JOURNAL: By Jove, it's Jupiter! (Pt. 2)

In my last note I promised that I would share a few quick facts about Jupiter and its moon Europa. So, I did a little digging to find out more about them but unfortunately I only made it as far as the planet Jupiter. Europa will have to wait. But without further adieu, here is what I have managed to find out about Jupiter.

Jupiter is the 5th planet from our Sun and is the largest planet in our Solar System. It was named after the Roman god...you guessed it, Jupiter. I'm assuming the Romans gave it that name since it was the biggest planet and their god Jupiter was the king of the gods, aka the god of sky and thunder. According to Mythindex.com, the Romans believed that Jupiter,

"determined the course of all earthly and human affairs: he foresaw the future, and the events happening in it were the results of his will. He revealed the future to man through signs in the heavens and the flight of birds..."

This being the case they saw Jupiter as their protector and guide. He also happened to be the grandfather of Romulus and Remus...yes, the same Romulus that killed Remus and founded Rome. And since we are on the topic of his family, you may be familiar with some of his family members: His father was Saturn, his wife/sister was Juno, his sons were Mercury and Mars, and his brothers were Neptune and Pluto.

You may also recognize some of the other names given to Jupiter throughout history.

Going back to Babylonian times, the Babylon equivalent was the god Marduk. Some believe that Marduk is associated with the legendary Nimrod, who we read about in Genesis 10. Interestingly enough, Marduk had a pet dragon/serpent/snake...hmm, who do we know that fits all those characteristics? If you're not sure who it, here is a hint.

Moving on we come to the Greek god equivalent, someone we have all heard of - the great and mighty Zeus. An altar was built to Zeus in Pergamum (modern day Turkey) in the 2nd century b.c. And by the A.D. 90's John the Revelator's message to the church at Pergamum associated the city as the place of Satan's throne (Revelation 2). Could this be a coincidence?? On an interesting note, some have pointed out that the temple that was constructed for President Obama's acceptance speech in Denver was modeled after this Great Altar of Zeus.

Finally, we end our mini-journey through history with the germanic god equivalent, someone that avid comic book readers would be familiar with, the viking god of thunder, Thor. By the way, if you have ever wondered where we came up with the name Thursday, we have Thor to thank for it (Thor's day). No kidding!

Now with a little more background on Jupiter we can move on to finding out about Europa in my next note...

UPDATE(S):

11/27/09: Today I came across an article about another holiday act of terror (this time Thanksgiving instead of Christmas) that occurred in Jupiter, Florida of all places??!!? A relative shot four people, including a child, yesterday during a Thanksgiving get together. You may remember last Christmas when a disgruntled husband dressed like Santa and went to his in-laws house and started killing people, including shooting a young girl in the face. In all seriousness, these families will probably never celebrate these respective holidays the same way again. What are these "assaults on the holidays" all about?