urse of the stars, which are as
chains to him. Jupiter (that is, _juvans pater_) signifies a "helping
father," whom, by changing the cases, we call Jove,[142] _a juvando_.
The poets call him "father of Gods and men;"[143] and our ancestors
"the most good, the most great;" and as there is something more
glorious in itself, and more agreeable to others, to be good (that is,
beneficent) than to be great, the title of "most good" precedes that of
"most great." This, then, is he whom Ennius means in the following
passage, before quoted--

Look up to the refulgent heaven above,
Which all men call, unanimously, Jove:

which is more plainly expressed than in this other passage[144] of the
same poet--

On whose account I'll curse that flood of light,
Whate'er it is above that shines so bright.

Our augurs also mean the same, when, for the "thundering and lightning
heaven," they say the "thundering and lightning Jove." Euripides, among
many excellent things, has this:

The vast, expanded, boundless sky behold,
See it with soft embrace the earth enfold;
This own the chief of Deities above,
And this acknowledge by the name of Jove.

XXVI. The air, according to the Stoics, which is between the sea and
the heaven, is consecrated by the name of Juno, and is called the
sister and wife of Jove, because it resembles the sky, and is in close
conjunction with it. They have made it feminine, because there is
nothing softer. But I believe it is called Juno, _a juvando_ (from
helping).

To make three separate kingdoms, by fable, there remained yet the water
and the earth. The dominion of the sea is given, therefore, to Neptune,
a brother, as he is called, of Jove; whose name, Neptunus--as
_Portunus, a portu_, from a port--is derived _a nando_ (from swimming),
the first letters being a little changed. The sovereignty and power
over the earth is the portion of a God, to whom we, as well as the
Greeks, have given a name that denotes riches (in Latin, _Dis_; in
Greek, [Greek: Plouton]), because all things arise from the earth and
return to it. He forced away Proserpine (in Greek called [Greek:
Persephone]), by which the poets mean the "seed of corn," from whence
comes their fiction of Ceres, the mother of Proserpine, seeking for her
daughter, who was hidden from her. She is called Ceres, which is the
same as Geres--_a gerendis frugibus_[145]--"from bearing fruit," the
first letter of the word being alter