of the giants against the dominion of Jupiter. From the plains of Phlegra they sought to scale and storm Olympus, by piling, through their great strength, Pelion on Ossa; but after a bloody battle they too were overpowered, and shared the fate of the Titans. After that no hostile attack ever disturbed the peaceful ease of the inhabitants of Olympus.”
The character of the acknowledged chief of their deities, who is supposed against all opposition to control and rule the universe, is not drawn, in the earlier myths, as one of untarnished excellence. Yet the good predominates, and he is confessed a beneficent ruler. He was, in time, reverenced as Jupiter-pater, the source of all life in nature, and the almoner of abundant blessings for his obedient subjects and children. All the phenomena of the air were supposed to proceed from him. “He gathers and disperses the clouds, casts forth the lightnings, stirs up his thunder, sends down rain, hail, snow, and fertilizing dew upon the earth. With his ægis he produces storm and tempest, and at his pleasure stills the warring elements.”
“The ancients, however, were not content to regard Jupiter as merely a personification of nature. They regarded him also from an ethical stand-point, from which side he appears far more important and awful. They saw in him a personification, so to speak, of that principle of undeviating order and harmony, which pervades both the physical and moral world. The strict, unalterable laws, by which he rules the community of the gods, form a strong contrast with the capricious commands of his father Cronos.”
Hence Jupiter is regarded as the protector and defender of political order. From him the kings of the earth receive their sovereignty and their rights; to him they are responsible for a conscientious fulfillment of their duties. Those of them who pervert justice he never fails to punish. He also presides over their assemblies, keeps watch over their orderly course, and suggests to them wise counsels.
One of the most important props of political society is the oath; and accordingly he watches over oaths, and punishes perjury.
He also watches over boundaries, and accompanies the youths of the land as they go out to defend the borders of their country, and gives them victory over the invaders. All civil and political communities enjoy his protection; but he watches particularly over that association which is the basis of the political fabric—the family.
The head of every household was, therefore, in a certain sense, the priest of Jupiter, and presented his offerings in the name of the family. As Jupiter hospitalis, he protects the wanderer, and punishes those who violate the ancient laws of hospitality by mercilessly turning the helpless stranger from their door.
The superstition of early times saw in all physical phenomena manifestations of the divine will, and this, their earliest and chief deity, was naturally regarded as the source of inspiration, revealing his will to men in the thunder, lightning, flight of birds, and dreams. He not only had his oracle at Dodona, which was the most ancient in Greece, but also revealed the future by the mouth of his favorite son, Apollo. In hours of real trouble and grief, Achilles and other Achaians prayed to Jupiter, not only as irresistible in might, but also as just and righteous.
Yet others, and possibly the same persons under other circumstances, and in different moods, represented him as partial, unjust, fond of pleasure, changeable in his affections, and unfaithful in his love.