Apollo (Roman) vs Jupiter

Apollo (Roman)

Roman Pantheon

God of the sun, music, poetry, prophecy, healing, and archery. One of the few gods whose name remained unchanged from Greek to Roman. Patron of the Sibylline Books and protector of Augustus.

Apollo kept his Greek name in Rome, one of the few major gods who did. Romans took him seriously anyway. The Sibylline Books sat under his authority. Healing, plague, and civic expiation ran through his priesthoods. After Actium, Augustus built him a temple on the Palatine and folded the sun-god into the emperor's public image: order, clarity, the lyre beside the bow.

Jupiter

Roman Pantheon

King of the gods and god of sky, lightning, and thunder. Supreme deity of the Roman state religion, protector of Rome and source of divine authority for Roman emperors.

Jupiter corresponds to the Greek Zeus, born to Saturn (Cronus) and Ops (Rhea). He overthrew his father to become king of the gods, establishing divine order and justice.

Jupiter is the chief god of the Roman state, not a renamed Zeus wearing a toga. His oldest title, **Optimus Maximus**, "best and greatest," belongs to the temple on the Capitoline that he shared with Juno and Minerva. Roman magistrates took office under his gaze. Treaties were struck in his name. When lightning struck, the *pontifices* read it as his speech.