Tag: Io

Deities Associated with Thursday – Jupiter, Roman God


Deities Associated with Thursday – Jupiter, Roman God

Jupiter, also known as Jove, is the god of sky and thunder, as well as the king of gods in Ancient Roman Mythology. Jupiter is the top god of the Roman pantheon.Jupiter was considered the chief deity of Roman state religion during the Republican and Imperial eras, until Christianity became the dominant religion.

Zeus is Jupiter’s equivalent in Greek Mythology. The two share the same features and characteristics.

Due to Jupiter’s popularity, the Romans named the largest planet in the solar system after him.

Attributes
Jupiter is depicted with a beard and long hair. His other attributes include scepter, eagle, cornucopia, aegis, ram, and lion.

Jupiter, the Planet
The ancient Babylonians were the first known people to record their sightings of the planet Jupiter. The Babylonians’ recordings date back to the seventh century BC. It was initially named after Jupiter, the king of the Roman gods. To the Greeks, the planet represented Zeus, their god of thunder, while the Mesopotamians saw Jupiter as their god, Marduk.

Zeus
Jupiter and Zeus are equivalents in ancient mythology. The share the same traits and characteristics.
The Greek god Zeus was the top Olympian god in the Greek pantheon. After he took credit for rescuing his brothers and sisters from their father Cronus, Zeus became king of heaven and gave his brothers, Poseidon and Hades, the sea and the underworld, respectively, for their domains.

Zeus was the husband of Hera, but he had many affairs with other goddesses, mortal women, and female animals.
Zeus mated with, among others, Aegina, Alcmena, Calliope, Cassiopea, Demeter, Dione, Europa, Io, Leda, Leto, Mnemosyne, Niobe, and Semele.

He is king on Mount Olympus, the home of the Greek gods. He is also credited as the father of Greek heroes and the ancestor of many other Greeks. Zeus mated with many mortals and goddesses but is married to his sister Hera (Juno).

Zeus is the son of the Titans Cronus and Rhea. He is the brother of his wife Hera, his other sisters Demeter and Hestia, and his brothers Hades, Poseidon.

Etymology of Zeus and Jupiter
The root of both “Zeus” and “Jupiter” is in a proto-Indo-European word for the often personified concepts of “day/light/sky”.

Zeus Abducts Mortals:
There are many myths about Zeus. Some involve demanding acceptable conduct of others, whether human or divine. Zeus was enraged with the behavior of Prometheus. The titan had tricked Zeus into taking the non-meat portion of the original sacrifice, so that mankind could enjoy the food. In response, the king of the gods deprived mankind of the use of fire so they wouldn’t be able to enjoy the boon they’d been granted, but Prometheus found a way around this, and stole some of the gods’ fire by hiding it in a stalk of fennel and then giving it to mankind. Zeus punished Prometheus with having his liver pecked out every day.

But Zeus himself misbehaves — at least according to human standards. It is tempting to say that his primary occupation is that of seducer. In order to seduce, he sometimes changed his shape into that of an animal or bird.

· When he impregnated Leda, he appeared as a swan [see Leda and the Swan].
· When he abducted Ganymede, he appeared as an eagle [see Zeus and Ganymede] in order to take Ganymede to the home of the gods where he would replace Hebe as cupbearer; and
· when Zeus carried off Europa, he appeared as a tempting white bull

— although why the Mediterranean women were so enamored of bulls is beyond the imaginative capacities of this urban-dweller — setting in motion the quest of Cadmus and the settling of Thebes. The hunt for Europa provides one mythological version of the introduction of letters to Greece.

The Olympic Games were initially held to honor Zeus.
 

Author

N.S. Gill, Ancient/Classical History Expert
Article published on & owned by About.com

 

Yule Chant for Women

Yule Chant for Women

 

The cauldron is placed in the south with an unlit candle in it and wreathed with
Holly, Ivy and Mistletoe. You will need a veil.

Say:
“I grow desirous of my Lord,
His seed stirs within me.
The time of light is upon us.”

