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JUPITER.
JUPITER was the Son of Saturn and Rhea, or Ops, but how he came after∣wards to be Deified, we must learn from Diodorus Siculus. * 1.1
Some are of Opinion (saies he) that after Saturn took his place among the Gods, that Jupiter, justly and lawfully (and not by force) succeeded in the Kingdom, although o∣thers say, Saturn being foretold by an Oracle, at the Birth of his Son, that he should be expelled the Kingdom by Jupiter, was moved by Interest of State, for his own security, to destroy all his Sons, hoping by that means to prevent and nip Rebellion in the bud; But Ops resenting this his Inhumanity, and seeing no hopes of appeasing her incensed Husband, privately sent him to be brought up by the Curetes that lived about Mount Ida, these recommended the bringing up of the Infant to the care of certain Nymphs that inhabited a Den thereabouts, who fed him with Goats-milk and Hony. After he came to mans estate he built a City on Ida, the relicks of whose Ruines remain to this day.
This God exceeded all men in Valour, and all other Vertues whatever; for pos∣sessing himself of the Kingdom after Saturn, he contributed very much to the ease and comfort of Mans life.
He first taught that Justice was to be observed, and Force and Injury to be avoided, all Strife and Controversies he determined by the acuteness of his Judgment, making the peace and Happiness of Mankind his great business. The Good, by perswasions, he invited to proceed in Vertue, and the Insolencies of the Wicked he restrained by fear of punishment.
He Travelled through most parts of the World, publickly denouncing War against all Robbers and Irreligious Persons, commending and introducing Equity and Laws; About the same time is reported his Victory over the Giants, who depending upon their strength, unjustly opprest and brought into slavery the rest of their Neigh∣bours; In few words, for all these benefits he was accounted a God, and sett Sacri∣fices appointed for him, but as he grew up to this height of Glory, so we have good reason to believe (if good Authors, but especially the Poets, have not belyed him) that he soon fell from his wonted Vertue; nay, by their relations, he was so far from a Divinity, that he is made altogether a Monster in humanity. What Woman, but of ordinary Beauty, near him, could escape the fury and violence of this lecherous, hot-backt Deity. The Oblations he most delighted in were Maiden-heads of his own sacrificing, wherefore he translated more Whores to Heaven, for their kindness and Beauty, than Religious Persons for their Piety and Vertue, many of the Stars being supposed to have been either his Concubines or Bastards, and that he might be wicked and debauched enough for a Heathen-God, he is reported to have married his own Sister, and to have offended in the sin of Sodom with his little Ganimedes, but perhaps many of those stories were put upon him by some Heathens, who thought the Essence of a Deity consisted rather in the largeness of its Power, than in the uni∣versality of its Goodness.
He was painted (according to Albricus) sitting in his Majesty in an Ivory Throne, having in his Left hand a Royal Scepter, with the other casting Thunder∣bolts to Hell, and trampling under his feet the Giants overthrown with the same, near him was an Eagle, which flying between his legs, carried away by force a beau∣tiful Boy named Ganimedes, having in his hand a Bolt, or Beaker-Cup, ready as it were to present it to Jupiter.