Jupiter, boss of the Greek Gods
This is the story of
Jupiter, Juno, and Little Io
Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto were the three sons of Saturn. When Saturn retired, the boys divided the world up between them. Jupiter took the sky, Neptune took the sea, and Pluto ruled under the earth, the home of the dead. At first, it was great fun. But things had been just a bit slow lately.
Jupiter thought about what he could do.
He could turn himself into an octopus and visit his brother Neptune under the sea, but he didn’t feel much like a swim.
He could visit Pluto under the earth, but Pluto was such a gloomy fellow.
He could hurl thunderbolts, but it wasn’t much fun without a target.
He could hunt up one of the other gods. But the truth was, all the other gods were terrified of Jupiter. He did have a terrible temper, but only when someone lied to him. Since the gods often lied, they mostly avoided Jupiter.
He could call for his wife, Juno. But the truth was, he was a little frightened of his wife, Juno.
He could find a beautiful woman. But he couldn’t let Juno catch him. She was very very jealous.
Jupiter flew down to earth and looked around for something to do. He spotted two men walking along a lane. Jupiter cast his voice to make it sound like somebody else was speaking. He was very good at that.
“Hey stupid,” Jupiter cast his voice loudly, hoping to start a fight.
One man turned to the other angrily. “What did you say?” And before you could say Jupiter, the two men were fighting. Jupiter found that very funny.
A glint on the river caught his eye. It was Io, a lovely river nymph.
“What a lovely young woman,” Jupiter said. He promptly fell in love.
Hoping to hide himself from the eagle eye of his jealous wife, Jupiter covered the world with some really thick clouds. But Juno was not stupid. The thick coat of clouds made her suspicious immediately.
Jupiter looked up. “It’s Juno!” he gulped.
Quickly, Jupiter changed Io into a cow. When Juno landed, all she found was an innocent looking Jupiter standing next to a little white cow.
“This little cow appeared out of nowhere,” he told his wife, acting surprised.
Juno wasn’t fooled. “What a beautiful cow,” she gushed admiringly. “May I have it as a present?”
Jupiter had to agree. Juno sent the cow away under guard.
Jupiter arranged for Io to be rescued and set free. He sent his son Apollo to sing the guard asleep. When the guard closed his eyes, Io ran away.
When Juno heard about it, she sent a gadfly after Io. A gadfly is a fly that bites.
“Moo moo,” Io screamed, when the gadfly found her.
Io swam across a sea, hoping the gadfly would drown on the trip. No such luck, although Juno did name the sea after Io. Perhaps you’ve heard of it - the Ionian Sea? It’s the sea between Greece and Rome. No matter.
Feeling very sorry for herself, a dispirited Io traveled next to Egypt.
It was then that Juno decided that Io had suffered enough. First, she made Jupiter promise that he would never see Io again. Then she changed Io back into human form, and left her in Egypt. Egypt was a dismal place for a river nymph. There are no crocodiles in the Tiber as there are in the Nile.
Jupiter sighed. It was getting to be a bit boring. What could he do ….
The Question: This story is similar to an ancient Greek story about Zeus, Hera, and Little Io - very similar indeed. Why is that? Didn’t the Romans have gods of their own?
The Answer: The Romans worshiped thousands of gods. As they expanded their empire, they discovered new gods along the way, gods worshiped by other cultures. When they ran into a god that sounded interesting, they adopted it. They gave all their adopted gods Roman names, and acted as if they were Roman gods all along.
When they discovered the Greek gods, they adopted them all! Zeus became Jupiter. Hera became Juno. Apollo was one of the few Greek gods whose name did not change when the Romans added him to their list of “Roman” gods. (Io was not a god. She was a water spirit, and thus got to keep her name.)
Why not look up other Greek Gods now on the internet?
