The European Sky -God. 26
o
title of like significance, •z'/^. Diespiter, " Day- Father." On a Praenestine cista'^ of the fifth or sixth century B.c a bearded male figure standing next to Juno {Ivno) is called Diespiter {Diesptr); and thenceforward the name is used by Latin authors as a synonym of Iiipiter? As Jupiter was Liicetiiis, so his consort Juno was Lncetia or Liicina? In their capacity of light-god and light- goddess they not only brought daylight to men, but also controlled the changes of the moon. The Ides of all the months, i.e. the days of the full moon, were sacred to Jupiter; the Kalends, i.e. the days of the new moon, to Juno.'* And the day on which the full moon occurred was known as "the Pledge of Jupiter" {lovis fidncid),^ because the night being as bright as day gave as it were a promise of day's renewal.
From Jupiter as sky-god to Jupiter as weather-god was not a far cry. For the old popular phrase sub divo, " under the open sky," poets of the Augustan age wrote
"^ Monumenti dalP Inst. vi. pi. 54, Anttali delP Inst. Arch. 1861 p. 151 ff.
2 So in an old formula ap. Liv. i. 24. 8 (with variants dies luppiter, Diesitippiter, etc.), also in Plaut. capt. 909, Pocn. "j^o, 869, Hor. od. !• 34- 5> 3- 2. 29, and often in post- Augustan writers. Seneca {Indus de morte Claitdii 9. 4) distinguishes Diespiter from Jupiter and describes him as "the son of Vica Pota." This goddess, whose name was by some thought to signify conquest and possession (Cic. de legg. 2. 28 vincendi . . . potiundi), by others eating and drinking (Arnob. adv. nat. 3. 25 Vita et Potua, cp. Varro ap. Aug. de civ. Dei 4. Ii Potina . . . Educa and ap. Non. Marc. p. 108 Merc. Edusae . . . Potinae), was perhaps an Italian Mairoiva. {? *Vici-pota cp. *5eyU(T-7rdr7?s). If so, her son, like the offspring of Zeus and Persephone (Clem. K\&Ti. protr. 2. 16 p. 14 Potter, Arnob. adv. nat. 5. 20 f.), would be chthonian in character. Should we therefore restore Dis pater for Diespiter in Senec. liid. 9. 4 ? The two names were liable to confusion : see Pauly- Wissowa Heal-encyclopddie der classischen Altertiimsioissenschaft v. 479.
^ Mart. Cap. 2. 149. See further Roscher Lex. ii. 578 ff.
Macrob. i. 9. 16, i. 15. 14 ff., Ov.fast. i. 55 f., Auson. ed. 12. i f., Plut. quaestt. Rom. 24, lo. Lyd. de mens. p. 47, 6 ff. Wiinsch.
- Macrob. i. 15. 15. The ritual of the Ides is described by W. Warde
Fowler The Roman Festivals pp. 120, 157, 198, 215, 241, G. Wissowa Jieligion und Kultus der Rbmer pp. loi, 103, 444 n. 3.
