Classical Theology.—Vi.

CLASSICAL THEOLOGY . —VI .

LONDON , SATURDAY , DECEMBER 8 , 1859 .

JUPITER AND JULY ( CONTINUED ) . WiKi ) d _ 6 po _) is often mentioned in the pages of Livy . By the oracle of Jupiter Nicephorus , Hadrian was assured of his being promoted to the empire ; tho name signifying the " giver of victory . " There is on the Feroniance monetce , or coinage of Nero , an image of that emperor ,

sitting on his throne , bearing in his right hand thunder , and in his left hand a spear ; the coin bears this superscription , " Jupiter Custos . " Domitian gained the epithet of Nero Calvus ; the pair of Neros may be saicl to be in the safe keeping of a third personJupiter Stygiuswho some call Plutobut ivhose

, , , Latin name is "Dis , " the king of Hell and Wealth , as Tully writes , because all the " natural powers and faculties of the earth are under his direction , as all tilings go to the earth and proceed thence / ' in ivhich philosophy be it observed wo can have no thorough agreement , even though ive quote Virgil . *

When victory was on Jupiter ' s side in his wars against the giants , the goddess of Victory obtained from him this important prerogative for her mother—that no oath should ever be violated with impunity which was sworn among the gods by her name . Any god breaking an asseveration made by Styx the daughter of Oceanus was at once banished from

the nectar and table of the gods for a term of a year and nine days . We gather also from either Virgil , Lucian , Plato , Pausanias , or Hesiod in his Tlteogonia , that it was not unusual for Styx to refuse all office on transporting- a soul to Pandemonium . At any rate , Charon takes not all promiscuously who come to him ; the souls of the dead , whose bodies are unburied , he ivill by no persuasion convev over his ferry .

" Centum errant amies , volitant hiec littora circum : " " A hundred years they wander on the shore , At length , their penance done , he wafts them o ' er . " But be it understood , not before they pay him first his fare , which is at least an obolus . How this antique ferryman , who—¦ "Looked iu yearsyet in his were seen

, years A youthful vigour and autumnal green—" ever passed over Styx with Nero in his boat , ive make a matter of no consideration . Shadows were not allowed to cross the lake unassisted , or by right of toll or freedom . Be this as it may , there is another passage over Phlegethon , whose waves are fireinto which hell ' s three judges saw

, Nero fall . It is thus we hear of the messengers of some of his murdered and man gled victims , a cloud of witnessesthe blood which cries from earth to heaven , and from heaven to earth—of his mother , of his wife , of his master , of St . Paul—and of Christians and Jews not a few , and many another to whose screams of dying agony he played his

fiddle , while Rome was burning . Some archaeologists have described the tomb of Jupiter as being extant in the Isle of Crete . Jupiter was no doubt a Cretan king , whose mother was called Ops ; or , in other words , ho was born , or was of tho earth ; that is , he was made a god , the first god of the Cretans , and therefore called

Jupiter and the son of Saturn . Ho was said to be educated on Mount Ida , in Crete , where ho was brought forth ; or was found by the Curetcs and Corybantes ; some say by the nymphs , and others again affirm by Amaltliasa , the dau ghter * By Jupiter Virgil understood the ' ' soul of the world ; " which is not only diffused through all human bodies , but , as it ivere , through all the parts of the universe

: — " The heaven ' s and earth ' s compacted frame . The flowing waters and the starry flame , And both the radiant lights—one common soul Inspires , and feeds and animates the whole ; This active mind , infused throughout all space , . Unites and mingles . with the mighty mass . "

of Melissus , the sovereign of these places , who , with her sister Melissa , fed him on goat ' s milk and wild honey . Now here is- an evident parallel to Moses being brought up by Pharoah ' s daughter . The name of Amaltbtea was quite enough , too , to give rise to the Cornus Amalthsese , " the cegis and the cctpra as zodiacal signsand in like manner the name

, of Melissa was in itself a sufficient basis on which to ground the fable of her having been tho discoverer of honey " or its use as a food , and also of herself being turned into a bee . They add , besides , that he gave afterwards the horn of the goat which suckled him to his nurses , with tlie mystical privilege , that whosoever possessed it should obtain immediately

everything they requested or even desired ; also that the goat dying of old age was by him restored to life again . Pharoah was the ' general title of tlie kings of Egypt , and so Jupiter Avas exclusively synonymous of the honour conferred upon the gods translated into heaven ; indeed . the name of Jupiter became so honouredor rather coveted by

, posterity , that all kings and princes were styled " Jovcs , " and their queens called " Junones , " from the name of the deity ' s wife , which appellations we may interpret , in their primary sense , to mean a god ancl a goddess . With a still closer regard to historical research , our opinion is that Melissus was either himself the Jupiter of Crete in questionor that the

, latter married one of tho king ' s daughters ancl reigned in his father-in-law ' s stead . At all events this king or Jupiter , according to Eusebius , was contemporary with the patriarch Abraham . It is recorded that the Lord came down to see

the city of Babel ancl the tower " whose top was to reach unto heaven . " When Jupiter had heard a report concerning the great wickedness and impiety of men , it is said that he descended from heaven . He entered the residence of Lycaon , king of Arcadia , aad announced himself to bo a gocl . We have all heard Sydney Smith ' s joke about the South Sea islanders

who keep a " cold clergyman" on the sideboard . Lycaon , king of Arcadia , was possibly about as well informed as a South Sea savage , and had no more knowledge of a gocl when he saw one , than tbat much humbler personage Balaam ' s ass . But it ivould appear that the monarehs of those favoured times were not deprived of their anthropophagical

prerogative ; and to serve up a roasted domestic at a banquet was a little tit-bit of pleasantry quite agreeable to the august palate —in fact a dish lit to set before a stranger , or even a god . Jupiter , however , abhorring the disgusting barbarity ' of his host , turned on a stream of lightning , whicli fired his palace , winding up the tableau by transforming Lycaon into an

animal of his own name , Kviceuov , by ivhich is meant a wolf . Perhaps before ive brought this Jupiter from the skies we ought to have shown how ho got there . We havo saicl that Rhea , Idtea , or Ops was his mother ; but , more strictly speaking , ho was born of a Cretan mother . Thus tltcy say it ivas he whose father was Ocelus , who begot Minerva : this then cannot be the same with the King of Crete . Now the

historical meaning of the fable of Europa may be this . It was common among the early ancients , and indeed long aftr-r them , to build vessels whose prow or figure head was in the form of some animal or bird : thus we arc here reminded of BellerophonV . ship Pegasus , or "Plying Horse , " and of tlio " Earn" of Phryxus ancl ' Hello . Jupiter , tho King of Crete , in

a white vessel , bearing the emblem of a bull , made a descent upon Phoenicia , and carried away tlie beautiful ( laughter of King Agenor . This monarch immediately commanded his son , Cadmus , to search everywhere for the ravishcr of his sister , the Princess Europa . Cadmus little thought that lie should never find her , though by a most unjust sentence his

father had banished him for over , until lie should be successful in his pursuit . Wherefore it is said he built the city of Thebes , in Bceotia , which was not far from the mountain Parnassus . It happened whilst his companions went in quest of water they wore devoured by a monstrous serpent . To avenge their death he went alone to the encounter , sleuth c enormous reptile , and struck out its teeth , which , by tlio