View source for Jupiter-puer

According to [[Cicero]] (On Divination, 2.41.85), the cult statue '''Jupiter-puer''' ("[[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]], the Boy") stood directly adjacent to the site where the sacred lots of ancient [[Praeneste]] were first discovered inside a flint rock. This statue, which existed in Cicero's time, showed an infant Jupiter sitting with [[Juno (mythology)|Juno]] in the lap of the goddess [[Fortuna]], reaching for her breast.

Italian archaeologist [[Filippo Coarelli]] has identified an engraving of the third-century BC that shows a boy sitting in a cave, handing a rectangular object to a hand reaching down, as a depiction of this Jupiter-puer.

[[Alexander Hislop]]'s book [[The Two Babylons]], described Jupiter-puer as a boy-saviour [[deity]] worshipped in [[ancient Rome]]. Hislop writes that he was depicted as sitting on his mother's lap, supposedly inspiring the image of the [[Virgin Mary]] and her son, [[Jesus]], in [[Roman Catholicism]].

==References==
*[http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/cicero/divinatione2.shtml#85 ''On Divination'', by Cicero, 2.41.85.]
*[http://philologos.org/__eb-ttb/sect22.htm ''The Two Babylons'', by Hislop, chapter 2.]

[[Category:Roman gods]]


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