By Water & Blood

Book 1, Chapter 23: Jupiter Identified with the Sun

Nor does Jupiter himself, king of the gods, seem to go beyond the nature of the sun; but that Jupiter and the sun are the same is taught by clear indications. For when Homer says, "For Zeus went yesterday to Ocean among the blameless Ethiopians to a feast, and all the gods followed with him, and on the twelfth he will return again to Olympus," Cornificius writes that by the appellation of Jupiter the sun is to be understood, to whom the wave of Ocean ministers as it were a feast. For therefore, as Posidonius and Cleanthes also affirm, the sun's path does not withdraw from the zone which is called burnt, because under it runs Ocean which both encircles and divides the earth; and by the assertion of all natural philosophers it is established that heat is nourished by moisture. For when he says "and all the gods followed with him," the stars are understood, which with him are carried to settings and risings by the daily rush of heaven and are nourished by the same moisture. For they call the stars and constellations gods (theous) from running (apo tou theein), that is racing, because they are always in course, or from being beheld (apo tou theoreisthai). The poet adds "and on the twelfth again," signifying not a number of days but of hours, by which they are brought back to the rising of the upper hemisphere.

These words also from Plato's Timaeus lead our understanding to the same opinion: "The great leader in heaven, Zeus, driving a winged chariot, goes first, ordering all things and taking care; and there follows him a host of gods and daemons arranged according to eleven parts. But Hestia remains alone in the house of the gods." For by these words he wishes the great leader in heaven, the sun, to be understood under the appellation of Jupiter, showing the star's speed by the winged chariot. For because in whichever sign he is he makes all the signs and stars and the gods who preside over the signs, he seems to go before all the gods in leadership, adorning and ordering all things, and therefore the other gods are held as it were his army, distributed through the parts of eleven signs, because he himself occupies the place of the twelfth sign, in whichever sign he is. But he joins the name of daemons with the appellation of gods, either because the gods are daemones, that is knowing of the future, or as Posidonius writes in the books entitled On Heroes and Daemons, because a quality born and divided from ethereal substance is theirs, whether from being burned (apo tou daiomenou), that is kindled, or from being divided (apo tou daiomenou), that is portioned. But when he adds "but Hestia remains alone in the house of the gods," it signifies that this alone, whom we take to be the earth, remains unmoved within the house of the gods, that is within the world, as Euripides says: "and Mother Earth; but the wise among mortals call you Hestia, seated in the aether."

Hence also is shown what is to be thought of the sun and Jupiter when elsewhere it is said: "the eye of Zeus that sees all and understands all," and elsewhere: "and Helios, who lookest upon all and hearest all," whence it is established that both are to be reckoned of one power.

The Assyrians also celebrate the sun under the name of Jupiter, whom they surname Zeus Helioupolites, with the greatest ceremonies in the city which is called Heliopolis. An image of that god was taken from a town of Egypt which is itself also called Heliopolis, in the reign among the Egyptians of Senemuris, or he was of the same name Senepos, and was first brought into that place through Opias, legate of Deleboris king of the Assyrians, and Egyptian priests whose chief was Partemetis, and long held among the Assyrians it afterward migrated to Heliopolis. Why it was so done, and by what reason, having set out from Egypt, it afterward came to these places where it now is, and is worshipped by Assyrian rather than Egyptian rite, I have forborne to say, because it does not pertain to the present case. But that this same one is both Jupiter and the sun is discerned both from the very rite of the sacred ceremonies and from the habit. For a golden image of unbearded appearance stands with right hand raised with a whip in the manner of a charioteer; the left holds a thunderbolt and ears of corn, which all show the associated power of Jupiter and the sun. The religion of this temple also excels in divination, which is referred to the power of Apollo, who is the same as the sun. For the image of the god of Heliopolis is carried on a litter, as the images of the gods are carried in the procession of the circus games, and for the most part the leading men of the province go under it with shaved head, pure by long abstinence, and they are carried by a divine spirit, not by their own will but by that by which the god drives those who carry, as we see at Antium the images of the Fortunes moved for giving responses. Absentees also consult this god by sealed letters sent, and he writes back in order to those things which are contained added in the consultation. So also the emperor Trajan, about to enter Parthia from that province with an army, when friends of most steadfast religion who had taken the greatest proofs of this divinity urged him to consult concerning the outcome of the undertaking begun, acted by Roman counsel, first exploring the faith of the religion lest perhaps human fraud underlie it: and first he sent sealed tablets to which he wished reply to be written to him. The god ordered a paper brought and that it be sealed blank and sent, the priests being astonished at a deed of that kind. For they did not know the condition of the tablets. Trajan received these with the greatest admiration, because he himself also had dealt with the god with blank tablets. Then with other tablets written and sealed he asked whether he would return to Rome when the war was accomplished. The god ordered a centurial vine-staff from the gifts dedicated in the temple to be brought down and, divided into parts, put in a napkin and then carried. The outcome of the matter appeared by Trajan's death, his bones being brought back to Rome. For by the fragments the appearance of the remains, by the argument of the vine the time of the coming fall was shown.

And lest the discourse wander through the names of individual gods, hear what the Assyrians think of the power of the sun. For to the god whom they venerate as highest and greatest they have given the name Adad. The interpretation of that name signifies "one one." This god, then, they adore as most powerful, but they join to him a goddess by name Adargatis and attribute all power of all things to these two, understanding sun and earth, and not announcing by a multitude of names their power divided through all species, but by the arguments with which they are adorned signifying the manifold excellence of the double divinity. But the arguments themselves speak the reason of the sun. For the image of Adad is seen marked with inclined rays, by which it is shown that the force of heaven is in the rays of the sun which are sent down upon the earth. The image of Adargatis is marked with rays bent upward, showing that by the force of rays sent from above whatever the earth generates is born. Under the same image there are forms of lions, showing by the same reason that it is the earth by which the Phrygians fashioned the Mother of the Gods — that is, the earth — as carried by lions.

Finally the theologians indicate that the power of the sun is referred to the summit of all powers, who in the sacred rites demonstrate this by a briefest prayer, saying: "Helios pantokrator, spirit of the cosmos, power of the cosmos, light of the cosmos." That the sun is all things Orpheus also testifies in these verses: "Hear, circling whirler of the far-journeying eddy, forever whirling round with heavenly twists, glorious Zeus Dionysus, father of the sea, father of earth, Helios all-begetter, all-variegated, golden-shining."