Draw a veil over your head and circle deosil seven times, saying:

“Return, oh return!
God of the sun, god of the light, return!
When I see Thee not
My heart grieves for Thee
Return! Return! Return!”

Stand before the altar with arms upraised, saying:

“Queen of the moon, Queen of the sun
Queen of the heavens, Queen of the stars
Queen of the waters, Queen of the earth
Bring to us the child of promise
It is the great mother who gives birth to Him
It is the Lord of Life who is born again
Darkness and tears are set aside when the sun shall come up early!”

Take a candle from the altar and light the candle in the cauldron, saying:

“Golden sun of hill and mountain
illumine the land, illumine the world
illumine the seas, illumine the rivers
sorrows be laid, joy to the world!
Blessed be the great Goddess
Without beginning, without ending
Everlasting to eternity
Io Evo! He! Blessed Be!
Io Evo! He! Blessed Be!…”

Yule Chant for Men

Yule Chant for Men

 

The cauldron is placed by the south candle with an unlit candle in it. Wreath
the cauldron with Holly, Ivy and Mistletoe.

Stand before the altar with arms upraised, say:

“Queen of the Moon, Queen of the Sun
Queen of the Heavens, Queen of the Stars
Queen of the Waters, Queen of the Earth
Bring to us the child of promise!
It is the great Mother who gives birth to Him
It is the Lord of Life who is born again
Darkness and tears are set aside when the sun shall come up early!”

Take a candle from the altar and light the candle in the cauldron, say:

“Golden Sun of hill and mountain
Illumine the Land, illumine the World
Illumine the Seas, illumine the Rivers
Sorrows be laid, joy to the World!
Blessed be the great Goddess
Without beginning, without ending
Everlasting to eternity
Io Evo! He! Blessed Be!
Io Evo! He! Blessed Be!…”

YULE – FOR MEN

YULE – FOR MEN

The cauldron is placed by the south candle with an unlit candle in it. Wreath
the cauldron with Holly, Ivy and Mistletoe.

Stand before the altar with arms upraised, say:

“Queen of the Moon, Queen of the Sun
Queen of the Heavens, Queen of the Stars
Queen of the Waters, Queen of the Earth
Bring to us the child of promise!
It is the great Mother who gives birth to Him
It is the Lord of Life who is born again
Darkness and tears are set aside when the sun shall come up early!”

Take a candle from the altar and light the candle in the cauldron, say:

“Golden Sun of hill and mountain
Illumine the Land, illumine the World
Illumine the Seas, illumine the Rivers
Sorrows be laid, joy to the World!
Blessed be the great Goddess
Without beginning, without ending
Everlasting to eternity
Io Evo! He! Blessed Be!
Io Evo! He! Blessed Be!…”

Calendar of the Sun for September 2

Calendar of the Sun

2 Halegmonath

Festival of the Grapevines II: Dionysos

Colors: Gold and purple
Element: Earth
Altar: Upon cloth of gold and purple lay eight purple candles, a chalice of wine, a thyrsus, a fawnskin, and many grapes and grapevines and bottles of wine.
Offerings: Do service work with alcoholics.
Daily Meal: Wine. Grape juice. Stuffed grape leaves. Goat meat. Lentils.

Invocation to Dionysos

Hail, Lord of the Vine!
Hail, Lord of the Lesser Madness
That keeps us safe from the Greater Lunacy!
IO Dionysos, Lord of the Vine,
We call upon the Womanly One,
child of Zeus and Semele.
We drink from your cup and join
The maenad train, O Lord of Masks
That teach the truth. In your cup we gain
Escape from care and ecstasy in the vine,
Your blessing under which
The sacred and profane became one
And the gods’ wedding party never ends.
Twice-born, we will give thanks,
We’ll tell our stories again and again
Of running with maenads
Of the secrets of the earth
And the heavens, and all that lies between,
Of fate, and time, and how to slip
Beyond their confines into immortality.
We’ll teach your mysteries,
Which teach other mysteries,
To all who will listen.
Hail, husband of Ariadne,
Hail, consort of the Mistress of the Labyrinth!
May we continue to be blessed with joy
And the yearly growth of all ripe fruiting.

Chant: Io Dionysos Io Dionysos

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Calendar of the Moon for June 14

14 Huath/Thargelion

Feast of Pan

Color: Brown
Element: Earth
Altar: Upon a brown cloth lay the figure of a goat, a clay cup of well water, a horn of wine, a phallus, and many green branches.
Offerings: Honor the wild male self in everyone.
Daily Meal: Sheep or goat meat.

Pan Invocation

Io Pan! Io Pan! Io Pan!
Goat god, Satyr god,
God of woods and high mountains
Lord of Testosterone
Player of the body’s music!
Great Pan is dead
But liveth still!
We will not forget our bodies,
Lest you send us panic
At every touch of affection.
Help us to love our flesh, O Pan,
God of scent and musk and all that is animal!
Let us remember
That we, too, are animal,
And we, too, live in our bodies
Which are a privilege
And not a punishment.
Come, Horned One,
Come to the woodland glade
Come for the wine
Come for the dance
Come, lusty god from Arcadia
Come with pipe and drum
And make the mountains
Ring anew!

(A circle should be formed of drummers and dancers, who should shout “Io Pan!” as they dance in a circle, until they fall from exhaustion.)

[Pagan Book of Hours]

NASA Image of the Day for November 20th

Montage

This montage of New Horizons images shows Jupiter and its volcanic moon Io, and were taken during the spacecraft’s Jupiter flyby in early 2007. The image of Jupiter is an infrared color composite taken by the spacecraft’s near-infrared imaging spectrometer, the Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array. The infrared wavelengths used highlight variations in the altitude of the Jovian cloud tops, with blue denoting high-altitude clouds and hazes, and red indicating deeper clouds. The prominent bluish-white oval is the Great Red Spot. The observation was made at a solar phase angle of 75 degrees but has been projected onto a crescent to remove distortion caused by Jupiter’s rotation during the scan. The image of Io is an approximately true-color composite taken by the panchromatic Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager with color information provided by the Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera. The image shows a major eruption in progress on Io’s night side, at the northern volcano Tvashtar. Incandescent lava glows red beneath a volcanic plume, whose uppermost portions are illuminated by sunlight. The plume appears blue due to scattering of light by small particles within it.

This montage originally appeared on the cover of the Oct. 12, 2007, issue of Science magazine.

Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics

Deity of the Day for August 11th is IO

IO

Beautiful daughter of INACHUS and yet another object of ZEUS’s affections.

HERA had her suspicions when she saw this white heifer on a hill with a white cloud hovering over it whenever ZEUS went missing…

“ZEUS dear, I haven’t had a pressie from you for yonks,” she wheedled at the breakfast table.

“Anything you desire, dearest,” he smirked, “It’s yours.”

“Well now, there’s a lovely white heifer over on a yonder hill that would go so well with my prize herd…”

She saw ZEUS grow pale and his eyes cloud over. “I.. er, I er… Oh, yes of course darling.”

HERA employed ARGUS, her heavy, to act as a minder while ZEUS just had time to advise IO not to panic. “Hold on,” he whispered, “Somehow I’ll rescue you. I’ll get HERMES to do a little rustling.”

They nearly got away with it, but before ZEUS could get IO’s halter off, HERA sent a gadfly to sting the poor young cow to the point of madness. Bellowing with pain, she ran off with the fly in never-ending pursuit.

IO ran in every which direction to dodge her tormentor — over the hills and far away, up and down, in and over. She even passed PROMETHEUS chained to his rock on Mount Caucasus, who managed to shout as much encouragement as he could in the circumstances.

There came a time when she reached Egypt. As she and the gadfly paused for breath, ZEUS managed to return her to her original comely form, and she discovered she was pregnant.

She decided enough was enough. Egypt seemed a good place to settle. So she gave birth to EPAPHUS, yet another of ZEUS’s love children, and went on to become identified with ISIS and later LUNA.

We have no idea what happened to the gadfly.

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